Tesla took one large step forward in its ambitions for autonomous cars by rolling out its full self-driving computer. In tandem with its first Autonomy Day last week, Tesla showed off how far its technology has come.
In this video, we can see the Tesla stopping at stop signs, and entering and exiting freeways by itself. At no point in time does the “driver” touch the steering wheel or pedals. This is made possible by many recent updates Tesla has introduced. Last October, we reported that Tesla’s Navigate on Autopilot can handle freeway interchanges based on the route entered into the navigation system, and even more recently, Tesla made it so drivers can opt for automatic lane changes—meaning the car decides for you when to change lanes. Before, you had to flick the turn signal stalk to initiate a lane change when running Navigate on Autopilot.
Given how controversial Autopilot has been over the years, it’s a bit surprising that commenters generally took well to the video, which has received more than 4 million views on YouTube alone.
“The most amazing thing about this is seeing a car come to a full stop at a Stop sign for the first time in my life,” quipped 1988TheGoods in the YouTube comments. On Twitter, reactions appear mixed. But many see the demonstration as a praise-worthy feat.
Tesla Full Self-Drivinghttps://youtu.be/Ucp0TTmvqOE?t=4177 … @Tifa_says_Hi Apr 22 2019
Sherry M. put it bluntly on YouTube: “I would be FULLY terrified of this fully self-driving Tesla.” Zain said, “If you ever feel useless, remember your ability to actually drive in about 20 years or so.”
Last week, Musk gave some bold timelines for self-driving tech. He said that drivers won’t need to touch the steering wheel or look out the window by around the second quarter of next year, and that he expects to see a fleet of 1 million Tesla robo-taxis on the road in 2020. Regulatory approval of the technology will start to become a reality at least in some jurisdictions toward the end of next year, he also predicted.
Source: Tesla via YouTube, Elon Musk via Twitter
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