Apple co-founder and technologist Steve Wozniak, aka The Woz, is warning against exaggerated optimism regarding the imminent arrival on the market of completely driverless cars. It’s not going to happen anytime soon, he says.
Wozniak has always been outspoken about his love of cars and support of certain brands. Even in this new interview with CNBC’s The Halftime Report, he says his Chevrolet Bolt remains his ideal in-city car, while he wouldn’t trade his Tesla for out of city rides for any other vehicle.
He says that “Tesla owns the world” thanks to its charging infrastructure, but he takes a step back when it comes to believing claims from former CEO Elon Musk regarding the imminent arrival of the auto-driving car. It simply can’t happen – not right now, nor soon enough.
As he puts it, the roads are made by humans and humans are imperfect, so no AI can replicate that. He does, however, fully support the idea of assisted driving and is quite upset by suggestions from carmakers such as Tesla that their Autopilot mode is anything more than that.
“I do not believe in auto-driving cars. I don't really believe it's quite possible yet,” Wozniak says, adding that people who believe that they’re “going to get a car that drives itself” are naive. At best, we get “assistive driving,” with features that “spot red lights, and stop signs and avoid some of the accidents today.”
As far as Tesla is concerned, The Woz is still not mincing words when it comes to their Autopilot.
“Tesla has no autopilot. They call it beta, wait I’m sorry, what kind of company puts out a feature and calls it beta? That doesn’t count,” he says. “Tesla makes so many mistakes,” he adds, stopping short of explaining what exactly he’s referring to. “It really convinces me that auto piloting and auto steering car driving itself is not going to happen.”
A fragment of the interview is also available below.
He says that “Tesla owns the world” thanks to its charging infrastructure, but he takes a step back when it comes to believing claims from former CEO Elon Musk regarding the imminent arrival of the auto-driving car. It simply can’t happen – not right now, nor soon enough.
As he puts it, the roads are made by humans and humans are imperfect, so no AI can replicate that. He does, however, fully support the idea of assisted driving and is quite upset by suggestions from carmakers such as Tesla that their Autopilot mode is anything more than that.
“I do not believe in auto-driving cars. I don't really believe it's quite possible yet,” Wozniak says, adding that people who believe that they’re “going to get a car that drives itself” are naive. At best, we get “assistive driving,” with features that “spot red lights, and stop signs and avoid some of the accidents today.”
As far as Tesla is concerned, The Woz is still not mincing words when it comes to their Autopilot.
“Tesla has no autopilot. They call it beta, wait I’m sorry, what kind of company puts out a feature and calls it beta? That doesn’t count,” he says. “Tesla makes so many mistakes,” he adds, stopping short of explaining what exactly he’s referring to. “It really convinces me that auto piloting and auto steering car driving itself is not going to happen.”
A fragment of the interview is also available below.