Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on video Thursday at a conference in Shanghai that his company was “very close” to developing its first 100% autonomous electric car, possibly “later this year”. “In terms of where Tesla is right now, I think we’re very close to achieving autonomous driving without human supervision,” Musk said in a videoconference to open a conference on the artificial intelligence (AI) in Shanghai, China.
“It’s just speculation, but I think we’ll reach full self-driving, maybe stage four or five, I think later this year,” the billionaire added, mentioning the two lowest levels. advances in autonomous driving, which mean that human assistance is no longer necessary. The Twitter boss admitted that his previous predictions were wrong, but said he felt Tesla was “closer to his goal than ever”. Elon Musk has indeed already exceeded the dates he had given for the launch of such a vehicle, the technology of which raises many questions in the United States.
China is the world’s largest market for electric vehicles and Mr. Musk had announced in April that his company would build a second mega-factory in Shanghai. His presence at this conference, even on video, shows his willingness to maintain good relations with China, after an in-person visit in May. In the first quarter, Tesla reported a 24% drop in net profit to $2.5 billion as the electric car giant lowered prices to stimulate demand and battle competition.
