In a new report by MIT’s Lex Fridman, we learn that Tesla now has over 730,000 vehicles with Autopilot Hardware 2 and 3 on the world’s roads.
Hardware 2.0 was released in 2016, a bit more than a year after Autopilot was enabled on Tesla vehicles. In a graph that he shared on his website and Twitter, Fridman shows that there are 737,570 Tesla vehicles with Autopilot Hardware 2 or 3 installed.
There are 114,525 vehicles that still have Hardware 1, and 49,466 that do not have any Autopilot hardware at all. That totals up to a bit more than 900,000 Tesla vehicle deliveries. Let that sink in: Tesla has had almost a million vehicle deliveries! With Shanghai’s Gigafactory now active and Fremont pumping out more vehicles than ever, Tesla will surely surpass the million vehicle delivery milestone in 2020.
Over 730,000 Tesla Autopilot hardware 2 & 3 vehicles are out in the world. These are aspiring young robots perceiving, acting, and learning in the world under close human supervision. 2020 will be an exciting year for AI. PS: Keep your eyes on the road! https://t.co/pNrkIzxdnV pic.twitter.com/4FlBduBAZb
— Lex Fridman (@lexfridman) January 5, 2020
The report talks more about Autopilot miles. Fridman started with the number of Teslas that were delivered by quarter and then organized them by Autopilot hardware versions. After that, he estimated per-day deliveries dating back to 2008, shared here. Lastly, he totaled the number of miles driven in each vehicle under both manual and Autopilot control — you can see numbers here.
The numbers speak volumes when it comes to Autopilot and Tesla. Estimated Autopilot miles to date are just over 2 billion (2.2 billion). Estimated miles in every single Tesla vehicle are just under 20 billion miles (19.1 billion). Again, hitting 20 billion miles is another milestone sure to be achieved in 2020. Can you imagine? 20 billion miles will have been traveled in all of Tesla’s vehicles.
What do these billions of miles represent? They represent Tesla owners and the fact that demand hasn’t stopped growing, and most likely will not stop growing as Tesla continues to prosper. It’s really good news that Tesla has these “aspiring young robots perceiving, acting, and learning in the world under close human supervision,” as Fridman puts it. Tesla owners, in my opinion, should see Autopilot as a child that is learning and growing. Children always need adult supervision. Perhaps if we see it this way, there will be fewer people willing to use nag hacks or abuse the technology. Also, I fully agree with Fridman on the final sentence in his tweet: “Keep your eyes on the road!” Many drivers don’t do this often enough, or even fall asleep while driving, whether driving gas or electric cars. As Autopilot continues to improve, hopefully it will encourage owners of both Tesla and non-Tesla vehicles to drive in a safer manner. One can hope, at least.
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