More from Tesla’s Cybercab robotaxi rollout: the biggest news and announcements
That’s what Aurora CEO (and ex-Google self-driving car project lead) Chris Urmson had to say about Elon Musk’s technological approach to autonomous vehicles. Musk is gearing up to reveal Tesla’s first robotaxi at an event in Hollywood Thursday. But Urmson’s been working on this problem for his entire career, having led Carnegie Mellon’s team during the original DARPA challenges. Listen to this interview to get a more thoughtful idea of the challenges of autonomous driving.
The Tesla CEO has long promised — and failed to deliver — a fully autonomous vehicle. With this week’s robotaxi reveal, his time is up.
Bloomberg reports that the soon-to-be-unveiled purpose-built driverless vehicle will have “two front seats and two doors that open upward like butterfly wings,” citing sources familiar. That would square with the concept art we saw in Walter Isaacson’s Elon Musk biography. Tesla could also announce an autonomous van, and Full Self-Driving capabilities for its Semi trucks.
I’m not sure if this counts as Hollywood magic yet, but this is how Tesla’s promoting its robotaxi unveiling event. Elon Musk had announced an August date for the event, but then it was pushed back until October 10th.
The invitations say that remarks will begin at 7PM PT, if you’d like to clear some time in your schedule.
