Elon Musk is back, and once again, he has some amazing news to share.
This time, it’s about the autonomous cars once again, but the news is bigger than we imagined since Tesla CEO officially confirmed that self-driving cars might start going on autonomous trips from L.A. to NYC before the end of the current year. During a TED Talk in Vancouver that was organized on Friday, Musk said that this technology might be here by the end of 2017, and that pretty soon people might be able to sleep while their cars are driving them by themselves the entire way.
Chris Anderson, who works as a TED curator, was amazed by this news: “So by the end of the year, you’re saying someone’s going to sit in a Tesla, without touching the steering wheel, tap in New York, and off it goes, wouldn’t have to ever touch the wheel?”
Musk confirmed this and stated that the tech will be ready in November or December of 2017 and that the passenger won’t have a need to touch a single control during the journey.
Even more amazing is that Musk claims that once you’re on the highway, Model 3 and Model S of Tesla will be able to get you to any place that can be reached via highway, in any given country. Basically, you can change your mind in the middle of the journey from L.A. to New York, and go to Toronto instead.
This will not be allowed right away, of course, since the regulations still stand in the way of using this method right away. However, when Anderson asked how long until you can actually enter your Tesla car, type in coordinates and go to sleep, Musk answered that the technology is maybe two years away from that.
For him, Tesla being safe in 99.9% of cases isn’t enough, and even if there’s the smallest possibility of your car getting into a crash, he believes that passengers won’t and shouldn’t be comfortable falling asleep.
Of course, Musk is well aware that the possibility of a car crash can never be completely out of the question, and the chance of getting into an accident exists every time a human gets into a car. Accidents happen, and there is no way to prevent that, and there probably never will be.
The production of the Tesla’s Model 3 is expected to start this year in July.
