The best timeline he mentioned was based on a coast-to-coast demo drive from California to New York without the driver touching the wheel.During his TED talk yesterday, Musk reiterated that this demo drive is still planned for 2017:“November or December of this year, we should be able to go from a parking lot in California to a parking lot in New York, no controls touched at any point during the entire journey.”But Musk also said that while the driver wouldn’t have to touch the controls, he doesn’t think that it would be at a level where someone could just fall asleep at the wheel. When asked when he thinks that will be, he said about 2 years away.It would mean that between the end of the year and around 2019, Tesla could have a level 4 autonomous system enabled in second generation cars – meaning the vehicles can drive themselves without a driver as backup, but not in all conditions or environment.
If Elon wants to sell cars to suckers and take money from dumb investors, fine. Not my problem. But when he starts dangling this Jetson stuff as an alternative to an sensible transportation planning, I get a bit annoyed.