Once strictly confined to the realms of science fiction, self-driving cars may be a reality for us sooner than we once thought, though still relatively far off. With many automakers now working on their self-driving concepts for the near future, pundits believe that these cars may become commonplace on our roads in the coming years. And so does Elon Musk, as the Tesla CEO/founder told NVIDIA’s CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, in no uncertain terms, that autonomous vehicles are the “future.”
The conversation can be best described as a summit between two of tech’s highest-powered executives, having taken place at this week’s NVIDIA GPU Technology Conference. And Musk’s quotes seem to suggest that it may be about 15 to 20 years before all cars become autonomous, assuming each new model is released in self-driving form starting tomorrow. This also applies, however, to electric cars, as Musk told Huang that if “all cars were suddenly electric, it’ll still take 20 years to replace the fleet.”
Musk also talked up the smart features of the Tesla Model S P85D, a vehicle he says is “getting smarter and smarter” even in its current configuration. “We can make huge progress in autonomy already,” he added. “Autonomy is about what level of reliability and safety do you want.” He added that Tesla is adding more layers of security to its vehicles, making it more difficult for hackers to control steering and other key functions.
Going back to the topic of self-driving cars, Musk said that mid-speed driving is the trickiest part of it all, which is interesting, as he was referring to speeds of 15 to 50 mph. “It’s the intermediate that’s hard,” said Musk. “It’s being able to recognize what you’re seeing and making the right decision.” And when asked about this week’s “range anxiety” announcement, Musk danced around the topic, instead focusing on Tesla’s plans to release more updates for its cars in the coming months.