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American carmaker Tesla may still launch a fully self-driving technology this year. This was stated by Elon Musk, Tesla's top executive, following the presentation of the automaker's quarterly figures. The situation in which self-driving technology currently finds itself is also reflected in the company's quarterly figures, according to Tesla.

The current situation of self-driving technology, including after a number of crashes, has raised legal and regulatory questions among quite a few parties. Tesla, too, has been repeatedly targeted in the process. However, the company always defended itself against those accusations by arguing that its technology does not give the car self-driving capabilities and always requires driver supervision.

Two steps forward, one step backward: Elon Musk noted his caution, acknowledging that the test version of the Full Self-Driving (FSD) software package that Tesla has developed will be a tale of two steps forward and one step backward, but he said there is clearly a trend leading toward fully self-driving cars and complete autonomy.

  • Elon Musk has announced several times, but so far those promises could not be fulfilled.
    • Sam Abuelsamid, an analyst at the agency Guidehouse Insights, pointed out that Tesla has made a number of changes to the hardware of its younger-generation cars, so that a number of functions of the Full Self-Driving software package temporarily cannot be activated.
  • Late last year, Tesla decided to remove ultrasonic sensors from the Model 3 and Model Y types. The company added that a number of features would be temporarily unavailable.
    • These included Smart Summon, a technology that lets the car automatically drive to a selected location.
    • Autopark, an application that allows a Tesla car to automatically park itself in a regulatory parking space in the public domain, was also temporarily removed from the offering.
  • Tesla is offering the Full Self Driving software package as an option on the market at a cost of $15,000.
    • "Tesla has with its Full Self-Driving platform," Musk clarified in that regard.
    • At the time when self-driving technology is introduced into traffic, he said Tesla's cars will have a clear added value for the driver.

Reflected in quarterly figures: Zachary Kirkhorn, Tesla's chief financial officer, noted that the deferred revenue from the self-driving technology, in addition to the implemented price cuts, helped pressure the during the first quarter.

  • "These deferred revenues will therefore have to be factored in when the software does become more fully deployable," Kirkhorn stressed.
  • Tesla posted revenue of $23.3 billion (21.3 billion euros) year.
    • That represented a 36 percent increase over the same period last year. However, net profit fell by 24 percent to $2.5 billion in the process.
    • In doing so, Elon Musk emphasized once again that the company deliberately prefers selling higher volumes of cars to higher profit margins.
    • Tesla sold 422,875 cars during the first three months of this year. That represented a 36 percent increase from the same period last year.

(fjc)

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