DETROIT (AP) \u2014 Electric car maker Tesla Motors is leapfrogging competitors with a new autopilot system that lets cars change lanes by themselves.<\/p>\n
Like other semi-autonomous systems already available from Mercedes, Audi and Volvo, Tesla\u2019s system automatically keeps the car within its lane and maintains a certain distance from the car in front, both at highway speeds and on city streets. It can find a parking spot and parallel park itself. It also uses cameras and sensors to warn drivers about potential side impacts.<\/p>\n
But analysts say the lane-changing feature is an industry first. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the system is also unique because it will constantly collect data from actual drivers and improve itself. The system will note, for example, how quickly drivers can safely navigate a particular bend in the road or where stop signs are located.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this is going to be quite a profound experience for people,\u201d Musk said Wednesday in a conference call with media. \u201cIt will change people\u2019s perception of the future quite drastically.\u201d<\/p>\n
Musk also added a word of caution: Drivers need to keep their hands on the wheel, and the autopilot system will chime to remind them if they don\u2019t. Drivers \u2014 not Tesla \u2014 will be held liable if there\u2019s a crash, Musk said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re being especially cautious at this early stage, so we\u2019re advising drivers to keep their hands on the wheel just in case,\u201d he said. \u201cThe software is very new.\u201d<\/p>\n
Musk said fully autonomous, hands-free driving is still at least three years away from a technical standpoint, although it will probably take regulators longer than that to allow it.<\/p>\n
The autopilot update will be added to around 60,000 vehicles worldwide, including Model S sedans made after September 2014 and Model X SUVs. Owners will get the system through a software update starting Wednesday evening in North America. Owners in Europe and Asia will get the software update in about a week. People with Model S sedans that were made earlier don\u2019t have the required sensors and won\u2019t be able to add them retroactively, Musk said.<\/p>\n
Only owners who paid the $2,500 charge for the full autopilot system will be able to activate all of the autopilot features, but Musk said the side-impact warning is a safety feature and will be available to everyone. For the next update, Musk said, Tesla is working on having the car drive itself in and out of garages when it\u2019s summoned by the owner.<\/p>\n
Karl Brauer, a senior analyst with Kelley Blue Book, said Tesla\u2019s system appears to up the ante for the industry. General Motors\u2019 Super Cruise system, for example, which is due out on the 2017 Cadillac CT6, will let drivers take their hands off the wheel at any speed on the highway, but it won\u2019t change lanes by itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the game we\u2019re going to be playing, round and round, for the next five to ten years until there\u2019s fully autonomous driving,\u201d Brauer said. \u201cEach time there\u2019s a step by someone out there, everyone will have to match it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brauer said there\u2019s a danger to that, because people may not know what the car they\u2019re driving is capable of.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving that kind of nebulous, blurry gray zone could introduce many more problems,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But Musk is optimistic about the benefits of autopilot.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the long term, it will be safer than a person driving,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DETROIT (AP) \u2014 Electric car maker Tesla Motors is leapfrogging competitors with a new autopilot system that lets cars change lanes by themselves. Like other semi-autonomous systems already available from Mercedes, Audi and Volvo, Tesla\u2019s system automatically keeps the car within its lane and maintains a certain distance from the car in front, both at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-20581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20581\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20581"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=20581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}