Tesla to begin enabling fully autonomous driving in "3 months maybe, 6 months definitely"

Credit: Motor Trend/EV Annex

Tesla announced on 19 October last year, that they had begun fitting all vehicles produced with the hardware for fully autonomous driving. At the same time, they announced that full autonomy would not be enabled initially, in the interests of gathering statistics about human performance, for subsequent comparison with fully autonomous vehicles.¹

Something similar appears to have been used to gather the stats demonstrating the 40% improvement in the crash rate after Autosteer was enabled in Tesla vehicles.²

In an exchange of tweets, Elon Musk has provided a little more detail on the timetable.

@tsrandall 3 months maybe, 6 months definitely

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 24, 2017

This promises to make good on his prediction, in October last year, “Our goal is, & I feel pretty good about this goal, that we’ll be able to do a demonstration drive of full autonomy all the way from LA to New York, from home in LA to let’s say dropping you off in Time Square in New York, & then having the car go park itself – by the end of next year.”³

Electrek – “Tesla to transition from ‘Enhanced Autopilot’ to ‘Fully Self-Driving’ as soon as ‘3 to 6 months’, says Elon Musk”
https://electrek.co/2017/01/24/tesla-enhanced-autopilot-to-fully-self-driving-says-elon-musk/

Forbes – “Musk Wants To Begin Shifting Teslas To ‘Full’ Self-Driving Capability Within 6 Months”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2017/01/24/elon-musk-targets-full-self-driving-capability-for-teslas-within-6-months/#1e70154779ee
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¹ Hitchhikers’ Guide 2 Tech: “As of 19 October 2016, all Teslas produced will have the hardware necessary for fully autonomous driving (video)”, https://hhg2tech.blogspot.com/2016/10/as-of-19-october-2016-all-teslas.html

² Hitchhikers’ Guide 2 Tech: “NHTSA report on fatal Tesla crash makes a strong case for Autopilot safety – update”, https://hhg2tech.blogspot.com/2017/01/nhtsa-report-on-fatal-tesla-crash-makes.html

³ Tech Crunch: “Musk targeting coast-to-coast test drive of fully self-driving Tesla by late 2017”, https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/19/musk-targeting-coast-to-coast-test-drive-of-fully-self-driving-tesla-by-late-2017/ / Last year Tesla updated radar camera ultrasonic sensors electric cars CEO Elon Musk new hardware's capabilities would lag behind cars on the street already Musk has projected Hardware 2.0 cars surpass older generation Hardware 1.0 vehicles fully self-driving 3 to 6 months news owners Hardware 2.0 cars rollout Autopilot features over-the-air updates over the air updates bringing those models closer functionality older-hardware cars full self-driving capability features enhanced autopilot features Elon Musk arrival Autopilot newer cars behind schedule series tweets Musk slow rollout Autopilot features camera calibration software update buyers Tesla cars built after October 2016 newly updated hardware start surpassing old hardware soon Musk's plan two-tiered Autopilot system Hardware 1 cars capable of running Autopilot Hardware 2 cars feature Enhanced Autopilot Hardware 2 cars offer a fully self-driving system Autopilot Hardware 2-equipped cars fully self-driving option installed half of their sensors enabled possibility running Autopilot two different sets of cars Musk goal driverless Enhanced Autopilot fully self-driving trip Los Angeles New York small delay Autopilot rollout /