Tesla’s Self-Driving Car Is A Serious Technological Breakthrough
The latest innovation in the auto industry will take your breath away, which is good because you'll be able to use your hands to cover your mouth when your jaw hits the floor.
Tesla has unveiled its Model S Level 2 autonomous system, aka Autopilot. That's fancy speak for a car that can drive itself.
It's pretty impressive. Autopilot can sense where the driver in front of you is, when a red light is coming and even has the ability to change lanes on its own.
All the while, Autopilot is hard at work:
In the dash in front of you, the car actually gives you a display of what its onboard computer is seeing. You see displays of ultrasonic sensors firing off to the left and right of you, you see a generic illustration of the car in front of you halfway out of its own lane, and the car essentially reassures you – 'it’s alright, I’ve got it, I see the chaotic trash soup surrounding us, and you’re not going to hit anything.'"
The system can also hunt down a parking spot and parallel park by itself, too, potentially making this a game-changer. However, it is far from perfect.
"We're being especially cautious at this early stage, so we're advising drivers to keep their hands on the wheel just in case," Tesla CEO Elon Musk said. "The software is very new."
Autopilot is expected to be added to some 60,000 vehicles (although only to people who cough up $2,500 for it), inching us one step closer to the future being here today.