This morning Australia time (20 March 2015) the CEO of Tesla, Mr Elon Musk, announced the new 6.2 software update. That is expected to air in 10 days' time. But he also mentioned the new features that are expected in around 3 months' time. That will be a major update, ver 7.0 and apparently the whole of the interface will change. It will introduce a lot of the autonomous driving features. Surely, that is much more exciting!
Now true it is, many of us may say 'meh' and figure that they have no real intention of letting the car drive them around. After all they bought the car for them to drive. But that is missing the point. What is the point I hear you ask?
The point is, that it is a dream come true for cars to be able to do this. It was unthinkable in our parents' day. It is still almost unthinkable today. It is a science-fiction breakthrough. Any kid who ever dared to dream would want a fully autonomous car. It's the stuff of which Terminators are made (and without the meaningless violence). And every Tesla driver is a kid at heart - you would have to be to want to have one. I really do commend Mr Musk as a true visionary pushing this line for Tesla to take. It is almost as if the profits are secondary. The fulfilment of the dream being the primary consideration. Us geeks (come on, we all are deep down, admit it) will want it and provide the market push behind it.
So what can we expect in 7.0? Well they said that the driverless features have been tested from San Francisco to Seattle. That is a distance of around 1300km. Considering Sydney to Brisbane is a mere 950km, that is quite a claim. Musk says that very little driver involvement was needed. And that is all we want to hear. He said, quite understandably, that it is still unsafe in suburbia. Obviously, in slow city driving, pedestrians are more prone to jump out in front of the car. At slow speeds, all sorts of unpredictable things occur and programming a computer to deal with that is understandably problematical at best. That bit will require more time. But at fast highway speeds - there are obviously less unpredictables. The lanes are bigger. The cars are relatively slower around each other (all moving at around the same relative speed). The stuff of which programming is made!
But there is something I find even more exciting. The idea that you can summon the car to come to you from your smart phone or ipad. I would love to be able to run an app in the morning and call the car out of the garage, and to come and greet me at the front door. If that comes out in ver 7.0 then I'll be a monkey's uncle. But if I read the CEO correctly, that is what is on the cards. And then to be able to tell the car to go put itself to bed - well then that too is exciting. (No wonder they need to invent the snake to plug itself in... bit silly to have to follow it into the garage to plug it in yourself afterwards. I always thought the car should drive onto a magnetic plate that charged the car by induction like an electric toothbrush charges - but I aint no engineer).
For my part - I can't wait.
Now true it is, many of us may say 'meh' and figure that they have no real intention of letting the car drive them around. After all they bought the car for them to drive. But that is missing the point. What is the point I hear you ask?
The point is, that it is a dream come true for cars to be able to do this. It was unthinkable in our parents' day. It is still almost unthinkable today. It is a science-fiction breakthrough. Any kid who ever dared to dream would want a fully autonomous car. It's the stuff of which Terminators are made (and without the meaningless violence). And every Tesla driver is a kid at heart - you would have to be to want to have one. I really do commend Mr Musk as a true visionary pushing this line for Tesla to take. It is almost as if the profits are secondary. The fulfilment of the dream being the primary consideration. Us geeks (come on, we all are deep down, admit it) will want it and provide the market push behind it.
So what can we expect in 7.0? Well they said that the driverless features have been tested from San Francisco to Seattle. That is a distance of around 1300km. Considering Sydney to Brisbane is a mere 950km, that is quite a claim. Musk says that very little driver involvement was needed. And that is all we want to hear. He said, quite understandably, that it is still unsafe in suburbia. Obviously, in slow city driving, pedestrians are more prone to jump out in front of the car. At slow speeds, all sorts of unpredictable things occur and programming a computer to deal with that is understandably problematical at best. That bit will require more time. But at fast highway speeds - there are obviously less unpredictables. The lanes are bigger. The cars are relatively slower around each other (all moving at around the same relative speed). The stuff of which programming is made!
But there is something I find even more exciting. The idea that you can summon the car to come to you from your smart phone or ipad. I would love to be able to run an app in the morning and call the car out of the garage, and to come and greet me at the front door. If that comes out in ver 7.0 then I'll be a monkey's uncle. But if I read the CEO correctly, that is what is on the cards. And then to be able to tell the car to go put itself to bed - well then that too is exciting. (No wonder they need to invent the snake to plug itself in... bit silly to have to follow it into the garage to plug it in yourself afterwards. I always thought the car should drive onto a magnetic plate that charged the car by induction like an electric toothbrush charges - but I aint no engineer).
For my part - I can't wait.
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