According to Elon Musk, Tesla will achieve full autonomy in a vehicle before the end of the year, adding to a long list of optimistic promises that the CEO has made through the years. Musk made this statement in an Earnings Call based on this year’s first-quarter results.
“The trend is very clearly towards full self-driving, towards full autonomy,” said Musk. “And I hesitate to say this, but I think we’ll do it this year. So that’s what it looks like.” That’s hardly the most confident-sounding statement the Tesla boss has ever made.
It’s not obvious whether this full autonomy will be seen in a prototype or a production model or if it will technically be fully autonomous at all, considering that the company’s Full Self-Driving suite has been heavily criticized for being misleadingly named.