Elon Musk says we will have self driving cars as early as next year

Elon Musk says we will have self driving cars as early as next yearElon Musk says we will have self driving cars as early as next yearAn interview conducted with a 24-year-old Elon Musk back in 1999, cautioned us against being too quick to brand his ambitious projections as quixotic.Before the turn of the millennium, Musk championed the internet as the new viable landscape for exchanging goods by way of injecting a large portion of his net worth into a fledging company-then called X.com, now known ubiquitously as PayPal. To many of those in the know at the time, the internet was but a provisional fad.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreThe prolific entrepreneur has rustled media feathers once again with another bold claim to add to the list that perpetually folds industry experts into two camps the optimistically curious and the practical detractors.Musk claims that as early as next year Tesla drivers will be able to sleep behind the wheel of their cars.I think we will be feature complete, full self-driving, this year - meaning the car will be able to find you in a parking lot, pick you up, and take you all the way to your destination without an intervention - this year.I would say I am of certain of that. That is not a question mark, he said in the interview.The naysayersSoup to nuts, statistics and spectators seem to have join forces against Musks lofty prediction.John Alexander, policy director for FCAI, for one, rejects the realization of fully automated vehicles on the horizon, even while conceding the incredible speed at which the science behind them is hurling forward.Even with this rapid development, mass-market introduction of very high or full levels of driving automation systems is unlikely until at least 2030, Alexander said.AutoNation CEO, Mike Jackson went as far as to call Elon Musks confidence on the subject unethical. Karl Brauer, who was pe rhaps a touch more charitable, repudiated Musks portend with a sober consideration of the very real challenges currently menacing the prospect of fully self-driving carsThere are so many different ways that a car has to be able to deal with driving weather, lighting, traffic, pedestrians, bicyclists. To say youll have all conditions solved in the next 12 to 18 months, nobody else is making that claim and there are some pretty big companies out there like Google who are doing this and have been doing this for a decade.Is a self-driving car that far off though?All the critics certainly have legs to stand on, but in defense of the famed Musk hyperbole, a fully functional self-driving car is not exactly science fiction anymore.Wes Messamore recently indexed all the ways the future Tesla heralds is very achievable in the near future. He correctly evidences Congress haste to instate regulations to accommodate driverless vehicles.Even Teslas fiercest contractors agree that automated vehicl es reside in the not so distant future. Many projecting the next decade at the earliest.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people