ELON MUSK – TESLA WILL DEVELOP LEVEL 5 AUTONOMOUS DRIVING TECHNOLOGY

“I feel like we are very close.”

 

When it comes to making far-fetched claims, Elon Musk seems to be leading the race. The CEO of Tesla recently stated that his company is very close to developing level 5 autonomous technology that will probably be implemented into his vehicle line-up in the future.

 

During the World Artificial Intelligence Conference that was held in Shanghai and that Elon Musk joined via video, he said, “I’m extremely confident that level five – or essentially complete autonomy – will happen and I think will happen very quickly. 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. There are many small problems. And then there’s the challenge of solving all those small problems and putting the whole system together.”

 

For those who are unaware, Level 5 is a genuine self-driving automobile that is operated via artificial intelligence, and no human assistance is needed. It may sound perfect, but humans are far from using this technology.

Tim Urquhart, IHS Markit analyst, believes that level five autonomous driving was the “holy grail” of the industry, and he doesn’t seem to agree with Elon Musk. He said, “It’s a typically bold claim by Mr. Musk. Even if Tesla can reliably roll out the technology in a production environment, the regulatory environment in all the major markets is way behind allowing completely autonomous vehicles on the road.”

 

We agree with Urquhart and other critics because the SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is considering many huge problems as small issues. For instance, if a car is driving through weather, it is a possibility that dirt or mud might splash on Tesla’s camera lenses or even harm the radar emitter window. As a result, the sensor might be disabled or severely impaired.

It is just one example. Elon Musk must consider thousands of other problems before making such claims. Some other examples include varied behaviours of humans while crossing the streets, varied behaviours of humans while driving vehicles, or even confusing construction sites. Also, regulatory restrictions are a huge problem. These problems need to be addressed by artificial intelligence amd Tesla engineers before level 5 claims can be made.

 

In addition to Tesla, other players in the autonomous driving game are Waymo by Alphabet and Uber. We just hope the top executives of these companies will do a reality check before they also claim that they are close to level five autonomous driving as Elon Musk did.