Tesla is closer than ever to true autonomy
Tesla Motors has announced that it is set to be the first company in the US to release truly autonomous cars.
The Model S, X, and Model 3 Sedan will soon be fitted with, in CEO Elon Musk’s words during the announcement, “the hardware needed for full self-driving capacity at a safety level substantially greater than that of a human driver.”
This kind of technology is known as Level 5 autonomy, which is a point at which no driver involvement is required. Other car companies hope to reach this and many have vowed to achieve it by 2021.
Tesla’s Autopilot function will eventually have eight cameras to allow complete visibility, plus ultrasonic sensors able to detect any objects twice the distance of the current system.
The company said in a statement, regarding the technology, that the new system will have “forward-facing radar with enhanced processing provides additional data about the world on a redundant wavelength, capable of seeing through the heavy rain, fog, dust, and even the car ahead.”
Musk referred to the autonomous car as “a supercomputer in a car”.
