Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently announced via Twitter (as he often does) that “Teslas will soon talk to people if you want. This is real.”. He also included the video below to prove that this is actually indeed a real thing.
It’s not clear how this sentient feature will work or whether it will involve the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to understand it’s surroundings and interact with pedestrians, or if it’s just a pre recorded audio that can be triggered by the driver or by certain pre determined situations like when approaching a pedestrian.
However I think this is part of a much broader plan that Elon Musk announced over a year ago. Musk has talked about the Tesla Network and ambitions to allow owners to place their vehicles on the ride-hailing app since 2016. In the presentation last year, Musk and other executives described the technologies that the company is developing to allow cars to drive themselves, building on the Autopilot system that it has offered for several years.
He said Tesla had developed “the world’s fastest computer” for use in self-driving cars, able to conduct 144 trillion operations per second. Nvidia, a leading maker of chips for automotive use and a former supplier to Tesla, disputed that claim, saying it had a computer that can run 320 trillion operations per second.
Mr. Musk also said Tesla is developing “neural networks” of computers that can mimic the human brain and will enable driverless cars to operate safely using only cameras and radar sensors. Most other automakers are relying on cameras, radar and a type of laser-based radar known as lidar.
So this “self-talking” feature is a natural progression towards that vision where the Tesla robotaxis can call out to potential riders as they or it approaches. I am excited to see how all the pieces fit together and fall into place as we head towards a world with autonomous Tesla robotaxis.
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