Tesla Motors recently made a groundbreaking announcement: From this point forward every car from the automaker will have the hardware necessary for self-driving capabilities, TechCrunch reports. That includes cameras and sensors that will allow vehicles to navigate themselves with zero driver assistance.
For now, the autonomous driving software meant to go along with it still isn’t ready for consumers. But after more tests are completed, the company plans to demonstrate the new technology with a cross-country road trip at the end of 2017.
For a peek at what that might look like, Tesla released a four-minute video of one of their vehicles navigating a city commute on its own.
After sharing the clip on Twitter, CEO Elon Musk announced a few special features that could help Tesla stand out from other companies looking to break into the autonomous vehicle market. According to Musk, the car is able to “read” signs so it knows where not to park. He also described a feature that would allow car owners to summon their vehicles from their smartphones, even from the other side of the country. That may sound like science fiction to today’s motorists, but experts predict that an autonomously-driven reality is just a few years away.
[h/t TechCrunch]
All images: Tesla/Vimeo.
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October 20, 2016 – 3:00pm