Elon Musk Says Teslas Will Be Self-Driving Teslas By The End Of The Year, Again

Elon Musk, billionaire and chief executive officer of Tesla, at the Viva Tech fair in Paris, France, on Friday, June 16, 2023. Musk predicted his Neuralink Corp. would carry out its first brain implant later this year.
Photo: Nathan Laine/Bloomberg (Getty Images)

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed the automaker could have a fully self-driving car on the road by the end of the year on Thursday.

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Musk made the familiar statement during a video call at an artificial intelligence conference in Shanghai, maybe so his lawyers could continue to claim that self-driving car promises made by Musk are actually deep fakes. From ChannelNewsAsia:

“In terms of where Tesla is at this stage, I think we are very close to achieving full self-driving without human supervision,” Musk said via video link at the opening ceremony of an artificial intelligence conference in Shanghai.

“This is only speculation, but I think we’ll achieve full self-driving, maybe what you would call four or five, I think later this year,” the billionaire added, referring to two of the most advanced levels of autonomous driving technology.

Seems like a really good thing to speculate about. I think the Securities & Exchange Commission has some feelings about that. While Musk says Tesla will achieve self-driving without human supervision in the next six months, the company is actually looking to hire human test drivers for its Full Self Driving Beta program. It’s a three-month gig, which gives Tesla three months past testing to make any changes or updates before the end of the year. Considering FSD Beta was recalled just this past February and the software is under investigation from everyone from the Department of Justice, to NHTSA to the California DMV, I’m not sure how feasible that timeline is.

The company has already announced Full Self Driving’s release, despite it not being tested. Musk continues to toss around these aspirational statements on the self-driving capabilities of Tesla even as the public has watched very serious investigations open up while the technology stalls (note widely publicized failures from Cruise and Waymo in San Francisco.) Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz is bringing a level 3 certified vehicle, at least in Nevada.

I’ll make the same deal we made during the great Voltswagen drama of 2021: If Tesla has a true level 5 self-driving vehicle by December 31, 2023, I will get a Tesla tattoo of some kind. Editor-in-Chief Rory Carroll is in on this pact as well. Maybe Musk really means it this time, but after ten years of promises, I kinda doubt it.