Tesla is not content with only having autonomous vehicles that require regular human interaction, the company also wants its own fleet of self-driving cars. We already knew from previous reports that Tesla was working on these cars, but this is the first time we got to see it in action.
The company also revealed in the past that it will be building cars for the future. These vehicles will come with the components for self-driving, and consumers will be able to get in on the fun when the software is up and running. This is going to take some time, but at least we can be sure that it's been worked on.
Just recently, Tesla released a video showing its self-driving car in action. The vehicle can be seen going down a busy road filled with traffic, and not surprisingly, the software handled the whole thing quite well. Even when folks are crossing the road, the car stopped to allow them to safely get across without any issues.
There's a human in car, but he's just there for legal issues. Throughout the entire adventure, he never once placed his hands on the steering wheel, nor did he ever placed his foot on the pedals. Everything was done by the software, and it goes to show how far Tesla's development has gone.
The video also shows three different views of what the optical cameras are seeing. This is basically how the Tesla self-driving car views the world, how it can tell what is another vehicle from what is not. It's pretty slick, and it will only get better from here.
Now, this isn't flawless by any means. Several times we saw the car slow down because the cameras picked up pedestrians on the sidewalk. This is something the developers will have to fix before a Tesla self-driving car can be ready for prime time.
We'd also love to see how the whole system reacts to night time and snowy weather, along with a situation where there isn't enough light.
From this demo, we can see that Tesla will no doubt give Google a run for its money despite Google being the one testing self-driving vehicles for a number of years now.
While Tesla is testing how useful its self-driving software is in its current form, it's getting some flak for its autopilot technology. A German study says Tesla's autopilot is a traffic hazard, but that did not stop the company from acquiring a a big German manufacturer to boost its output as more people turn to electric cars.
