That's the money quote.
I still think the Model 3 will be fully autonomous without a traditional steering wheel. It will probably have some ability to take over very rarely.
That's a really silly idea, starting with how self-driving systems that can even theoretically handle the worst of New England winters don't actually exist yet.
Let alone the seemingly indefinite construction zones that have become commonplace across America - often with the lane markers missing or going off in directions that do not exist anymore (old lanes now blocked, etc...).
I had not heard about that but that sounds interesting and I would love to learn more. Any sources you can point me at?
What sort of "source" do you expect would exist for this? It's just the day-to-day job of DOT.
Laying down some RF reflective paint/markers on the road wouldn't be nearly as expensive as other proposals (like embedding electronics or special wire underneath the road surface), it would be similar in expense to pavement markers[0] that are applied to some roads today, plus with a HUD it could even help human drivers in snow environments. Lots of places make special modifications to the road specifically for snow, and especially for snowplows.
[0]: http://www.highway-markers.com/pavement-reflectors/PM290.htm...
If you can get your car to self drive here, I assure you, your car will run anywhere on earth.
That seems highly unlikely; most regulators thus far have been (unsurprisingly) unwilling to let autonomous cars on the road without some form of manual control. Given how early we are in the technological development cycle for autonomous cars, this seems prudent and logical.
Tesla is pushing hard to get the Model 3 out the door on time. They may not succeed, but they're going to do everything they can to try. Requiring the Model 3 to incorporate full autonomy from day one would be an enormous and unnecessary risk to their ship date.
They're pushing reservation conversions because the more cashflow they can have now the better terms they'll be able to get financing as they move down their roadmap.
A bug was just discovered (a glaring blindspot, literally) in existing Model S. The workaround was to disable that feature until a solution is found. That workaround involves a steering wheel. If another bug is found that is similar to this one than those cars without a wheel will sit in driveways until the both the NTSB and NHTSA are satisfied. These investigations can take years and Tesla owners will not be happy about it.
There was a period for a few months where part of that algorithm seemed to include a timer, such that the car would always lose confidence after 3-5 minutes hands-free. But that was long before the current media fluff, and they changed it back to be more dynamic.
I think the Model 3 will not be fully autonomous, and it will have a traditional steering wheel.
In the same conference call[1] Musk mentions that the Model 3 factory, aka Alien Dreadnought v1.0 (their internal name for "the machine that builds the machine") will be fully automated, running more like a high speed bottling plant or an automated pick-and-place machine than a traditional car factory.
Their stated rationale is that as soon as humans are involved with the actual assembly, it has to slow down to human speeds. There will still be plenty of people working in the factory, they'll just be maintaining on the machines, doing continuous improvement, dealing with anomalies, etc.
then comes the next phase, the car knows the speed limit, so who is liable for the speeding ticket? After all we are here for safety so why would we accept "self driving" cars breaking driving laws? Also, motortrend demonstrated that all such current implementations tail gate, some with barely more than a second of difference.
I would be happy if the 3 comes in quantity before 2020 but I doubt even that. I would never bet on it not having a steering wheel or more advanced driving capabilities than the S