Did Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA) Just Win the Autonomous Car Race?

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Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) was supposed to hold a product unveiling on Monday. Then, CEO Elon Tusk tweeted that it would be delayed to Oct.19, because whatever was being announced “needs a few more days of refinement.”

Tesla is now self-driving

Source: Tesla

Well, the new deadline is here. What was the big announcement?

All Tesla vehicles in production — including the soon to be released Model 3 — will be equipped with the hardware for full self-driving capability. That’s not Autopilot, it’s full autonomy. It rolled out the news with video of a Model X making the rounds on its own.

Tesla is a company that’s become known for a number of things. Some good, others not so much.

There’s plenty of hype, much of it delivered personally by CEO Elon Musk. Whether that’s good or bad depends on your perspective, but the lead-up to Wednesday’s announcement followed the usual hype pattern. Musk took to Twitter, teasing it was a product unveiling that would be “unexpected by most.”

Having an issue with chronically pushing dates is pretty firmly on the not so good side of TSLA’s reputation. It’s become so common that not many people were surprised when the big announcement for Monday got pushed to Wednesday.

So, was the hype and the wait worth it?

Tesla Self-Driving Cars: The Fine Print

Musk was right about the announcement catching many people off guard. It’s no secret that Tesla is working toward fully autonomous cars, but its Autopilot feature (seen as a prelude to the full thing) has suffered several high profile accidents lately. Just days ago the company got into a spat with Germany over even calling it “Autopilot.” So the timing of the self-driving announcement caught many off guard.

But what, exactly is TSLA offering? Are Tesla cars now driving themselves?

Well, not quite.

TSLA going forward, all cars being produced at its factory will be equipped with a wide range of sensors and other hardware:

“Eight surround cameras provide 360 degree visibility around the car at up to 250 meters of range. Twelve updated ultrasonic sensors complement this vision, allowing for detection of both hard and soft objects at nearly twice the distance of the prior system. A forward-facing radar with enhanced processing provides additional data about the world on a redundant wavelength, capable of seeing through heavy rain, fog, dust and even the car ahead.”

A powerful new computer powered by a processor from Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) has 40 times the processing power of previous Tesla onboard computers.

Tesla says the hardware supports fully self-driving operation — level 5 autonomy — with safety greater than a human driver. It’s being included on Model X and Model S vehicles and will be in the Model 3 when it ramps up production.

The fine print has to do with availability and cost.

Cost first. The hardware will be on every new Tesla, but it will cost $8,000 to have the self-driving feature activated.

Availability is little fuzzier. TSLA says it will first be “calibrating” the system with “millions of miles of real world driving.” During this period, Tesla vehicles with the new hardware will temporarily lack features currently available in Autopilot such as active cruise control. The company will slowly activate features over the air until the point of full autonomy is reached. Elon Musk predicts that by the end of 2017, these self-driving Tesla vehicles could be making the drive from Los Angeles to New York.

What about current Tesla owners? While they will see some new features rolled out, their older hardware will prevent moving to self-driving. Perhaps a new Model 3 might be in these early adopters’ futures?

This isn’t the last big Tesla announcement for October. Stay tuned for Oct. 28, for the joint Tesla/SolarCity event where a new solar roof with integrated PowerWall battery and Telsa charger is expected to be unveiled.

As of this writing, Brad Moon did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

Brad Moon has been writing for InvestorPlace.com since 2012. He also writes about stocks for Kiplinger and has been a senior contributor focusing on consumer technology for Forbes since 2015.

 


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2016/10/tesla-motors-inc-tsla-autonomous-car-iplace/.

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