Using the words “unsupervised wannabe”, Volvo’s Trent Victor says the Tesla Autopilot is “giving the impression it’s doing more than it is”. In an interview with The Verge, Victor said Tesla’s self-driving tech is merely appearing to be autonomous because, with the Tesla system, the driver has to be fully alert all the time, ready to regain control. Tesla says its system is Level 2 autonomous, although some experts regard it as Level 3, which means it takes over safety-critical functions from the driver. Volvo says it pays more attention to actual crash avoidance and that its Drive Me system is Level 4 autonomous, meaning that in the event of a hazardous situation the vehicle will handle the appropriate procedures and bring itself to a halt in a safe fashion, Autoblog writes. Tesla has never said that its Autopilot is anything other than a beta version under trial usage. It costs $2,500 when you purchase your Model 2 or X, or $3,000 as an add-on once you’ve taken delivery.
