Elon Musk on Tesla Self-Driving: ‘I can almost go from my house to work with no intervention’

Elon Musk said that he is testing Tesla’s latest alpha build of its self-driving system and claims that he can “almost” go from his house to work without intervention.

Last year, Musk announced Tesla’s plan to deploy 1 million “Robotaxi” vehicles for a self-driving ride-sharing network by the end of 2020.

The goal is to improve on Tesla’s current system through software updates, leading to what he has been referring to as “feature complete” full self-driving.

With the end of the year coming fast and Tesla’s CEO missing several previous deadlines when it comes to Autopilot and self-driving, Tesla owners are skeptical about the automaker delivering on time.

However, the CEO is showing some great confidence with the deadline being just months away.

In a conference call following the release of Tesla’s Q2 2020 financial results, Musk said that he is testing an alpha build of Tesla’s latest full self-driving system and the performance is making him confident that Tesla is still on track:

So I personally tested the latest alpha build of full self-driving software when I drive my car and it is really I think profoundly better than people realize. It’s like amazing. So it’s almost getting to the point where I can go from my house to work with no interventions, despite going through construction and widely varying situations. So this is why I am very confident about full self-driving functionality being complete by the end of this year, is because I’m literally driving it.

As we previously reported, Tesla is going through “a significant foundational rewrite in the Tesla Autopilot.” As part of the rewrite, Musk says that the “neural net is absorbing more and more of the problem.”

It will also include a more in-depth labeling system.

This Autopilot rewrite is behind the new capacity that Musk is talking about.

Recently, the CEO said that the Autopilot update is two to four months away, and it will help Tesla deploy more functionalities a lot faster.

While Musk is confident in Tesla releasing the “feature complete” version of self-driving, he does clarify that the system will still require driver monitoring, and it will take some time to convince regulators to allow Tesla owners to operate it as a full self-driving system.