Tesla CEO Musk has previously voiced concerns about the development of artificial intelligence, but has now revealed new automated features.
Musk took to Twitter to announce the new features to the world. In a series of tweets, he told followers that Tesla vehicles will soon be able to steer and parallel park themselves.
Almost ready to release highway autosteer and parallel autopark software update
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 31, 2015
Automated features to be introduced in latest software update
The new features will be introduced by way of a software update, which has long been predicted by analysts who follow the company. The features have been in development for a considerable amount of time, and are largely ready to be introduced to the public.
One small issue does need to be resolved however. Although the cars are able to navigate themselves on major roads, they encounter difficulties when road markings become less clear. This limitation is also important for drivers who travel at dusk.
Musk tweeted: “Final corner case is dealing with low contrast lane markings (faded white on grey concrete) while driving into the sun at dusk.”
He also announced that the software would improve the cars reactions over time. Tesla owners are sure to be excited by the new features, but the company is far from the only one working on automated driving technology.
Race to develop driverless car heating up
Google has been road testing its own vehicles since 2009, and Uber is also working on driverless cars in conjunction with Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania.
Automated vehicles could have huge implications for ride sharing services such as Uber. With no need to pay for a driver, costs could be cut significantly.
Tesla has been slowly introducing automated features to its vehicles over the past few years. Customers can now opt to add sensors which detect objects close to the car, in addition to lane-departure and blind-spot warnings.
As ValueWalk previously reported, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick reportedly claimed that his company would buy 500,000 Tesla vehicles by 2020 if they were fully automated.
This latest update looks to be a step in that direction, and Musk promised that Model S owners will now be able to “travel all the way from San Francisco to Seattle without the driver touching any controls at all.”
