Tesla Goes Full-Bore On Self-Driving Cars

Tesla Model 3 (Credit: Tesla Motors)

You’ve probably already heard about Tesla’s big announcement that every vehicle it makes will come with hardware for autonomous driving. People have been freaking out, both those who think this is a groundbreaking thing and those who believe Teslas will start massacring bystanders for the fun of it.

What Tesla is talking about is Level 5 self-driving hardware, or the kind of setup where the car really does all of the driving for you. The budget-friendly Model 3 will be included in this initiative.

To help illustrate the new tech, Tesla released a video some are calling garbage. It shows virtually vacant California streets, pristine weather, a perfect road surface and a snappy soundtrack. Obviously the tech is still very much in the developmental phase, but Tesla couldn’t help bragging like it has everything figured out, because it needs money. Badly.

Jalopnik (which usually sings praises for Tesla) reported that at a recent media event, Elon Musk lectured reporters about how they’re “killing people” by being skeptical about autonomous tech. He’s pissed about news stories covering Autopilot crashes. If Musk can’t take the heat, he needs to get out of the game.

Then there’s the little tidbit at the end of Tesla’s official announcement, a detail pretty much everyone seems to have missed. When the new models with this nifty hardware launch, they at first won’t even have collision warning, auto braking, etc. I wonder if the new owners will be surprised?