Tesla
TSLA
recently announced that it will launch limited models of full self-driving (FSD) vehicles on Oct 20. The fleet of fully-autonomous vehicles to be rolled out next week will be first available for a small number of careful and expert drivers for testing.
The announcement fulfils the promise made by Tesla CEO Elon Musk to launch vehicles with self-driving capabilities by the end of this year, making the long-awaited release well within schedule for a change.
The company wants the FSD technology to be fully functional before it rolls out its fleet of robotaxis. Tesla stated that the self-driving taxis will hit the road next year in some markets.
There is no update on how long the closed beta will be operational before it is ready for the masses.
Tesla’s Autonomous Technology
Autopilot Hardware 3.0 is the latest upgrade to Tesla’s FSD hardware which happened early last year, and it has all the components necessary for FSD features.
Within this upgrade, Tesla began equipping its new vehicles with a new, custom-built computer designed for partially-autonomous and fully-autonomous driving. The new FSD computer is approximately 20 times more powerful than the previous computer supplied by Nvidia Corporation
NVDA
. The new hardware has enabled Tesla to demonstrate further progress toward full autonomy.
Since early this year, the electric vehicle (EV) maker has been working on a fundamental new version of its Autopilot designed to run on Tesla’s latest FSD Computer in order to enhance it. The private beta for the FSD version of the Autopilot, scheduled to be released next week, features a full rewrite of the codebase, such that it would better recognize and label items the vehicle views on the road.
Moreover, Tesla is among the few companies using a range of sensors and camera-first approach for its robotaxi plans, integrating the vehicles with an eight-camera array, which gives a good 360-degree view of the vehicle.
Recently, Musk confirmed that a new “vector-space bird’s eye view” is being integrated in Tesla vehicles within the FSD capability package.
Bird’s eye view is a vision monitoring system that provides a view of the vehicle from the top to enable parking and navigating confined spaces. This technology has become a renowned feature in premium luxury vehicles.
Driverless Race Heats Up
The future of driving is autonomous. Higher levels of autonomy have the potential to reduce risky and dangerous driver behaviors. The rapid development in the self-driving vehicle space can be attributed to breakthroughs in technology, with the integration of robust AI and ML capabilities in advanced driver-assistance systems. Moreover, the improving neural networking capabilities and advancements in digital mapping and obstacle recognition functionalities will likely lead to safer navigation, reduction in accidents, as well as commuter comfort. Per Allied Market Research, the autonomous driving space is expected to witness a CAGR of 39.5% between 2019 and 2026, and reach $556.67 billion by 2026.
Auto giants like Google parent Alphabet’s
GOOGL
Waymo subsidiary and General Motors’
GM
Cruise are other renowned names in the autonomous vehicle (AV) space giving tough competition to Tesla.
Musk has openly criticized its rival Waymo’s driverless technology. Per Musk, Waymo’s technology is impressive, but a highly specialized solution. He claims Waymo’s technology is fragile due to its dependence on high resolution maps for navigation. Meanwhile, Tesla has a radically different approach to autonomous technology and offers a general solution, with the latest model being capable of zero intervention drives and having the ability of driving around locations never done before. Apart from this, the zero intervention update allows the car to navigate itself on Autopilot from point A to point B without any driver interaction, though the driver would need to stay cautious at all times.
Tesla currently carries a Zacks Rank of 3 (Hold). You can see
the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Notably, shares of the company have skyrocketed 428.6%, year to date, compared with its
industry
’s rally of 140.7%.
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