The race to deploy self-driving cars continues to heat up as automakers and technology companies work at lightning speed to come to market first. Arguably, General Motors has been one of the most aggressive. It acquired Cruise Automation and most recently purchased Strobe Inc, a LIDAR developer to bolster is self-driving car projects.
Tesla has made similar self-driving-car promises in the past and CEO Elon Musk said the hardware installed on 2016 and newer vehicles house the capability for full autonomy. GM director of autonomous vehicle integration, Scott Miller, believes Musk’s claims are not accurate, however, calling the CEO “full of crap.”
“I think he is full of crap,” Miller told journalists, reported by Business Insider. “To think you can see everything you need for a level five autonomous car [full self-driving] with cameras and radar, I don’t know how you do that,” he said.
Miller refers to the fact fully self-driving cars often rely on LIDAR systems to “see” the world around them. Tesla does not equip even the newest vehicles with LIDAR systems—only cameras and radar systems to operate the electric-car maker’s Autopilot system.
Musk claimed the current hardware will eventually support full autonomy with software under development. He did not give a timeframe for when it may be ready, however.
In the meantime, GM recently rolled out Super Cruise on the 2018 Cadillac CT6. The automaker pegs the system as the first hands-free, highway-driving system.
Comments
This won’t be the first, or last time that Elon Musk has proved everyone’s doubts were inaccurate. Isn’t it GM and other automakers that thought that Tesla wouldn’t even come as far as they have? Let alone, didn’t believe the public would want an electric vehicle? Let’s face it. While GM is soon to release their ‘Super Cruise’ function on select Cadillac models, Tesla is far ahead of them on progression towards full autonomy. It intimidates them, to know such a young company has greater talent, that isn’t driven by pure greed. Haha!
Come as far as they have at what cost though? It’s unsustainable business.
At less than 1% market share for EVs I would hardly say the public is screaming for electric vehicles.
1% probably because it’s one company. It’s like comparing android to iPhone. There’s only one iPhone manufacturer, while several android manufacturers. Of course android had a bigger market share because there’s several manufacturers, with many different models. But of the models of iPhone that come from only a single manufactures, the market share is impressive. Tesla’s market share of the Electric vehicle, which you say is at 1%, is single handedly impressive.
What you mean one company?
Chevrolet Bolt,
BMW i3,
Nissan Leaf,
Fiat 500e,
Ford Focus Electric,
Kia Soul EV,
Mercedes B250e,
Mitsubishi i-MiEV,
Smart ForTwo Electric Drive,
Volkswagen e-Golf,
Hyundai IONIQ Electric.
These are all electric vehicles currently sold in the US outside of Tesla. There are few others as well that I’ve never heard of so I didn’t bother listing them.
There was also Chevrolet Spark EV which isn’t sold anymore.
“Tesla is far ahead of them on progression towards full autonomy.”
If you meant Tesla is ahead in terms of what current production cars on the road TODAY, can do, yes, Tesla is ahead.
But if you’re talking full autonomy, which no car on the road today can do, then GM is far ahead. It DOES require radar, lidar, and cameras to do Level 5. Cruise equipped Bolts are driving around San Francisco autonomously. We have no video of similar length, quality, and complexity of any car from Tesla.
So what does the current full autonomy get us except more expensive cars. Cars that drive 50 on the highway and 30 in the city. Now we can drink and get home? Ca,ching that’s the sound of Elon moving his money outside the country before the house of cards fall
The govt have already said driving or riding in a self driving car will be a DUI
Go to Driving.ca and look for the article http://driving.ca/auto-news/news/motor-mouth-more-inconvenient-truths-on-banning-gas-engines Paste this link in your browser.
I used to work at Tesla and if you knew the corners they cut to get cars out it’s astounding. Elon didn’t even know what TQM was or how to improve his factory. Elon himself was at the end of the line because there were so many defects on his cars it was pathetic. Doors not closing right, electrical systems not functioning as designed. Not properly employing PPAP process to weed out bad suppliers. Don’t get me started Zach don’t drink the KoolAid.
In addition I caught several employees using automotive’s manufacturer’s Continental’s specs. When I brought it up all they did was cover their own asses.
I’ve heard similar stories elsewhere about working for Tesla and Musk. Everyone should know that Musk was found to use shady accounting practices to show that he made a slight profit for the first time in 2013 which prompted Tesla stock to go from around $35 to over $100 in 3 months and even worse he has continued to be found using shady accounting practices several times since. I love my new Chevy Bolt EV. So far, after 3 weeks, no problems, not even a squeak.
Musk is a snake oil salesman and a flim flam man who is now having serious issues even getting his cars to market. He has yet to make a dime of profit to boot!
I thought Tesla had autopilot. I remember it already being responsible for killing its driver. Or was that a beta program?
It wasn’t the autopilot that caused the driver to die. It was the drivers lack of attention and awareness, that resulted in the vehicle colliding with an oncoming horizontal tractor trailer making a left turn. He smashed into the undercarriage of the trailer, and took the roof of the car off. In no way, was autopilot to fully blame. The tractor was white, which blended in with background of the horizon, but that should have alerted the driver that maybe he should have put his hands on the wheel.
Dear Zach, That is true but Tesla miss-named the feature “Auto-pilot” in the first place that gave a false sense of security which many driving organizations concluded. However, Tesla should have designed it so once the car warned the driver 2 times to put his hands on the wheel it should have rattled the seat and sounded a very load alert signal and if it no response or happened a 3rd time it should have automatically stopped the car. The Los Angeles Times reports that the safety regulator said that the car alerted the driver 7 times before the crash. That shows that Tesla does not know human frailties and did not take into account an irresponsible driver. Cadillac is doing Super Cruise right. here is what Super Cruise does after the 3rd alert,
“THIRD ALERT
If the steering wheel light bar flashes red for too long, a voice command will tell you to take control of the vehicle.
Take control of the steering immediately; Adaptive Cruise Control and Super Cruise will disengage.
A Driver Information Center (DIC) message will indicate that Super Cruise is locked out. Super Cruise cannot be re-engaged until the next ignition cycle.
Continued failure to take over steering will cause the vehicle to slow in your lane of travel and eventually brake to a stop and an OnStar® advisor will be called. The brake lights and hazard warning flashers will come on.”
NOW THAT IS THE WAY TO DO “AUTO-PILOT”, FIRST DON’T CALL IT “AUTO-PILOT”, CALL IT “SUPER CRUISE” INSTEAD AND SHUT IT DOWN IF THE DRIVER DOES NOT FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS. GOOD WORK CADILLAC!!!
I still don’t understand the vitriol that’s directed at Musk.
Is his business model viable? Likely not. But a couple of things to consider:
Has he prodded GM to up their game?
I think so … Ford & FCA haven’t responded as quickly.
If his cars aren’t viable, we’ll find out soon enough. But certain technologies: batteries, for instance, seem to hold promise. And they’re made in the US, so he creates jobs.
He doesn’t give up easily, like Apple and Google seem to have.
Sure, he’s a mad scientist. But I suspect some good, shareable technologies will come out of this.
Meanwhile, ‘new’ GM’s stock is at a new high, as of yesterday.
I’m not a Musk-o-phile – but he seems a lot more productive and a lot less annoying than, say, Sergio.
“I’m not a Musk-o-phile – but he seems a lot more productive and a lot less annoying than, say, Sergio.”
^This.
Musk may have bold transportation ideas that may never be fully realized (passenger rocket, underground car tunnels, hyperloop, EV semi), but I think it’s better for a car company to have a vision and lofty ideas for something new to keep the public interested. As unrealistic as some of the ideas are, it hasn’t harmed Tesla by association.
Alternatively, listening to Marchionne complain about how his Chrysler 200 design that was ripped off a Hyundai Sonata isn’t getting as much press as the Hyundai is getting doesn’t really inspire confidence. Nor does hearing his public pleas to save his broken auto company made from the merger of 2 other broken auto companies needs to merge with a third company just so an injection of working capital so your engineers can update a 15 year old platform that was leftover from Mercedes.
I’m not a cheerleader for “Team Tesla”, but I think Musk is more competent and more knowledgeable of the auto industry than Sergio.
Musk prodded nothing as all automakers were going this direction anyways. With the coming global laws there was no choice.
GM can afford this as they have the money and staff. Forsd was slow due to low stock prices and a past CEO that would not commit. He was removed now they are back on the EV path.
FCA has little going as the need a dance partner and none have been found,
Musk I just have little tollorance for as he is more about bombastic misdirection when times are bad and major PT Barnum when it is going well. He is not the tech guru many think. He was just one of several people who funded Pay Pal. Not invented Pay Pal. He made his money and went on an investing spree on tech companies that rely on goverment funding or contracts. His company’s are all due to others work and on his and goverment money.
He really is like the Wizard of OZ.
At some point the car company will leverage it and sell off to a mfg with money and Musk will invest in a new future.
But what if Musk’s Tesla company fails and goes bankrupt, think about how that might damage the electric car industry for years to come.
That is a problem but if they can hold on longer till other trusted name gain a foot hold the impact would be less.
You absolutely cannot have a SAFE fully autonomous car without Lidar. While radar and cameras are great. And no doubt you need those too. There’s no way to get the full 360 degree environment view in all light and weather instances without Lidar. So tesla may have self driving technologies built in. But they will at some point wind up killing somebody cutting corners.
They already have killed with their poorly named “autopilot”. Yes, I know the driver disobeyed the 7 warnings he got, but Tesla should have slowed the car down to a stop after the 3rd warning and locked out “autopilot” like the new Cadillac Super Cruise does.
Cutting corners of cars only the 1% can afford, sounds strange. Only rich people can buy his cars and a rich person could hire a middle class person to drive him to work. So in a way the 1% already have cars that drive themselves.
They took our jobs”, was the only quote to display the level of ignorance throught this entire page. Maybe rely more on the passion and less on the caffeine bud.
When have they meaning (tesla) turned a profit? Not once to my knowledge! I think that is what maskes you a leader in your industry! You don’t have to make the biggest profit but it’s a necessary factor!
The lack of profit from the X was to have seeded the 3. So the pre sold the 3 to get it to where it was completed to move to production.
Well ow the are at the start of production 3 plus years late and are struggling to get the 3 built. Musk calls it bottle necks but it is a true lack of funding. They were down below 3 billion in reserves.
They constantly had a positive with Musk constantly being a good charismatic spokesman but they also have had the worse with his constant over promising and under delivering.
I have not seen someone like this since a Jim Baker from the PTL club. Elon has turned this into a science religion. Many don’t want to hear the truth but it is what it is.
The one positive is he did put the EV in a positive light. It we need to make sure the rest of the EV product Get here before Tesla has problems.
If GM delivered like tesla has the bad press and neg public image would be non stop!
I just wish things would be fair
I think Tesla workers both hate and love to work for Tesla. They love it because EVs and self-driving cars are the wave of the future but they hate the ultra pressure I read Musk puts on his workers to perform. I can’t imagine the extreme pressure he will put them under when they get down to the minute details involved in programing self-driving cars and programming the AI to really learn correctly. Most of the work will come down to the remaining 5% of unusual situations that the AI may not be able to solve in order to be fully autonomous. That will really frustrate Musk. Also, as more competition comes along for EVs in general, they will eat into the enormous sales Musk is counting on to make a profit, Eventually people’s and bank’s patience will run out and Tesla may go bankrupt. I ran out of patience waiting on a budget version of the SUV Model X which I needed because it sits higher than a sedan, so I could get in and out with my disability. So when I heard that the Bolt sat almost as high as an SUV and would get 18 more miles per charge than the Model 3, I decided that the Bolt was the car for me and I just bought one last month. Sorry Musk, you failed me. I really love my Bolt. The Bolt has surpassed every expectation I had for it except one. The only exception is the bottom of the front seats could use a little more cushion.