Skip to footer

Tesla Motors eyes self-driving electric cars, courtesy of Google?

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, is considering the potential of driverless technology for Tesla Motors vehicles, Ingram writes, and has even spoken with Google about it.

|
Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP/File
Children look inside a self-driving car at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, hasn't made it overly clear that Tesla is working on such a system –with or without Google – but it's certainly a possibility, Ingram writes.
  • By Antony Ingram Guest blogger

Love or hate Tesla Motors (NSDQ:TSLA) and its CEO Elon Musk, it's hard to deny that he's ahead of the curve when it comes to developing new cars.

So when Musk says self-driving or autonomous technology is the next logical step in the evolution of the car, you take notice.

According to Bloomberg, Musk is considering the potential of driverless technology for Tesla's vehicles, and has even spoken with Google about it.

Google's own self-driving fleet of cars have hit headlines worldwide over the last few years, the technology now advanced enough that some states have legislation in place for the cars to drive without drivers, even though no production model is currently available.

Musk says he prefers the term 'autopilot' to self-driving, though. 

"I like the word autopilot more than I like the word self- driving," he said in an interview.

"Self-driving sounds like it’s going to do something you don’t want it to do. Autopilot is a good thing to have in planes, and we should have it in cars." He added, "Self-driving cars are the natural extension of active safety and obviously something we should do."

He hasn't made it overly clear that Tesla is working on such a system--with or without Google--but it's certainly a possibility. “I think Tesla will most likely develop its own autopilot system for the car... However, it is also possible that we do something jointly with Google" he said in an email toBloomberg.

Affordable electric cars: More important

At the same time, it's unlikely to appear any time soon. He later tweeted, "Creating an autopilot for cars at Tesla is an important, but not yet top priority. Still a few years from production"

"Am a fan of Larry, Sergey & Google in general, but self-driving cars comments to Bloomberg were just off-the-cuff... No big announcement here."

If Tesla goes its own way with autonomous technology, it's because Musk prefers a more cost-effective camera-based system, rather than the LIDAR (effectively light-based radar) used by Google.

He deems the sensor system "too expensive", at a time when Tesla's priority is to bring down the cost of its electric cars to make them more accessible--a plan which also involves bringing a smaller, $30,000 electric sedan to the market in the next few years.

The company is also thought to be developing interim technologies like lane departure warning, blind spot detection and cruise control, as revealed on a Tesla Model S menu graphic.

The prospect of an autopilot mode on Tesla's products is certainly an interesting one--but not quite as interesting as the company's future product line...

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Tesla Motors eyes self-driving electric cars, courtesy of Google?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2013/0509/Tesla-Motors-eyes-self-driving-electric-cars-courtesy-of-Google
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe