√Elon Musk says Tesla autonomous driving will happen ‘this year’

The rhetoric has been dialled down, but Tesla CEO Elon Musk has again claimed its so-called autonomous car technology will be available on certain models by the end of this year – but it’s not the first time the promise has been made.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he believes the company’s so-called ‘autonomous’ driving technology will be available to the public by the end of this year – repeating similar claims made over the past four years.

In September 2022 Mr Musk told a conference Tesla would roll out ‘self-driving’ cars in Europe and North America before the end of 2022, a pledge he had made in previous years.

During a quarterly earnings call this week – in which the electric-car company confirmed profits were down 24 per cent compared with the same time last year, despite manufacturing a record number of cars over the same period – Mr Musk reaffirmed his position that autonomous Tesla technology would be available in 2023.

“The trend is very clearly towards full self-driving, full autonomy. I hesitate to say this, but I think we’ll do it this year,” Mr Musk said during the call.

This marks the fourth year in a row the outspoken Tesla boss has told investors to expect self-driving cars.

In mid 2020, Mr Musk said Tesla was “very close to ‘Level Five’ autonomy,” predicting the technology would launch that year.

In late 2020, he said he was “extremely confident” full autonomy would launch in 2021.

In December 2022, Tesla attempted to defend itself from a class action lawsuit in the US by arguing its claims of autonomous driving technology was a result of failure to meet self-imposed goals, rather than fraud.

MORE: Tesla hit-and-run driver to stand trial for crash blamed on ‘Autopilot’

By February 2023, Tesla had declared its so-called ‘Full Self Driving’ semi-autonomous technology – which is available in some markets – as a ‘Level Two’ driving system.

The automotive industry grades driver-assistance technology on a scale from one to five – with Level One covering simple features such as radar cruise control, while Level Five requires no human intervention at any point.

In December 2021, prominent US newspaper The New York Times reported Tesla had faked a promotional video spruiking the benefits of its ‘Full Self Driving’ technology after conducting interviews with 19 current and former employees.

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