During the Tesla Annual Shareholders Meeting that took place on Tuesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk didn’t mince words when he talked about what he thinks of the value proposition of traditional fossil fuel vehicles. He called it “financially insane” to buy any car that isn’t an electric car capable of full autonomy – which, conveniently, currently is type of vehicle that only Tesla claims to sell.
Musk reiterated a claim he’s made previously about Tesla vehicles, that all of its cars manufactured since October 2016 have everything they need to become fully autonomous – with those built before the release of its new autonomous in-car computer earlier this year needing only a computer swap, replacing the new Tesla-built computer for the Nvidia ones they shipped with.
The Tesla CEO also reiterated his claim from earlier this year that there will be 1 million robotaxis on the road as of next year, noting that it’s easy to arrive at that number if you consider that it includes all Teslas, including Model X, Model S and Model 3 sold between October 2016 and today.
Regarding Tesla’s progress with self-driving, Musk noted that by end of year, Tesla hopes to deliver autonomy such that while you’ll still have to supervise the driving in-car, it’ll get you from your garage to your workplace without intervention. He said that by next year, their goal is the same thing but without requiring supervision, and then some time after that, pending regulatory cooperation, they’ll be able to do full autonomy without anyone on board.
Musk ended this musing with a colorful metaphor, likening buying a car that’s powered by traditional fossil fuel and without any path to self-driving to someone today “riding a horse and using a flip phone.”
Shiv has over 8 years experience working on Internet of Things and an avid user of Drones
