Elon Musk says Tesla's next car will run near totally in autonomous mode

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, stated on Tuesday that the company's upcoming compact car would run primarily in autonomous mode, keeping with a pledge he made in 2020.

He said that it was possible to produce a car for half the price of Tesla's Model 3 sedan, but he provided no information regarding the timeframe or specific models.

Elon Musk commented on Tesla's upcoming vehicle, claiming that it will run "nearly totally in autonomous mode," yet the firm has not fulfilled this promise for all vehicles produced since 2016.

Many people were upset that Tesla didn't go into depth about the vehicle types that will be built on this new platform, even though Tesla last week revealed its plan to construct a new vehicle platform that will be more efficient to manufacture.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, mentioned in passing during a brief speech at a Morgan Stanley conference that the vehicles that will be constructed on Tesla's next-generation platform will function "nearly totally in autonomous mode."

He gave the impression that humans would only seldom need to operate the car's controls.

That's consistent with what he previously claimed about Tesla intending to produce a brand-new electric vehicle designed specifically for "robotaxi" service.

But, some individuals are concerned about Tesla's plans to develop a new vehicle that will be virtually totally operated in autonomous mode.

According to Musk, Tesla will make all of its vehicles produced since 2016 "fully self-driving" through software updates. The CEO even mentioned "level 5 SEA self-driving" in his remarks. In the belief that the firm would someday fulfill that promise, several Tesla buyers paid between $5,000 and $15,000.

Nevertheless, according to the automaker's own admission, Tesla has only provided "Full Self-Driving Beta" (FSD Beta), which is still a level 2 driver assistance system.

For most program participants, the FSD Beta program has similarly been static for months with little to no meaningful improvements.

Although Tesla continues to move toward producing purpose-built autonomous vehicles like the "robotaxi" and introducing a new Autopilot Self-Driving hardware suite on new vehicles for which it won't provide retrofits, some owners are beginning to have their doubts about the company's ability to keep that promise.

Musk said at the 2020 event that he was "confident" Tesla would develop a small, attractive electric car with full autonomy in around three years and that it would cost $25,000.