Tesla CEO Elon Musk Says Driverless Cars Would Be Taken For Granted, Human Drivers Could Be Banned
SAN JOSE (CBS SF) – With tech giants and auto companies working on self-driving cars, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk said at a conference Tuesday that self-driving vehicles would eventually become the norm and that driving by humans could be outlawed decades from now.
According to CNET, Musk made the comments at the Nvidia GPU Technology Conference in San Jose.
While Musk predicted the transition towards driverless cars would take at least two decades, he said the public would take the cars for granted "in a short period of time."
Musk also discussed the biggest challenge currently facing driverless vehicles. He said a computer can easily control a car at low speeds between 5-10 mph and on highways, but said urban environments are much tougher.
Even with those challenges, Musk said they could be overcome in a few years.
Google has been testing driverless vehicles on Bay Area roads for years and hopes the public will use them within the next 2-5 years. Other major Silicon Valley companies such as Apple and Uber have also been rumored to be working on self-driving cars.
Automakers are also working on a future of driverless cars. Earlier this month, a self-driving concept car from Mercedes-Benz was spotted on San Francisco streets.