Tesla announced earlier this week that its cars can now be ordered with new hardware for full self-driving; in other words, no human control whatsoever.
The company did concede that the software to go with the new hardware is still not ready, indicating that it is more likely in its development stage.
In fact, CEO Elon Musk suggested that by late 2017 a Tesla should be able to travel from Los Angeles to New York “without the need for a single touch” on the steering wheel.
The company has updated its website to provide some insight on what it will be like to own a self-driving Tesla. It plans to offer the feature as a subscription service with a monthly fee, following Uber’s lead.
The company has stated that initially the technology will be twice as safe as any human driver, meaning it will have to be monitored by Tesla. But the company does state that as their servers learn more, drivers will be able to use the on-board GPS to pick their destination and then head off into the sunset (or clouds if you live in the UK).
Tesla also hopes to allow people who own one of their cars to lease out their vehicle as one person taxi agency, the service is going to be called Tesla Network, according to Motor Authority.
Similar services seem to be coming online at breakneck speed, including Uber’s plans to allow future self-driving cars to be hired out. General Motors and PSA Group are also thinking about different models on how to drive future growth in an autonomous environment.
It remains to be seen how quick such services will come on stream, as no country across the world has developed laws and regulations to allow such operations.
Some estimates put full adoption of autonomous cars to be in the early 2020s in developed markets, others predict companies like Uber may push to get their product to market as quickly as possible.
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