Tesla Testing Software For Autopilot Trips Between Seattle & San Francisco

Elon Musk’s promise to deliver a fully functional self-driving car within the near future appears to have some truth to it — it seems to have not been an exaggeration, in other words (despite his habit of overstating things). The company has reportedly begun testing software that will allow the Model S to “drive itself” all the way from San Francisco to Seattle.

In other words, all 800 miles of that long trip you could be doing something else entirely, rather than driving. But by “you,” what I really mean is people fortunate enough to have a Model S. The rest of us will just have to salivate, I suppose… for now anyway.

The new autopilot software is seemingly set to drive with the firmware 7.0 update coming later this year — but as testing is still ongoing, that may very well change. According to Musk, though, everything is going quite well. It’s already possible for the system to travel the full 800 miles between the two cities with extremely minimal driver feedback.

Our sister site Gas2 provides a bit more info:

While technically the system can go from one parking lot to another, it is primarily tasked with navigating the Model S on the freeway, where an advanced Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) system keeps the car in its lane, while still being able to pass slower drivers. Having seen Tesla’s ACC system in action already, it’ll be interesting to see just how much better it can get. People are really into the idea of a self-driving Tesla it seems.

But wait, there’s more! Musk also announced that Tesla will include new blind spot warning and emergency braking features in the next update to improve overall safety. For P85D owners, the promised “valet mode” that limits power, torque, and access to personal information should sound especially promising. Even cooler is the promised ability to summon your Tesla to your location, so you no longer have to trudge across a parking lot like some common pleb.

That certainly does sound good. Here’s to hoping that it all arrives on time, rather than getting stuck in limbo for a while as the Model X has.

Image Credit: Tesla