Not only will the machines replace humans, Tesla CEO Musk believes that new legislation could be passed which effectively bans humans from taking control of a vehicle, partly because the driverless cars will be so efficient, writes Rob Waugh for Metro.
Tesla CEO Musk: Tech visionary makes latest prediction
PayPal billionaire Musk is often likened to a real-life version of Tony Stark, otherwise known as Iron Man, for his work on visionary technology projects such as electric carmaker Tesla and SpaceX, which aims to cut the cost of space travel through the development of its rockets and space ships.
Now Musk has spoken out on his vision of the complete domination of driverless cars. “In the distant future, [law-makers] may outlaw driven cars because they’re too dangerous. We’ll take autonomous cars for granted in quite a short time,” he said.
He may then have realized that his pronouncements could have dismayed fans of Tesla vehicles, and took to Twitter to clarify his statements. “To be clear, Tesla is strongly in favor of people being allowed to drive their cars and always will be. Hopefully, that is obvious,” read one Tweet.
“However, when self-driving cars become safer than human-driven cars, the public may outlaw the latter. Hopefully not,” he later added.
Increasing transfer of control to vehicles
His original statement was made at an Nvidia conference, and followed hot on the heels of Tesla’s announcement that their Model S sedan would be receiving a software update which enabled an autopilot driving mode. The driverless mode is restricted to certain areas for now due to regulatory issues, but Musk claims that the technology is capable of navigating the vehicle from door-to-door.
The gradual shifting of control from driver to car seems to be accelerating of late. It is not just electric carmaker Tesla that is working on features which make your car increasingly independent.
Just yesterday, Ford in Europe announced that it would be trialing a system known as the intelligent speed limiter, which reads road signs and prevents the car from traveling faster than the posted speed limit.
