Elon Musk’s big promises for 2021: Tesla CEO announces that Cybertrucks will be delivered and says the Full-Self Driving system will have Level 5 autonomy by the end of the year – despite the beta version ‘not even reaching Level 3’
- Elon Musk hosted Tesla’s quarterly earnings call Wednesday
- The CEO discussed updates and progress of Tesla products
- He said the Cybertruck design is finalized and will start shipping this year
- The Full-Self Driving system is also set to have level 5 autonomy by end of 2021
Elon Musk hosted Tesla’s quarterly earnings call Wednesday where he revealed progress of the highly-anticipated Cybertruck and updates to the Full-Driving System (FDS).
The CEO says the design of the futuristic vehicle has been finalized and a few are set to be delivered to customers this year – but volume production is set for 2022.
Musk also made an ambitious claim that the FDS will have Level 5 autonomy capabilities by the end of 2021.
However, FSD was only released as a beta version in November and Tesla’s website states ‘the currently enabled features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous.’
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Elon Musk hosted Tesla’s quarterly earnings call Wednesday where he revealed progress of the highly-anticipated Cybertruck and an updates to the Full-Driving System (FDS)
Musk has been tirelessly working to perfect both Tesla’s Cybertruck and FDS, but both ventures have had their own obstacles over the years.
Musk unveiled the Cybertruck in November 2019 during a live demo that ended with embarrassment – and some profanity.
It has been more than a year since Elon Musk unveiled Tesla’s Cybertruck that ended with embarrassment when the ‘shatterproof’ window did not hold up to its name.
Tesla design chief Franz von Holshausen tried to prove the glass was ‘shatterproof’ by throwing a heavy metal ball at close range.
The CEO says the design of the futuristic vehicle has been finalized and a few are set to be delivered to customers this year – but volume production is set for 2022
It has been more than a year since Elon Musk unveiled Tesla’s Cybertruck that ended with embarrassment when the ‘shatterproof’ window did not hold up to its name. Tesla design chief Franz von Holshausen tried to prove the glass was ‘shatterproof’ by throwing a heavy metal ball at close range
Musk was heard muttering ‘oh my f***ing God’ when the glass smashed.
Fast forward to today and it seems Tesla has ironed out the wrinkles and is ready to start fulfilling orders.
‘So we finished almost all of the Cybertruck engineering,’ Musk said during Wednesday’s earnings call.
‘So we’re no longer iterating at the design center level or design level. We’ve got the designs fixed.’
Musk continued to explain that production of the large vehicle will require an even larger casting press than the one being used for the Model Y.
The firm will need an 8,000-ton to make the truck, compared to 6,000 tons for the Model Y.
‘8,000 tons, quite a bit bigger than that. And I think it’s going to be incredible vehicle,’ Musk said.
‘If we get lucky, we’ll be able to do a few deliveries toward the end of this year, but I expect volume production to be in 2022.
The CEO revealed Tesla has almost 1,000 people testing the beta version of its FDS since the system was first released in November of last year to a select group.
The system enables the vehicle get on the road and then determines future operations based on a 360-degree view of the roadway captured by eight in-car cameras through machine learning algorithms.
However, the current beta version barely meets the standards of Level 3 autonomy, but Musk says this year’s update will it ‘at least 100 percent safer than a human driver.’
The CEO also said that Tesla has been improving the system with a supercomputer called Dojo that will even be able to label everything within view of the vehicle.
Musk also made an ambitious claim that the FDS will have Level 5 autonomy capabilities by the end of 2021. However, FSD was only released as a beta version in November and Tesla’s website states ‘the currently enabled features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous
Industry experts have not been sold on Musk’s FDS, saying it is deceptive, irresponsible marketing that could turn roads into danger zones as the firm’s website states ‘the currently enabled features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous.’
Steven Shladover, a research engineer at the University of California, Berkeley, who has studied autonomous driving for 40 years, said: ‘This is actively misleading people about the capabilities of the system, based on the information I’ve seen about it.’
‘It is a very limited functionality that still requires constant driver supervision.’
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