Elon Musk Ups The Ante In the Race For Commercial Self-Driving Cars

 Self-Driving Cars  

Tesla Motor's Elon Musk, in an interview with the Financial Times claims, will sell self-driving models three years from now.

With traditional car makers like Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, and newcomers like Google and others now openly developing self-driving cars, another well-known innovator and entrepreneur has now out bet the others in terms of when his company will deliver the technology to market.

Tesla Motor's Elon Musk, in an interview with the Financial Times claims, will sell self-driving models three years from now. 

Following the interview, Musk also followed up by offering two enticing Tweets:

Intense effort underway at Tesla to develop a practical autopilot system for Model S
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 18, 2013

Engineers interested in working on autonomous driving, pls email autopilot@teslamotors.com. Team will report directly to me.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 18, 2013

Related articles Elon Musk To Reveal Hyperloop Plans Next Month  Attack of the Self-Driving Cars Infographic  Elon Musk Demonstrates His Iron Man-Inspired 3D Modeling Setup

This latest move by Musk is another technological spur to the rest of the industry after Tesla's company’s luxury sedan, the Model S, became the first profitable electric vehicle this year.

With Google and other companies working on cars that require no human intervention, Tesla is setting more modest expectations. Not calling the goal, full self-driving, Musk preferred to say rather that 'autopilot technology'  would account for 90% of his projected car.  In many ways this is a good match for Tesla's already futuristic-inspired designs. Automating the driving could make them even safer and more efficient. “My opinion is it’s a bridge too far to go to fully autonomous cars,” Musk said. “It’s incredibly hard to get the last few percent.”

Will Oremus at Slate is cautionary about the move, saying that it might divert too much away from Tesla's core competencies in electric vehicles.  What do you think?  Is this the right move for Tesla?

SOURCE  Financial Times

By 33rd Square

Subscribe to 33rd Square