Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced this week that he's done with large-scale political funding and wants to focus more on managing his automotive company. And he promised to stick to that for at least the next five years.
Musk also said he expects hundreds of thousands of self-driving Tesla models to be on the roads by the end of 2026. “We'll probably have hundreds of thousands, if not over a million self-driving Teslas in the U.S.,” he told CNBC.
He added that passengers won't need to pay attention to the road. “It's like you fall asleep and wake up at your destination.”
Naturally, the entrepreneur’s well-publicized ties to the White House could, just possibly, have some kind of loosening effect on regulations regarding self-driving vehicles between now and then.
Musk also provided more details on a trial of the company's autonomous taxi service, set to take place in Austin, Texas, starting next month. The vehicles will initially be remotely monitored and geolocated within certain areas of the city deemed safest to navigate. Musk told CNBC that he expects success in Austin, followed by a rapid deployment of a Tesla taxi fleet in other markets, notably in Los Angeles, San Antonio and San Francisco, among other major cities.
Many will be watching to see how these Tesla’s taxis integrate with existing Waymo vehicles, which are already operating in San Francisco and Los Angeles in California, in Austin, Texas and in Phoenix, Arizona. Waymo is set to deploy soon in Miami, Florida as well.