Elon Musk: Tesla is way ahead of others with autonomous driving technology
Elon Musk stated in a recent interview that he believes Tesla is way ahead of others when it comes to autonomous driving systems. With Tesla, Musk is betting on optical sensors and radar, while other companies are focusing on laser-based lidar, among other things.
In an interview with MIT researcher Lex Fridman, Elon Musk said it’s “game, set and match” in his eyes. “I could be wrong, but it seems Tesla is way ahead of others.” Musk further indicated that Tesla customers should at least keep their hands on the wheel for the next six months. But he predicts that Tesla’s self-driving technology “may already be so good by the end of this year or else next year” that “human intervention reduces safety.” He previously indicated that fully autonomous driving would only be on the agenda next year.
As is often the case, Musk is very optimistic, where he does not always know how to live up to the aforementioned data. For example, in 2015 he told Fortune that the problem is much simpler than people think and that fully self-driving cars will be a reality within two years. However, other players, such as Ford CEO Jim Hackett, are less optimistic. Hackett recently said his company has underestimated the advent of autonomous vehicles. According to him, the areas of application are quite narrow, because ‘the problem is so complex’. He indicated that Ford’s first self-driving car is still planned for 2021.
Musk sails a different course with Tesla than most other car manufacturers and companies like Waymo. Where Waymo and many others focus on, among other things, the use of lidar systems to map the environment around the car, Musk sees nothing in the use of lasers. According to him, cameras supplemented with radar, GPS and ultrasonic sensors in combination with a neural network are sufficient.
This attitude of the Tesla CEO has been criticized before. Robot car expert Brad Templeton recently indicated that Tesla’s Autopilot is nowhere near the capacity needed for a ride-hailing network, nor does the Autopilot come close to where Waymo has been for six years. ago. Waymo has a taxi service with self-driving cars in Phoenix, among other places.
Several Velodyne lidars on a self-driving car