Tesla: We’ll Have Full Self-Driving by 2020. Robo-Taxis, Too.

Tesla: We’ll Have Full Self-Driving by 2020. Robo-Taxis, Too.

Teslas will be fully autonomous next year. The word, from Elon Musk, came just two days before a Tesla earnings-and-sales report that is not going to be kind to the company. The Tesla CEO and three Musk-eteers took to the stage Monday to announce fabulous, industry-leading breakthroughs in full self-driving (FSD) that will put Tesla cars and Tesla robo-taxis on the road as early as next year, in at least one market. The plan is to use two Tesla-designed chips that will fit in a glovebox circuit board rather than take over the trunk. All without lidar.

Musk said Teslas will be “feature complete” for self-driving as of vehicles built this year; self-driving (Level 5, the real self-driving) could be a reality by Q2 of 2020. (Self-driving presidential campaign vehicles, anyone?) That puts Tesla well ahead of every other automaker if Tesla, in fact, delivers what it promised Monday.

A Breakthrough, or More Silicon Valley Hot Air?

If we sound a bit cautious, we’ve been there before with Tesla. Other Tesla promises have come up short: start-of-production claims, production-quantity claims, technology. And yet, Tesla is by far the largest maker of EVs, this from a company that didn’t exist 15 years ago. And the Tesla Model 3, even if it failed to meet Tesla’s delivery and production claims, still was the best-selling luxury car in the US last year and outsold the next EV, the Nissan Leaf, by 8-1.

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