Tesla is speeding right along with its self-driving plans.
During a podcast this week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company's electric vehicles will be capable of driving fully autonomously by the end of the year.
"I think we will be feature complete — full self-driving — this year," Musk said on the ARK Invest podcast on Tuesday, as CNBC reported. "Meaning the car will be able to find you in a parking lot, pick you up, take you all the way to your destination without an intervention, this year. I would say I am certain of that. That is not a question mark."
Sounds exciting, but Musk had a few caveats. For starters, the technology might be close to perfect, but not 100 percent.
"People sometimes will extrapolate that to mean now it works with 100 percent certainty, requiring no observation… this is not the case," he said.
Secondly, and the rollout of fully autonomous features will depend on regulatory approval, which will likely vary from one jurisdiction to another.
"When will regulators allow us even to have these features turned on with human oversight – that's a variable which we have limited control over," Musk said. "When will regulators agree that these things can be done without human oversight – that is another level beyond that."
Musk said he believes the company's cars will be safe enough to operate fully autonomously without human oversight within two years.
"My guess as to when we would think it's safe for somebody to essentially fall asleep and wake up at their destination – probably towards the end of next year," he said. "I don't know when regulators will agree."
Some Tesla owners, meanwhile, already have that faith in Tesla's Autopilot technology. In December, police in California arrested a drunk man who was sleeping behind the wheel of his Tesla Model S.