Let’s make one thing abundantly clear, Tesla is NOT releasing a self-driving car this summer and it’s not making existing cars self-driving either. All of the reports claiming that this is the case are misinterpreting Elon Musk’s announcements. While the automaker is certainly adding some self-driving features to its existing vehicles in an upcoming software update, it’s not even close to being a fully autonomous system.
Elon Musk this week offered a peek at some new driver-assist capabilities Tesla will be adding to its vehicles this summer, prompting a bit of a rush in the media to declare that Silicon Valley’s favorite auto maker is about to launch a “self-driving” car.
Well, no, it’s not. And the funny thing is, the miscommunication about what Tesla is actually doing with its upcoming software upgrade for Model S and Model X electric vehicles (EVs) can’t be blamed on Musk—who can certainly be overly effusive when talking about his cars and rockets and hyperloops, but was actually pretty circumspect during Thursday’s conversation with press and analysts. Here’s the deal. Musk said that new driver-assist features rolling out right now with Tesla’s over-the-air (OTA) Model S Software Update 6.2, combined with an auto-steering capability being added on in the summer will make it possible to drive a Tesla “from San Francisco to Seattle … parking lot to parking lot,” without any human driver input at all.
