Tesla is joining the race to build and sell the world’s first self-driving car, and it plans to win. In an interview with the Financial Times this week, Elon Musk said he’s working on building a car that can run on “auto-pilot” within three years. That would put Tesla way ahead of competition in typical Tesla fashion.
Musk is being realistic about this venture. The entrepreneur and futurist clarified that Tesla’s self-driving car would give the computer 90 per cent control of the vehicle. Otherwise, it would take much longer to get one on the road, since “it’s incredibly hard to get that last few per cent.”
Tesla’s already hiring for that incredibly hard job too. A listing on the company’s jobs board seeks an “Advanced Driver Assistance Systems Control Engineer” who will “be responsible for developing vehicle-level decision-making and lateral and longitudinal control strategies for Tesla’s effort to pioneer fully automated driving.” Candidates with PhDs are preferred.
Despite the big reveal and ambitious timeline, none of this comes as a surprise if you’ve been following Musk’s habit of seeking out world-changing achievements. Between his commercial space venture, SpaceX, and his plan for an ultra fast and efficient transportation system, the Hyperloop, this guy is an innovation machine. Now let’s see if he can do it again. [Financial Times via Reuters]