According to an exclusive report published by Bloomberg, a small group of Tesla employees have been handed over a the latest version of the self driving car that the electric car making company is depending on to turn its fortunes, for test driving. .
The report has been based on an internal email of the company which was sent by company CEO Elon Musk where he said that the testing program has about 100 spots available and volunteering employees would be inducted in the program on a “first come, first served basis.”
Acco9rding to Bloomberg, those employees who volunteer to take part in the program have to share “300 to 400 hours of driving feedback with the company’s Autopilot team by the end of next year”, Musk said. The incentive for the employees is that they would be completely subsidised for payment of the apparently fully self-driving version of Autopilot or for a premium interior in case the employees purchase a new car. The features would typically cost $13,000 combined.
Employees are given priority by Tesla for new cars such as for the Model 3, but no discount is offered. As a company policy, Tesla allows no negotiations on its price at the showrooms except for those models that had been used for test drives.
In October 2016, Musk had pledged that since then, the hardware that would be installed in all of the Tesla cars would be such that it would suit the requirement for a completely self-driving vehicle pending development the software. And the company has been striving to put together a bespoke solution ever since it parted ways with MobilEye – the firm that was engaged in the development of the original Autopilot. Musk has however not been able to provide a definitive time line for the completion and commercial launch of full self-driving capabilities. And questions about the current hardware of Tesla with respect to handling the requirement of autonomous deriving have been raised by experts.
For example, this June Musk had tweeted that the company would ship an update in August which would “begin to enable full self-driving features”. But that promised update has still not been widely released.
At the same time,. A number of the top employees of Tesla working on the team developing the Autopilot system have left the company. Last summer, the head of Autopilot at the company and former Apple software guru Chris Lattner left his job after about just six months on the position. And the person who replaced him also quit this April.
Additionally, Tesla had said that a coast-to-coast autonomous drive in the United States would be conducted in 2017 to exhibit the complete capability of the self-driving abilities of Autopilot. But there has been no word from the company on that test drive even as the company is in the process of enhancing the safety features of the latest version of Autopilot.
(Source:www.theverge.com)
The report has been based on an internal email of the company which was sent by company CEO Elon Musk where he said that the testing program has about 100 spots available and volunteering employees would be inducted in the program on a “first come, first served basis.”
Acco9rding to Bloomberg, those employees who volunteer to take part in the program have to share “300 to 400 hours of driving feedback with the company’s Autopilot team by the end of next year”, Musk said. The incentive for the employees is that they would be completely subsidised for payment of the apparently fully self-driving version of Autopilot or for a premium interior in case the employees purchase a new car. The features would typically cost $13,000 combined.
Employees are given priority by Tesla for new cars such as for the Model 3, but no discount is offered. As a company policy, Tesla allows no negotiations on its price at the showrooms except for those models that had been used for test drives.
In October 2016, Musk had pledged that since then, the hardware that would be installed in all of the Tesla cars would be such that it would suit the requirement for a completely self-driving vehicle pending development the software. And the company has been striving to put together a bespoke solution ever since it parted ways with MobilEye – the firm that was engaged in the development of the original Autopilot. Musk has however not been able to provide a definitive time line for the completion and commercial launch of full self-driving capabilities. And questions about the current hardware of Tesla with respect to handling the requirement of autonomous deriving have been raised by experts.
For example, this June Musk had tweeted that the company would ship an update in August which would “begin to enable full self-driving features”. But that promised update has still not been widely released.
At the same time,. A number of the top employees of Tesla working on the team developing the Autopilot system have left the company. Last summer, the head of Autopilot at the company and former Apple software guru Chris Lattner left his job after about just six months on the position. And the person who replaced him also quit this April.
Additionally, Tesla had said that a coast-to-coast autonomous drive in the United States would be conducted in 2017 to exhibit the complete capability of the self-driving abilities of Autopilot. But there has been no word from the company on that test drive even as the company is in the process of enhancing the safety features of the latest version of Autopilot.
(Source:www.theverge.com)
