Recently, Elon Musk himself has been on the look out for new engineers to pursue with the process of the self driving car. With this new phenomenon close to hitting the market, Musk is determined to make this new project his first priority and perfect the new model Tesla. He recently tweeted “Ramping up the Autopilot software team at Tesla to achieve generalized full autonomy. If interested, contact autopilot@teslamotors.com”. It sounds like he’s not playing any games when it comes to this new self-driving car. He even claims that he will be personally interviewing these future employees. With many companies getting into these new projects, Musk is not willing to get left behind. In fact, the current models already have many autopilot features that make Tesla cars different from all of the rest. He predicts that this project will be completed in the next 3 years. I’m definitely excited to see for what’s to come for Tesla and all of the other competing brands.
Further information: http://www.cnet.com/news/tesla-bulks-up-engineering-staff-for-self-driving-car-project/
I think Elon Musk is a man who never seems to stop thinking. Whether it be his solar city project or his different tesla models including the one he put out. The man himself goes above and beyond in his work, for example the newest model of his cars has medical grade air built in in which would be used in the case of a biological warfare situation. So although it is highly unlikely for this to be used he has still applied it to a car which is something incredible. I feel as though this new project is another step towards the future of driving and i have full faith in Elon Musk and his capabilities of making this come to life. Auto pilot for a car is more appealing than a self driving car too as it gives people the comfort knowing they still have control over the car with the option to let the wheel go at times. I think when this hits the market it will be very popular for those who have the money.
I think that Tesla is doing a really great job at making their autonomous car; however, the article does depict that they’re a little further behind Google, Ford, Honda, and other brands. As stated in the article, the Tesla model does not allow drivers to fully take their hands off of the wheel. When Google and Ford have test drives of self-driving cars, they allow the participants to take their hands off of the wheel. As we saw in the Google video from class, Google doesn’t even have passengers sitting in the drivers seat or the front passenger seat.
This article: this article predicts that 10 million autonomous cars will be on the road by 2020, and among them will be other luxury brands such as BMW and Mercedes. Although Tesla is a very luxurious car brand, they will need to step up their game in order to compete with the other car makers.
On a lighter note, the article also discusses the safety of self-driving cars. John Greenough states that, “[i]n the UK, KPMG estimates that self-driving cars will lead to 2,500 fewer deaths between 2014 and 2030.” That might not seem like a huge number right away, but as technology advances so will the technology. Every new safety feature on one of these cars will lead to one less death. And that sounds pretty great to me.
Overall, this was a really great article! I hope Tesla is able to compete with other car makers because of their electric capabilities. If they can get fully autonomous cars on the road, they will really be the future of the car industry.
When thinking about the future of self-driving cars, it is important to weigh the pros and the cons. Some pros or benefits of self driving cars include greatly increased number of accidents, no more distracted driving, no more drunk driving and the ability for handicapped persons to drive. While I believe the positives outweigh the negatives there are still some cons. They include security of the cars computer systems, cost of implementation, and possible failure of technology. While I think self-driving cars could save lives and make travel quicker, I still think it will be at least 10 years before we see them widely used.
The concept and developments of Self driving cars are very controversial because cars are not toys and high-speed accident are very deadly. Professor Pursel has also discussed self driving cars during class and showed us a video of a prototype made by google, and I remember he said reliability and anti-hacking are the main problems with those cars. I also have read an article recently discussing the five problems that need solutions about self driving car, and I think car developing company like Tesla need to identify those five problems as early as possible before they launch their product:
First, currently there is no operating system/software exist that can run for a extended period without freezing/errors, so that better software must be developed along with the car. Second, our current map does not always display the road ahead accurately and sometimes maps are not up to date, and that means a more accurate map system is needed for the self-driving car. Thirdly, better sensor must be developed to comprehensively scan the road around the car and make the right decision to accelerate, to break, or to stop. Fourthly, better communication between drivers and car and between self-driving car and self driving car because the effectiveness communication is the key to reduce accident. Lastly, and the most controversial problem with the robot, the ethical mind of robot. Sometimes drivers face a ethical dilemma such as hit a bus to stop the car or drive off the cliff himself. It is very hard for human to make decisions fast enough during emergency, so I doubt how hard will it be to program the robot make an ethical and correct decision in such situations.
http://www.livescience.com/50841-future-of-driverless-cars.html
The base-model price for a Tesla is at least a hundred-thousand dollars. These cars are not made so that someone can buy it to “save the planet”. They are a luxury brand that just so happens to give you the luxury of saying that you are saving the planet. So, for a hundred thousand a pop they better be spending that money wisely. If they can actually perfect this autonomous automobile in the next couple years they will have successfully put their name at the top of luxury brand cars. I hope they do it because that is just awesome. Sitting in your gorgeous car being driven around and catered to without actually having to deal with another person. sounds delightful
The concept of a self-driving car seems so futuristic, however Google is also working on a fairly functional version as well. I also recently saw a video reviewing the auto pilot feature which proved it to work extremely well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yCAZWdqX_Y Here is a link of the video which shows how well the auto pilot can potentially work. In the future if Elon Musk continues to focus on the auto pilot it will only get more useful and safe. I think it will also be interesting how other companies such as Google will compete and develop this technology as well.