[msb-alumni] Tesla announces fully self-driving fleet
- From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2016 17:14:52 -0400
BlankTesla announces fully self-driving fleet Marco della Cava , USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO -- Tesla's fleet is going autonomous. Tesla CEO Elon Musk
announced Wednesday that its Model S, X and forthcoming Model 3 sedan will
start
being outfitted with "the hardware needed for full self-driving capability at a
safety level substantially greater than that of a human driver. That
constitutes
full Level 5 autonomy, which doesn't require any driver involvement.
That's the ultimate goal for a range of automakers and tech companies,
including
Google, Ford and Volvo, which have vowed to produce such self-driving vehicles
by 2021.
This next-gen Autopilot features eight surround cameras that provide 360 degree
visibility at up to 250 meters of range. There are also 12'updated
ultrasonic sensors that can have detection of both hard and soft objects at
nearly twice the distance of the existing Autopilot system.
"It's all Tesla Vision software, we're not using any third party software for
the vision procession," Musk said on a conference call with reporters. "It's
our
neural net."
Musk did not say exactly when such technology would be consumer-ready, although
he did say regulatory hurdles would have to be vaulted first. "It's not up to
us, it's up to the regulators, and we hope things don't become Balkanized and
different in every state," he said. "It's a question of what the public and
regulators think is appropriate. The system will always be operating in shadow
mode, though, so we can gather a lot of sophisticated data to show where
software could have acted or not acted."
As for the details of the tech, a release from Tesla mentioned a
"forward-facing
radar with enhanced processing" that provides additional data about the world
on
a redundant wavelength, capable of seeing through heavy rain, fog, dust and
even
the car ahead.
Musk said Tesla's would soon amount to having "a supercomputer in a car,"
referencing a new computer with 40 times the computing power of the previous
generation that runs the new Tesla-developed neural net for vision, sonar and
radar processing software. "Together, this system provides a view of the world
that a driver alone cannot access, seeing in every direction simultaneously and
on wavelengths that go far beyond the human senses," the Tesla release notes.
Musk said consumers would have two options when buying a Tesla. "You should be
able to go from freeway onramp to exit and maneuver with enhanced Autopilot,
then there's full self-driving which will take care of much more complex
environments," he said.
Michael Harley, analyst for Kelley Blue Book, felt that assembling an array of
tech that can pull off autonomous driving isn't the tough part. "The most
critical piece of the puzzle, which is missing from Tesla's announcement, is
the
car-to-car communication that ensures full Level 4 autonomous riding is safe
for
passengers and pedestrians alike," he said.
Tesla's forthcoming Model 3 sedan, priced at $35,000 and up, is seen as
critical
to CEO Elon Musk's vision of Tesla as a mass-market electric automaker capable
of changing global car-buying habits.
Musk also was upset with the media about focusing on the few accidents that may
have been related to Autopilot.
"If you're dissuading people from autonomous driving, you're killing people,"
he
said, referring to the million-plus people who die world-wide in cars due to
human error.
Tesla shares ( TSLA ) closed up 2% Wednesday, and trading was flat after hours.
Prior to the reveal, which Musk delayed from Monday, analysts speculated that
the automaker could be unveiling an upgrade to its Autopilot system, which
remains under investigation by federal regulators after recent crashes . Musk
has said that his vehicles will be making significant leaps with regard to
their
self-driving abilities, specifically in the arena of computer vision
capabilities.
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