Tesla is aiming to have its self-driving technology ready and widely available by the end of 2022, CEO Elon Musk announced Monday.
Musk made the comments during an energy conference in Norway, saying the vehicles will not need human drivers. The company hopes to have a wide release for the vehicles in the US and Europe, but the timeline depends on approval from regulators.
Tesla’s current Full Self-Driving package, or FSD, costs $15,000 to add to a vehicle. The package allows the vehicle to autonomously stop at stop signs, park, react to traffic while in cruise control, and steer on both freeways and city streets, according to the company.
The updated version would allow vehicles to drive on their own, no human occupant required.
Musk has previously stated that autonomous vehicles will be safer than cars with human drivers.
Musk has predicted that owners of the fully autonomous Teslas may send them out as a ride-hailing service while they are at work, making for some extra income at the cost of increased traffic in cities.
“A lot of cars are in parking lots, so we’re spending money, not just driving the cars but storing them all over the place. We can get rid of a lot of parking lots if you have a car that is operating all the time,” Musk said earlier this year.
Musk argues that traffic will be “insane” once more cars are autonomous and electric, an eventuality that would greatly benefit one of his other companies.
“So, you know, we like this little tiny baby company, The Boring Company, which I initially started as a joke, but now I think it actually could be quite essential to alleviating the insane traffic that will happen when cars are autonomous because you reduce the pain of travel and you reduce the cost of travel so dramatically that there will be a crazy number of cars on the road,” he said.
Musk’s Boring Company drills tunnels beneath cities that operate exclusively with Tesla vehicles.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
