Elon Musk defends embattled autopilot feature in part two of Tesla 'master plan'

           

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, who is facing intense scrutiny over a fatal crash involving one of his self-driving cars, has released an ambitious new “master plan” and has doubled down on his defense of the safety of the autopilot feature.

Musk’s master plan “part deux”, published on Wednesday, outlines how he intends to reinvent mass transit systems, integrate “stunning solar roofs” into his cars and build self-driving buses and trucks.

Tesla driver dies in first fatal crash while using autopilot mode

The report comes 10 years after the tech billionaire published the first Tesla Motors Master Plan, which unveiled the cars that became the Tesla 3 sports sedan and Model S four-door family car.

The release of a second part of a master plan comes amid a federal investigation into a May crash that killed a 40-year-old man. It appears that the driver, Joshua Brown, was using autopilot, a new self-driving mode that is still in a testing phase. Tesla claimed the technology could not distinguish between a white truck and a bright sky.

After two subsequent crashes involving the autopilot system, Tesla, which has faced questions from the US Senate, said it had no plans to disable the feature.

In his new plan, Musk said he would build a “smoothly integrated and beautiful solar-roof-with-battery product that just works, empowering the individual as their own utility, and then scale that throughout the world”. That means: “One ordering experience, one installation, one service contact, one phone app,” he wrote.

He said he also plans to merge his electric car company with his energy firm SolarCity.

Musk said the Model 3 for consumers will eventually include a compact SUV option and a new kind of pickup truck.

The CEO further intends to expand the technology beyond consumer vehicles to heavy-duty trucks and “high passenger-density urban transport”, according to the master plan. Those are both in early stages of development and should be ready for unveiling next year, Musk wrote.

“We believe the Tesla Semi will deliver a substantial reduction in the cost of cargo transport, while increasing safety and making it really fun to operate,” he added.

His technology will also allow for buses to become smaller and for bus drivers to become “fleet managers”, Musk said, adding that this system would improve traffic congestion and would allow buses to take people directly to their destinations.

Eventually, all Tesla vehicles will be “fully self-driving”, which means that even if a system in the car breaks down, the car would still be able to drive itself, according to the plan.

Musk has faced growing criticisms for introducing a “beta” version of autopilot to the road and for seemingly overstating the capabilities of his technology, despite its current limitations.

He appeared to address those concerns in the master plan, saying that Tesla decided to deploy partial autonomy now, rather than waiting, because “when used correctly, it is already significantly safer than a person driving by themselves and it would therefore be morally reprehensible to delay release simply for fear of bad press or some mercantile calculation of legal liability”.

Since the crash, Musk has repeatedly pointed out that Brown’s death was “the first known fatality in just over 130 million miles” of the autopilot feature, and he has also slammed press coverage, noting that 1.3m people die in car accidents each year.

Musk’s defensive Twitter rants, which some have called insensitive in the wake of a tragic death, offered a “case study” in how not to handle crises, according to some experts.

Addressing concerns about the safety of letting consumers use a “beta” version of autopilot, Musk further wrote: “This is not beta software in any normal sense of the word. Every release goes through extensive internal validation before it reaches any customers. It is called beta in order to decrease complacency and indicate that it will continue to improve.”

Musk has been teasing the release of the new master plan on Twitter in recent days, writing on Tuesday that he planned to “pull an all-nighter” to finish it.

The document also advertised expanded “sharing” capabilities, meaning drivers at work or on vacation could add their cars to a “shared fleet” for others to use, which would generate income, “significantly offsetting and at times potentially exceeding the monthly loan or lease cost”.

He wrote, “When true self-driving is approved by regulators, it will mean that you will be able to summon your Tesla from pretty much anywhere. Once it picks you up, you will be able to sleep, read or do anything else enroute to your destination.”

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