
Elon Musk Wants Your Help on Tesla's Biggest New Project
When Elon Musk isn't busy appearing on episodes of The Big Bang Theory, he's interviewing people to help Tesla (TSLA) - Get Report advance in autonomous driving, perhaps the company's biggest software project to date.
Musk, who appeared on Thursday night's episode of CBS'sThe Big Bang Theory as himself, tweeted that he will be personally interviewing candidates for the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company's autopilot software team, which would work on allowing the cars to reach "full autonomy."
The company has run into some early issues with the new software, with several videos uploaded to YouTube as consumers don't fully understand how to operate the software.
In a conference call with journalists in October prior to the release, Musk said to think of Version 7 as a public beta. "We want people to be careful at first," Musk said. "As we release the software and more people enable the autopilot, each driver will be an expert trainer in how the autopilot should work."
Days after the conference call, Musk tweeted that an updated version of the software, with enhanced features, would be available soon.
Version 7 of Tesla's software, using predictive algorithms, will give the cars auto steering, enabling them to take different visual or road cues on where to drive, allow the car to pick lanes, follow vehicles or take a holistic path. "The car is constantly looking where it is in the world and depending upon where you are in the world, you can choose left or right or use the navigation," Musk stated.
Musk and Tesla recently introduced the software, which includes auto driving for the Model S and the recently released Model X, Tesla's first SUV.
The software, which takes into account sensors, high-precision digital maps, GPS and navigation, allows the car to read speed signs, though Musk cautioned the first version of the software can't take into account stop signs or red lights just yet. Those will come in future versions of the software as it gets more refined over time. In late October, Tesla rolled out the software over-the-air to its customers, after getting regulatory approval from all countries, save for Japan.
However, regulatory agencies in Hong Kong didn't approve the new software, saying it did not meet regulations, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
In October, Musk said he expects Tesla to have a fully autonomous car in three years.








