Just a year after the company began testing its self-driving vehicle software through customer beta tests, Tesla
At least that's what CEO Elon Musk is telling us; but as we know all too well, Musk has a habit of getting ahead of himself. The cycle of announcements and delayed launch dates began back in 2018, with the continual backpedaling angering some customers to the point of litigation.
The (hopefully) forthcoming software will allow Tesla owners a degree of "autopiloting" in cities and on highways, but falls short of what experts would actually qualify as "fully self driving" due to the requirement for the driver to supervise the vehicle.
The constant delays of the software have, however, resulted in the release coming on the heels of an ongoing government probe into the various crashes caused by self-driving Tesla vehicles, including several deaths. Unlike other firms, which tend to test their self-driving hardware and software in closed course or closely monitored street tests, Tesla is keen to allow customers to participate in the beta process. While this drums up excitement and customer engagement, it also puts unproven software into the hands of consumers, a practice which has thus far brought a fair amount of criticism to the firm.
To make matters more interesting as the potential release date approaches, the code for Tesla's self-driving software has been leaked online. While the mention of "code released online" might summon headlines of data theft and phishing attacks to mind, the code has actually wound up in the hands of enthusiasts, who have taken to pulling the guts of the code apart to survey Tesla's handiwork. A demonstration of the program in use
As demonstrated in the video, while Tesla hasn't released its software outside the United States, its software is still capable of a respectable job, especially for being considered in an open beta state. Unlike other firms, Tesla intends to build its self-driving technology on vision based navigation, rather than the road-map based software that competitors have been developing. While admirable, the lack of any sort of backup system (with features such as lidar being the subject of ridicule by Musk) may likely be a contributing factor in the many crashes under investigation.
