Tesla this week announced plans for an update for its Enhanced Autopilot program, but if the company’s founder has his way the feature could be obsolete sooner than anticipated. CEO Elon Musk wants these things to drive themselves already.
With Enhanced Autopilot, only half of the eight available cameras on your Tesla are activated, rather than the full eight that will be used by the Full Self-Driving Capability feature.
Tesla owners can choose from Enhanced Autopilot or the more expensive Full Self-Driving Capability option when purchasing their vehicle, but the feature won’t be fully functional until the near future. Thankfully for curious Tesla drivers, Musk has been saying the feature will be available by the end of the year. Yesterday that changed.
In an exchange on Twitter Musk was asked when he felt Full Self-Driving Capability will be noticeably different from the Enhanced Autopilot features. He didn’t stutter:
3 months maybe, 6 months definitely
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 24, 2017
Given that the Enhanced Autopilot feature arrived late it’s significant that the Full Self-Driving Feature, originally meant for the end of the year, will be at least noticeably functional within the next few months.
Sadly we’re not quite to the place where you car can drive you home if you’ve had one too many at the bar. But with progress like this maybe in the next few years that’ll be a possibility.
H/T Electrek