Tesla CEO Elon Musk is set to reveal details regarding the company’s Full Self Driving tech at its hotly anticipated Autonomy Investor Day seminar today. The Silicon Valley company’s plan to detail its driverless tech comes amidst growing questions about global demand for its electric vehicles, the ongoing health of its stock and the stability of the company’s leadership. It promises to be a hugely important day in the history of the high-profile automaker.
If you’re not a key investor and/or can’t make it to the company’s Palo Alto headquarters for Investor Day, fear not: Tesla has set up an official livestream for the webcast of the proceedings, and you can tune in. All you have to do is click on the YouTube livestream embed below to watch. The event starts at 11 am Pacific, 2pm Eastern:
If you prefer, you can also set your browser to the automaker’s official livestream web page here, which allows you to set a convenient reminder to start watching.
Back on April 3, Tesla first announced plans to host Autonomy Investor Day would take place on Friday, April 19, but it subsequently moved the date to today, Monday, April 22, “based on investor feedback.”
According to the company’s initial press announcement, “Tesla is making significant progress in the development of its autonomous driving software and hardware, including our FSD computer, which is currently in production and which will enable full-self driving via future over-the-air software updates.” On April 15, Musk tweeted, “Buying a car in 2019 that can’t upgrade to full self-driving is like buying a horse instead of a car in 1919.”
Tesla says it plans to take attending investors on test drives to experience its latest iteration of Autopilot, including demonstrating features that and functions that are still the subject of ongoing development.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk will be on hand during Autonomy Investor Day to explain Full Self Driving tech.
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Tesla — and Elon Musk in particular — have been under fire for promising full autonomous drive technology at a time when other automakers and suppliers seem to be backing away from ambitious timetables, lengthening their production horizons to account for growing technological challenges.
For its part, Tesla’s self-titled Full Self Driving hardware does not seem to include core technologies that virtually every other company racing towards driverless cars feels is necessary for safe, reliable operation.
Tesla’s FSD suite of tech is expected to rely on a network of cameras, as well as forward-facing radar and ultrasonic sensors to keep tabs on a vehicle’s immediate surroundings. Every other major player in this growing space, including automakers like Audi and tech companies like Mobileye and Waymo also employ lidar sensors (laser radar), as well as hyper-detailed three-dimensional mapping and even redundant componentry in the event of system failures. Tesla has not shown such technologies, but it is planning to unveil a major step forward in the form of a new AI chipset developed in-house to power its FSD tech.
Tesla’s Navigate On Autopilot hardware that’s currently available on its vehicles is already capable of fully automatic lane changes and finding its way onto and off of freeway interchanges.
While the event is set to center on self-driving tech, we wouldn’t be surprised if Elon Musk or other Tesla officials let slip some details regarding future product like the Model Y, Semi or Roadster, too. Updates for plans on an autonomous ride-hailing network could also figure into the proceedings.
Whether you’re a Tesla bull, bear, believer or cynic, Autonomy Investor Day promises to be a must-watch event.