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Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk said within two years a customer would be able to summon an electric car to drive autonomously from New York to L.A.

The bad news – it’ll be pre-programmed with personality of a Brooklyn Cabbie.

10 Comments

  1. c64wood, maybe doesn’t mean a passenger vehicle. Maybe he means a solar powered chariot designed to carry his pure bred unicorns from his east coast smog factories to his west coast smog factories.

  2. Sadly, the article does not convey much of what is actually going on, to justify the headline.

    Musk Predicts Your Car Will Be Able to Drive You Cross-Country Soon

    OK, You have my attention.

    It’ll drive me from L.A. to New York. Cool.

    Tesla Motors Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said within two years a customer would be able to summon an electric car to drive autonomously from Los Angeles to New York.

    “Summon”? Will I be seated in the car, or will it be crossing the country to come get me?

    “I might be slightly optimistic on that, but I don’t think significantly optimistic that we can do that in two years,” Musk said in a press conference on Sunday. He added that it should be technically feasible to have fully autonomous vehicles within 24 to 36 months.

    “Fully Autonomous.” Perhaps meaning no one driving, maybe meaning even no one in it at all. Sounds like I’m going to be able to summon it to come across the country and get me after all.

    That’s some sizzle! Let’s see what the steak is like.

    The comments come after the company announced a software upgrade that will enable owners of Model S sedans to park them in a garage or in perpendicular spaces without a driver at the wheel. Musk called this a “baby step” in the development of driver-less cars.

    Pulling into and out of a parking space equates to driving cross-country? Not necessarily . . . Ask any student driver.

    Owners of Model S sedans will be able to park them while standing outside the vehicle if it’s within 33 feet (10 meters) of a garage or narrow space, Tesla said on the eve of the Detroit auto show.

    Even in the parking scenario, you have to be near the car? And you have to make sure it starts within 33 feet of its target? The definition of “autonomous” seems to morphing, here. How is this retard car supposed to cross the country, again?

    The cars can also be summoned from a parking spot, according to the company, which said the tools remain in a beta, or test, version. Model X owners will have the capability in a few weeks, spokeswoman Khobi Brooklyn said in an e-mailed statement.

    Wait. Radio-controlled cars can be “summoned” from a parking spot, and have been able to do that since the 70’s.

    But we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, and assume they mean you can click an app on your phone or watch, and it will make the car come out of the parking spot, rather than you having to play around with joysticks on a controller.

    Expands Autopilot

    The upgrade also restricts automated steering on residential roads and streets without a center divider, and will limit the vehicles’ speed, Tesla said in an e-mailed statement.

    Umm . . . . what?

    I’m not sure if the journalist (who only seems to receive email statements rather than interviews from the Tesla people) means restricts “to” or restricts “from.”

    Musk is aware that you encounter roads both with and without dividers as you cross the country, right?

    I’m glad that the feature limits the vehicle’s speed, too. That will make it more attractive.

    Tesla’s so-called 7.1 software update expands on the Autopilot features unveiled in October, which let cars change lanes with turn signals and parallel park.

    Still not seeing how these abilities translate into cross-country summoning.

    . . . Tesla, co-founded by billionaire Musk, has distinguished itself by automatically pushing over-the-air software updates to customers, refreshing the vehicles with new and enhanced functions.

    Oh, so this is ad copy, not a news report. Ohhhhhhhh.

  3. So if nobody is driving, will it know to stop when it bursts into flames or just keep going?

    Has this guy not heard that there’s already a much faster way to get to California than a coal powered car? They have auto-pilot, isn’t that autonomous enough for him?

  4. I still don’t get this autonomous car thing. I mean, haven’t we had those around for years and don’t we call them “trains”? . . . that nobody wants to ride? Are they just trying to create something else that will have to be subsidized? Can you say Amtrak?

  5. It is all an illusion to fool the rubes. Americans won’t part with their cars? Give them the illusion that they still have a car but then have the State control it totally so they know where everyone is every minute of the day. Don’t be fooled, these cars are just another step on the road to totals state control of all facets of your life.

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