Tesla close to fully driverless vehicles, says Musk

Tesla was “very close” to developing fully autonomous vehicles and could work out the basics of that technology as soon as 2020, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a pre-recorded video played during the World AI Conference in Shanghai.

Musk reiterated that the electric-vehicle maker had solved most of the essential challenges towards achieving level 5 autonomy, or a fully selfdriven automobile that needs no human behind the wheel.

The Tesla and SpaceX chief was reaffirming a goal first expressed in 2019.

“I’m confident that we will have the basic functionality of L5 [level 5] autonomous driving this year,” Musk said. “There are no fundamental challenges.”

Tesla is racing against the likes of Alphabet’s Waymo and General Motors’s Cruise to attain the pinnacle of the industry: the first 100% driverless car.

The coronavirus pandemic has both strengthened the case for robot drivers — by making social distance essential — and shuttered labs and factories where the technology is being refined.

Musk has argued autonomous-driving will be transformative for Tesla. At stake are billions of dollars in potential revenue and a global change in traffic systems.

Research organisation BloombergNEF expects 27million robotaxis on the road globally by 2040, while Cruise CEO Dan Ammann has claimed there will be a $1-trillion addressable market in the US for autonomous ride hailing.

Waymo — seen as a frontrunner to pioneer a commercial service — has been valued at more than $100bn.

In Thursday’s video, Musk stressed that original engineering on Tesla technology was an important facet of its Chinese operation, which is anchored by a huge Gigafactory plant in Shanghai.