Photo: Volvo
Whenever you're in pole position, it's only natural that everybody will go after you. We have no idea whether Tesla actually occupies that position in the race to autonomous vehicles, but it sure likes to leave that impression.
What's very clear and nobody can deny is that it has the largest fleet of semi-autonomous vehicles out there, and collecting all that data doesn't cost the company one dime. Tesla owners are using the Autopilot function voluntarily, and all the data collected gets sent to Tesla analyze and use for improving the system.
Recently, Tesla announced that it would gladly share this data with the Department of Transportation in a bid to hasten the introduction of laws that would facilitate a widespread use of self-driving vehicles. Tesla even pondered making the data available to other manufacturers, but we'll believe that when we see it - even though Elon Musk's company did do something similar with its electric powertrain about one year ago.
Other companies, however, have taken a different, more cautious route towards fully-autonomous cars (level 4 and above), and they are very secretive about their progress. Among these carmakers and tech firms are some seriously big names such as Mercedes-Benz, Google or Uber. Of course, Volvo, the safety company, couldn't have missed the train, especially since it was one of the first to implement an automatic emergency braking system years ago.
Two weeks ago, a high-profile ex-Google employee called Tesla decision to launch the Autopilot so soon irresponsible: "It's irresponsible to ship driving system that works 1,000 times and lulls false sense of safety, then... BAM!" Unsurprisingly, he's not alone in this evaluation, the latest rant coming from Volvo's Research and Development chief, Dr. Peter Martens, who was talking to The Drive.
After testing the Autopilot, this is what he had to say (in a clear exaggeration of the experience): “Every time I drive (Autopilot), I’m convinced it’s trying to kill me.” Well, it must really hate Volvo R&D chiefs, then, because in all those hundreds of millions of miles it has driven so far, it didn't manage to kill anybody else. There have been a few incidents, but no more than the human drivers' record over the same distance, that's for sure.
Volvo says it won't do half-measures and will wait to release a fully autonomous car whenever the laws allow it. Until then, it will continue to offer driver assistance systems on its products, but it won't market them as semi-autonomous features. Besides, Volvo has taken a pledge to take responsibility for any damage caused or sustained by its vehicles while these systems are in use, something Tesla doesn't even dream of.
Recently, Tesla announced that it would gladly share this data with the Department of Transportation in a bid to hasten the introduction of laws that would facilitate a widespread use of self-driving vehicles. Tesla even pondered making the data available to other manufacturers, but we'll believe that when we see it - even though Elon Musk's company did do something similar with its electric powertrain about one year ago.
Other companies, however, have taken a different, more cautious route towards fully-autonomous cars (level 4 and above), and they are very secretive about their progress. Among these carmakers and tech firms are some seriously big names such as Mercedes-Benz, Google or Uber. Of course, Volvo, the safety company, couldn't have missed the train, especially since it was one of the first to implement an automatic emergency braking system years ago.
Two weeks ago, a high-profile ex-Google employee called Tesla decision to launch the Autopilot so soon irresponsible: "It's irresponsible to ship driving system that works 1,000 times and lulls false sense of safety, then... BAM!" Unsurprisingly, he's not alone in this evaluation, the latest rant coming from Volvo's Research and Development chief, Dr. Peter Martens, who was talking to The Drive.
After testing the Autopilot, this is what he had to say (in a clear exaggeration of the experience): “Every time I drive (Autopilot), I’m convinced it’s trying to kill me.” Well, it must really hate Volvo R&D chiefs, then, because in all those hundreds of millions of miles it has driven so far, it didn't manage to kill anybody else. There have been a few incidents, but no more than the human drivers' record over the same distance, that's for sure.
Volvo says it won't do half-measures and will wait to release a fully autonomous car whenever the laws allow it. Until then, it will continue to offer driver assistance systems on its products, but it won't market them as semi-autonomous features. Besides, Volvo has taken a pledge to take responsibility for any damage caused or sustained by its vehicles while these systems are in use, something Tesla doesn't even dream of.
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