Makers of the pioneering, fully electric Tesla Roadster and Tesla Model S are now planning to offer a car with “auto-pilot” in the next few years. The ambitious plan is to become the first vehicle manufacturer to offer an autonomous vehicle on the market.
Although it won’t be a completely driverless vehicle, it is set to do up to 90 per cent of the work. During a recent interview with the Financial Times, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the car will be capable of driving with only 10 per cent human involvement.
Musk has given the project a timeframe of just three years before the almost completely autonomous car hits the market. It’s believed it will be a fully electric vehicle, following the same philosophy typical to the brand in terms of drive dynamics and design.
It will be engineered in-house, borrowing no technology from other companies. In fact, if you look on Tesla’s online job list, there is a position open for an ‘advanced driver assistance systems controls engineer’.
As for fully automated cars, producing and selling such a mode of transport is said to be some years away yet as there are a lot of road legal and technical complications that need to be ironed out first.
Google has already created the technology which provides completely driveless driving, while Mercedes-Benz is not far behind with various semi-auto driving assistance systems already in place. Mercedes-Benz and Nissan are aiming to launch fully autonomous products by 2020.
