January 24, 2021 in Johnna Crider
We’ve seen this before. Tesla does something new. The competition claims that it will never happen. Model 3 will never come. Model Y is vaporware. Gigafactory 3 is a mud field. The newest FUD comes from Waymo CEO John Krafcik, who said that Tesla’s “fully autonomous” system is not the right approach for a fully autonomous vehicle.
Waymo CEO casts a shadow over Tesla, Elon
“It is a mistake that you can simply develop a driver assistance system until one day you can magically jump to a fully autonomous steering system,” said Krafcik during an interview with Manager Magazin.
Krafcik also noted that Tesla is not a competitor in the field of autonomous vehicles. Although he seemed to praise Tesla by noting that he is “developing a really good driver assistance system”, it does look like a good sarcastic southern compliment that is said sweetly about iced tea and accompanied by a fake smile. Especially since Bloomberg noted that Krafcik also said that Tesla’s fully autonomous driving “would not match its turnover”.
“For us, Tesla is not a competitor,” he said. “We manufacture a completely autonomous steering system. Tesla is an automaker that is developing a really good driver assistance system. “
Waymo, which is owned by Google, in my opinion, should not make the mistake that old car makers have made and doubt Tesla’s ability to keep its promises and fulfill its goals.
Level 5 autonomy is reaching Teslas, whether Waymo likes it or not
In July, Elon Musk was at the Virtual AI Conference 2020 and shared how close he thinks Tesla is to reaching level 5 autonomy. “I am extremely confident that Level 5 or essentially complete autonomy will happen, and I think it will happen very quickly. I think at Tesla, I feel that we are very close to the 5th level of autonomy. I think – I am still confident that we will have the basic functionality for level 5 autonomy completed this year, ”he said. You can read more technical details here.
George Hotz, the founder of Comm.ai, which focuses on machine learning-based vehicle automation, shared his ideas in August 2019 about Tesla and Level 5 during an interview with Lex Fridman. “Oh! Tesla will gain level 5. They really are, ”Hotz said excitedly.
Hotz also spoke about Tesla’s focus on maintaining full range and autonomy. “Much better approach. Because Tesla is collecting data on a scale that none of them are. They are putting real users behind the wheel of cars. It is, I think, the only strategy that works, ”replied Hotz.
The decade of 2010 was the decade of the EV race. Tesla was starting and many laughed and ridiculed, until 2019. In the decade of 2020, it is now the decade of the autonomous vehicle, and I think we can see more or less the same thing – companies are saying with confidence that Tesla will fail in autonomy .
We’ll see.
Note that Elon Musk has now responded to this article:
To my surprise, Tesla has better AI hardware and software than Waymo (money)
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 25, 2021
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About the author
Johnna Crider is a Baton Rouge artist, a gem and mineral collector, a member of the International Gem Society and a Tesla shareholder who believes in Elon Musk and Tesla. Elon Musk advised her in 2018 to “Believe in Good”. Tesla is one of the many good things to believe. You can find Johnna on Twitter anytime, day or night.