Elon Musk: before the advent of robots cars on the roads another 5-6 years

A year ago, Tesla announced its intention to produce its own cars with an autonomous control system that does not require human intervention. Now Elon Musk, head of Tesla, said that before the mass appearance of robot cars on the roads there are still 5-6 years. In general, this point of view is somewhat at odds with the general opinion that (in many ways formed by the media) that cars with a fully automatic control system may be on sale today or tomorrow.

Why does Musk think so? According to the head of Tesla, the thing is that there is still no perfect software for autonomous cars that can function perfectly.
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Current systems depend on the readings of radars, cameras and a number of sensors. Some companies have been able to ensure that their systems for robot-cars have become smaller, better, cheaper. But the problem, in fact, is not so much in the hardware as in the software for this hardware. A software that could work perfectly, identifying objects and making the right decisions on the roads, yet.

Some companies are trying to speed up the process of developing such software, including Google. The developers of the Corporation of Good created special virtual road simulators of California for their cars with an automatic control system. Such simulators, according to the developers, help cars to “learn” as quickly as possible. By the way, California state authorities issued the first group of permissions for Google, Mercedes and Audi, allowing companies to legally test their robots-cars on the roads of the region.

The two main advantages of robot cars are comfort and safety. The computer control system of a car is able to respond faster than a person, making a decision in a split second. Somewhere you need to increase the speed, somewhere, on the contrary, to reduce, and somewhere - to make a difficult maneuver. According to Mask, after the appearance of full-fledged control systems, the safety of driving on roads will increase many times. In this case, the owner of the car while driving on the road will be able to go about their business.

Elon Musk claims that such cars from Tesla (and from other automakers) will appear in broad circulation around 2020, not earlier. By the way, in August of this year, approximately the same date was voiced by Nissan with some other companies.

On the other hand, some automakers made a compromise decision, releasing cars with more advanced than earlier cruise control and the necessity of the presence of a person at the wheel.

Via theverge