Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s driverless cars will be here before you know it.
Musk said earlier this year that his self-driving cars would be ready by 2018 and in a recent interview with Fortune, Musk confirmed that he is still looking at a two-year timeline.
However, just because the technology will be ready, doesn’t mean people can let the car take complete control.
He said regulators will likely lag a year or so behind the technology, so there will still be some stipulations as to how hands-free the experience will actually be. And Musk told Fortune that just because he expects his cars to reach "level 4 Autonomy" by 2018, doesn’t mean they will be ready to be driven in full autonomous mode.
“When I say level 4, I mean level 4 autonomy with the probability of an accident is less than that of person,” Musk told Fortune.
Rather, Musk said that Tesla’s cars and others will technically be capable of full autonomy, but will operate in “shadow mode,” allowing for the car to collect heaps of data that could show what would have happened if the car had been in total control. It’s not until this data is collected that regulators will really begin to trust the technology, he said.
Most recently, the California Department of Motor Vehicle revealed preliminary rules for the public use of self-driving cars.
While the strict rules disappointed Google, who is also developing fully autonomous cars, they pleased Musk.
"The data is not yet there to support a fully autonomous vehicles," Musk told Fortune. “The point at which it becomes statistically clear that an autonomous car is safer, I think, regulators will be comfortable with allowing it."
