Musk Predicts Tesla Full Self-Driving Cars ‘Later This Year’
Tesla is set to realize fully autonomous vehicles “later this year”, CEO Elon Musk said Thursday, in the billionaire’s latest forecast for the long-anticipated milestone.
“In terms of where Tesla is at this stage, I think we are very close to achieving full self-driving without human supervision,” Musk said via video link at the opening ceremony of an artificial intelligence conference in Shanghai.
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“This is only speculation, but I think we’ll achieve full self-driving, maybe what you would call four or five, I think later this year,” the billionaire added, referring to two of the most advanced levels of autonomous driving technology.
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The mercurial entrepreneur and Twitter owner admitted that he had been wrong in previous predictions on this timeline, but added: “I feel like we’re closer to it than we ever have been.”
Musk has missed his own deadlines for a fully autonomous vehicle—and Tesla’s driver-assistance technology has provoked regulatory probes in the United States.
China is the world’s biggest electric vehicle market and Tesla announced in April it would build a second massive factory in Shanghai.
His appearance at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai marks his latest effort to maintain close links to China, following a visit to the country in May.