Tesla ‘on Track’ to Complete ‘Coast-to-Coast’ Autonomous Drive by Year-End, Says Musk

Tesla is “still on track” to complete its first “coast-to-coast” autonomous drive from Los Angeles to New York by year-end, said CEO Elon Musk on a Wednesday earnings call. “It is certainly possible that I may have egg on my face on that front, but if it is not at the end of the year, it will be very close.” Tesla’s autonomous-driving platform, Autopilot, is “very centrally about vision and image recognition,” using “effectively narrow” artificial intelligence, said Musk. In developing and refining Autopilot, “we've got the best team in the world by a long shot on that front, and we are growing it rapidly with world-class talent,” he said. Every car that Tesla has made since October “is capable of full autonomy,” using Autopilot, he said. Tesla’s website describes Autopilot as enabling “full self-driving capability at a safety level substantially greater than that of a human driver.”