Tesla CEO Elon Musk was again busy today answering some questions on Twitter, specifically related to the company’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) releases and subscriptions for the latter.
On Wednesday afternoon, Musk said “Tesla AI/Autopilot engineering is awesome! Making excellent progress solving real-world AI.”
Tesla AI/Autopilot engineering is awesome! Making excellent progress solving real-world AI.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2021
What asked about an update on the release of the FSD beta download button, Musk replied, “Major improvements are being made to the vision stack every week. Beta button hopefully next month,” meaning May.
“This is a “march of 9’s” trying to get probability of no injury above 99.999999% of miles for city driving. Production Autopilot is already above that for highway driving,” added Musk.
The Tesla CEO shortly added, “Button timing of May is aspirational. Depends on how well limited beta of V9.0 goes, but I would be surprised if wide beta (aka button) is later than June. FSD subscription next month is a sure thing.”
Button timing of May is aspirational. Depends on how well limited beta of V9.0 goes, but I would be surprised if wide beta (aka button) is later than June. FSD subscription next month is a sure thing.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2021
When pressed about concerns about Tesla Autopilot restrictions in the European Union, Musk said they would be “hopefully addressed this summer.”
As for when Tesla AI day will be held? Musk said “probably late July”.
Probably late July
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2021
Later on Wednesday evening, a follower reminded Musk he said he was “extremely confident” of releasing “full autonomy” in 2021.
Musk replied, “While perhaps obvious in hindsight, it turns out that the only way to solve self-driving is to solve a big part of real-world AI. That is what Tesla is doing, both in hardware & software.”
“Unless a company is good at AI with tight compute, it’s hopeless. This is insanely hard,” reiterated Musk.
While perhaps obvious in hindsight, it turns out that the only way to solve self-driving is to solve a big part of real-world AI. That is what Tesla is doing, both in hardware & software.
Unless a company is good at AI with tight compute, it’s hopeless. This is insanely hard.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 15, 2021
It’s tough to hear dates and timelines for the release of Full Self-Driving from Musk, only to see them get delayed again, and again. But as Musk said, what Tesla is trying to achieve with Full Self-Driving is indeed “insanely hard”, because if it wasn’t, there would be self-driving cars everywhere on the roads today.
