Elon Musk says self-driving Teslas will arrive this year

Musk just said self-driving Teslas will arrive before the end of the year. But given his storied history of failed predictions, take that with a pinch of salt.

by | Published on 7th Jul 2023

According to Elon Musk, we’ll see self-driving Teslas this year.

The billionaire CEO said Tesla is “very close to achieving full self-driving without human supervision”.

He made the bold claim when recently speaking via video link at an artificial intelligence (AI) conference in Shanghai.

READ MORE! Elon Musk’s solution for Tesla drivers in right-hand-drive countries is bizarre

Tesla should realize fully autonomous vehicles at some point “later this year,” he predicted.

But Musk stressed “this is only speculation”.

So, should we take what he says with a pinch of salt?

Absolutely, yes.

Let’s face it, Musk has a history of overly optimistic forecasts on the arrival of fully driverless vehicles.

However, he did say it feels like “we’re closer to it than we ever have been”.

At the same time, Musk praised China as a major player in AI and said he is confident the country will become a global leader in the field.

He used his speech as an opportunity to call on the government, which backed the conference, to implement more regulatory oversight for the transformative technology.

The truth is, Musk has been on the charm offensive as he’s keen to cultivate a good relationship with China.

In the past, he’s vocally opposed the deepening divide between Beijing and Washington.

It’s not hard to see why Musk wants a good relationship with the world’s second largest economy.

After all, China is Tesla’s second largest market after North America and is expected to become a major market for autonomous driving.

Add to that the fact the country also plays a key role in Tesla’s production capacity.

China is also a competitor for his other ventures like SpaceX’s satellite communications system Starlink.

At the end of the day, a number of technical breakthroughs are still needed to realise fully driverlsss cars.

The tech also raises a host of legal and regulatory issues that have yet to be addressed.

So, let’s just see what happens.

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Adam Gray is an experienced motoring journalist and content creator based in the United Kingdom. Using his media accreditation with motor manufacturers’ press offices, Adam test drives the latest cars and attends new vehicle press launches, producing written reviews and news pieces for supercarblondie.com. Before joining the Supercar Blondie team, Adam was Motoring Editor for Portfolio North magazine, North East Motoring Editor at Reach plc, and provided motoring content on a freelance basis to several lifestyle and business publications in the North of England. When he’s not behind the wheel of the latest car, Adam can be found at his local rink playing ice hockey or supporting his beloved Middlesbrough FC.

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