Musk said full autonomy is some years off – Autopilot now can only steer a vehicle within its lane, change lanes on command from the driver and brake for some obstacles – but he expects the technology to arrive long before regulations allow its use across the country.
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The long-anticipated blueprint is an update to Tesla’s first “Master Plan” in 2006, which vowed to bring low-priced electric vehicles to market. There will be cars so autonomous that they will earn money for you when you aren’t driving, battery-enhanced solar panels so lovely that you will want to cuddle them, and tiny, autonomous buses that can be summoned at the push of a button.
The proposal comes several months after Tesla sold about .7 billion in new shares, funds that observers expect will be invested in speeding up the Tesla Model 3 development, thus generating revenue more quickly for the company’s lofty future goals.
“There are two other types of electric vehicles needed: heavy-duty trucks and high passenger-density urban transport”, the Tesla chief executive officer said in the blog post, released on Wednesday. He said the goal is to “create a smoothly integrated and lovely solar-roof-with-battery product that just works”, and that it can’t be done well if they remain separate companies.
Tesla now sells two vehicles: The Model S luxury sedan and the Model X luxury SUV, with the cheaper Model 3 sedan on the way.
What better time for Musk to unveil “Master Plan Part Deux”, which says, essentially, “Don’t look at right now!”
Musk used the post as a forum to defend Tesla’s semi-autonomous Autopilot system, and reject calls that the feature be disabled until it is further developed, following the death in May of a driver whose Tesla Model S slammed into a tractor-trailer in Florida while the system was engaged. Musk explained why the company had made a decision to debut software that gave its vehicles partial autonomy rather than waiting to deliver a fully self-driving auto in the future, writing: “I should explain why Tesla is deploying partial autonomy now, rather than waiting until some point in the future”.
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Tesla’s last master plan was released back in 2006. Cities without enough volunteer vehicle owners will receive special fleets of cars from Tesla to make up the deficit.
