Seeing a Tesla is about to get a lot more wild, as the company is preparing to install its self-driving software in the Model S fleet. The autopilot feature will only work on highways… as the technology may not yet be legal in the US.
Tesla will roll out an auto-steering software update for the
Model S in the next three or four months, and owners won’t even
have to go into a Tesla store for the upgrade, founder Elon Musk
said at a Thursday press conference.
READ MORE: ‘Personal roller coaster’: Tesla
Motors unveils electric Model S that drives itself
Drivers will only be able to engage the autonomous system while
on highways, despite having the technical ability to do a lot
more.
“It is technically capable of going from parking lot to
parking lot,” Musk said. “But we won’t be enabling that
for users with this hardware suite, because we don’t think it’s
likely to be safe in suburban neighborhoods,” he continued,
noting that such streets often lack posted speed limit signs and
pose obstacles like children playing in the street.
“There’s certainly an expectation that when autopilot on the
Model S is enabled, that you’re paying attention. But it should
also take care of you if you have moments of distraction,”
the Tesla founder added.
The company has been testing the software mainly between San
Francisco and Seattle.
“We’re pretty excited about the progress we’re making
there,” Musk said. “We’re now almost able to travel all
the way from San Francisco to Seattle without the driver touching
any controls at all.”
Engadget pointed out that the electric car’s new technology is
not a huge leap from current automobile abilities.
“We’ve already seen plenty of car companies offer things like
assisted parallel parking ‒ an evolved form of cruise control
seems like the next logical step,” the tech site wrote.
But the update may be ahead of the law when it comes to
self-driving cars, experts warn. Only four states (California,
Florida, Michigan and Nevada) allow for
driverless cars.
Washington, DC announced new rules at the beginning of April 2014
that would make it the first jurisdiction to license self-driving
car operators (rather than just testers). And the federal
government has authorized only a handful of test locations for
“connected cars,” where vehicles use technology to
communicate with other similarly equipped vehicles that alert
drivers to potentially dangerous situations.
READ MORE: Google’s self-drive cars to hit streets in
2015
“There’s a reason other automakers haven’t gone there,”
Karl Brauer, an analyst with Kelley Blue Book, told the New York
Times. “Best case scenario, it’s unclear. If you’re an
individual that starts doing it, you’d better hope nothing goes
wrong.”
“It’s not just a philosophical reason why automakers haven’t
allowed their vehicles to drive themselves,” he added.
“There’s a legal reason, too.”
A spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration told the Times in January that “any autonomous
vehicle would need to meet applicable federal motor vehicle
safety standards,” and that the agency “will have the
appropriate policies and regulations in place to ensure the
safety of these types of vehicles.”
Alexis Georgeson, a spokesman for Tesla, told the Times that
there was “nothing in our autopilot system that is in
conflict with current regulations.”
Georgeson said the system was designed to be used by an alert
driver. “We’re not getting rid of the pilot. This is about
releasing the driver from tedious tasks so they can focus and
provide better input,” she said.
The driverless car technology also raises the question of
liability in an accident, which may need to be decided by the
courts, rather than by legislation.
“If it’s fully autonomous, who’s responsible if there’s a
mistake? The driver or the company who made it?” Carl
Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, told the
Times. “I don’t see how Tesla’s going to clear the hurdles.
They may have to go to each state legislative body and convince
them, and that takes time.”
Before the autopilot technology arrives, Tesla is pushing a
software update in the next two weeks ‒ Version 6.2 ‒ that is
designed to reduce “range anxiety,” or fear of running
out of juice while on the road.
The upcoming update, called Range Assurance, will connect the
Model S with the network of Tesla Superchargers and destination
chargers, discarding those that are in heavy use or are inactive.
The technology will also warn drivers before they drive out of
range, the company said in a blog post.
Version 7.0 ‒ with the autopilot mode ‒ will have a complete
overhaul of its user interface, the Tesla founder told reporters.
“It’ll kind of need one,” Musk noted, “because of
the way the car will interact with you in the future.”
People will be able to summon an unmanned Model S to their
location, an ability that the billionaire said will be restricted
to private property until the law catches up with the technology.