A much-hyped unveiling of the Tesla Model 3 turned into an amazingly successful pre-order period and Tesla CEO Elon Musk decided to issue a cryptic closing thought on the matter. According to growing speculations among people, the next level feature being teased by Musk for the Model 3 is a feature which is expected to get its own big unveiling event and it will be autonomous operation.
A complete roundup of the evidence has been offered by the New Yorker and for a start, Musk has made repeated reference to the steering system in the Model 3. Now this could be overstated as tech lingo for a simple steering wheel or this could mean something totally radical.
There is also a notable coincidence where Musk totally predicted that Tesla would bring out a fully autonomous car without two years and furthermore, this is also the release timeline for Tesla Model 3. According to the New Yorker, Tesla is indeed ready for autonomy due to its approach in developing with technology.
Google is the other serious pioneer in the autonomous car field and has its own brand of research on expensive laser based ‘lidar’ sensors. Compared to that, Tesla has resorted to cheap hardware sensors like ultrasound, camera and radar which are greatly reliant on advanced software. An early version of the technology was offered by Tesla to the buyers of Model S and X cars, at a cost of $3000 retail.
The system has its problems but Tesla has a test fleet is massive compared to the 80 autonomous vehicles that Google has in California along with a few others around the country.
This clearly indicates that Tesla has more data for improving their software and its hardware is so cheap that with mass-market scaling, it could turn into a very low threshold add-on or it could end up being a standard feature, for instance, in the $35000 Tesla Model 3.
Meanwhile, disregarding the bombastic debut in Los Angeles last month, the hype about Tesla Model 3 might begin to die down since people will have to wait a long time before the first vehicle is delivered.
However, if you don’t wish to wait that long, Motor Trend posted a video this week and it provides a quick walk-around of the upcoming EV. The first half of the video is uneventful but the end is rather exciting considering how the Model 3 door handles work, the significance of the nose being so short and much more.
The inside of the vehicle wasn’t looked at and reports indicate that the interior will receive a complete overhaul before its starts shipping at the end of 2017. Among Tesla fans, the ship date is particularly polarizing considering the fact that more than 400,000 pre-orders have already been placed.
The Model 3 has been announced to be the affordable Tesla and it represents a major leap by the firm. Expectations are pretty high which further resulted in the pre-launch hype as well. It was confirmed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk that the upcoming vehicle will have a minimum range of 215 miles on a single charge.
That is lesser than the range received on the company’s other cars like the Model S but at the same time, it is much better than some of the cars that Model 3 will be competing against, like the Nissan Leaf, which presently enjoys a 155 mile range.