Elon Musk Says Full Self-Driving Tesla Tech is ‘Very Close’

While Tesla is undoubtedly one of the most fashionable car brands around at the moment, one of the key factors that make it stand out (beyond the all-electric aspect) is the development the company has been making in ‘self-driving‘ technology.

While it still seems that the arrival of this remains many years away, in a report via the BBC, Elon Musk has said that he believed that a fully automated self-driving system is coming very close to being realized.

Tesla ‘Very Close’ To Full Self-Driving Tech!

The main key factor between this and the existing technology is that a fully-automated system would require no inputs at all from the driver. Well, you’d have to tell it where you wanted to go, but beyond that the car would be capable of doing the rest. Speaking in an interview, Elon Musk has said:

“I feel like we are very close. I remain confident that we will have the basic functionality for level five autonomy complete this year. There are no fundamental challenges remaining [but] there are many small problems.

And then there’s the challenge of solving all those small problems and putting the whole system together.”

What Do We Think?

It seems almost certain that self-driving technology will form some part of our future on the roads. I must admit though, I’m not exactly sure I share Elon Musk’s confidence that even if the technology was ready, that we as consumers would be fully prepared for it… yet. We’re still, after all, a long way behind the energy needs for a world full of electric cars, let alone the confidence in people essentially having to be retrained to use AI systems and trust that they will work correctly!

Then again, if you’ve ever experienced a super-long journey, there’s something about letting a car do all the hard work (in terms of getting you there) that would certainly make such trips much less unpleasant!

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!