Elon Musk: 90% Self-Driving In Under 3 Years

Tesla Motors is developing self-driving technology. Tesla Founder and CEO Elon Musk spoke to the Financial Times about what’s around the corner for Tesla and the answer is self-driving technology. “We should be able to do 90% of miles driven within three years,” Musk said. In other words, the vehicle is 90% self-driving. He went on to say this innovation is not technology from an outside company but rather an internal development. Finally, he stated those 90% autonomous cars are “not speculation.” Musk’s words about self-driving cars shouldn’t come as a surprise. After all, the man owns a private space exploration company. If anyone were going to direct a fleet of vehicles into a “Jetsons” direction, it would be Elon Musk.

Despite the optimism on the part of the always media-ready Musk, he sounds as though he’s trying to be realistic. He explained that getting a vehicle to move towards being around 10% manual is a sizable undertaking and, “it’s incredibly hard to get the last few percent.” The last few percent would totally takes the onus off the driver and put it in the hands of cutting-edge electronics. Will people ever accept his concept? Google, like Elon Musk, thinks they will.

As we have reported previously, Google is currently developing its own self-driving cars. While Musk is developing his usual brand of sleek sedans presumably with self-driving characteristics, Google’s prototypes have more closely resembled the “Cozy Coupe” for toddlers. Despite the unique design, Google appears to be in the lead in the race to make vehicles self-driving. As is the case with many innovations, there are great risks that come with self-driving cars.

Who is responsible if a self-driving car is in an accident? What if someone is hurt or worse, killed? Which way would the lawsuit-ready guns of our society point? Would it be the manufacturers? What about dealerships? Could car dealers become targets of litigation for the potential pitfalls of self-driving cars? How will the existence of autonomous vehicles impact dealers? Time will tell.