Image: Wikimedia
Tesla's electric car and Google's self-driving system are two of the biggest forces in auto technology right now, so it only makes sense to combine the two, thus creating a single, ultra-sleek autonomous electric vehicle. And actually, Elon Musk, Tesla's charismatic CEO, isn't opposed to the idea.
Musk just finished touring Google's self-driving car program, and he emerged with more than just an interest in the tech; he had some ideas about how he might develop his own version. For one thing, he wouldn't call his cars "self-driving."
“I like the word autopilot more than I like the word self-driving,” Musk told Bloomberg. “Self-driving sounds like it’s going to do something you don’t want it to do. Autopilot is a good thing to have in planes, and we should have it in cars.”
Semantics aside, Musk doesn't think that he'd turn to Google for its technology—he thinks theirs is too expensive. (This from the man whose first car went to market at $110K).
“The problem with Google’s current approach is that the sensor system is too expensive. It’s better to have an optical system, basically cameras with software that is able to figure out what’s going on just by looking at things,” he said. “I think Tesla will most likely develop its own autopilot system for the car, as I think it should be camera-based, not Lidar-based. However, it is also possible that we do something jointly with Google.”
Maybe an self-driving robot can teach the Tesla how to park, too. Image: Wikimedia
So the autonomous Tesla car would boast its own "autopilot" system: an optical, camera-based system, to keep costs down. After all, its "affordable" car, the Model S, has a price tag in the high $60,000 range, and Tesla is hoping to continue to cut costs. But Musk clearly displays an acute interest in the technology, and there's reason to believe the world will eventually see a self-driving Tesla.
“We’re not focused on autopilot right now; we will be in the future. Autopilot is not as important as accelerating the transition to electric cars, or to sustainable transport," Musk said, according to Venture Beat.
"We will be in the future." Hear that? That's the sound of green car lovers and future tech fanatics fainting in their desk chairs. Who can blame them? The prospect of autonomous Tesla/Google electric cars as compelling as bona fide flying ones. In fact, let's get the Tesla-Google team on that one next: I'm talking self-driving electric flying cars, people.