Tesla Says All Vehicles in Production Capable of Self-Driving

by Dana Hull
October 19, 2016 — 8:05 PM EDT

Tesla Motors Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said all vehicles currently being produced at its factory, including the upcoming Model 3, will have full self-driving capability.
Every vehicle built “will have the hardware needed for full self-driving capability at a safety level substantially greater than that of a human driver,” the company said in a statement Wednesday. The vehicles have eight cameras and 12 sensors giving full 360-degree visibility, the company said.

“To make sense of all of this data, a new onboard computer with more than 40 times the computing power of the previous generation runs the new Tesla-developed neural net for vision, sonar and radar processing software,” Tesla’s statement said. “Together, this system provides a view of the world that a driver alone cannot access, seeing in every direction simultaneously and on wavelengths that go far beyond the human senses.”

For Musk, bringing the Model 3 -- more affordable than the Model S sedan or Model X sport utility vehicle -- to market fulfills the company’s longstanding vision of accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable transportation. Customers earlier this year stood in long lines at Tesla stores around the world to place $1,000 reservations, giving Musk an "iPhone momement" that is unprecedented in the auto industry.

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