Elon Musk: Tesla's fully autonomous cars will 'blow people's minds'

Tesla

Tesla's fully autonomous cars will be here before you know it.

During an earnings conference call on Wednesday, CEO Elon Musk was asked about Tesla's timeline for fully autonomous vehicles.

Musk declined to comment on any product announcements, but did say that Tesla's self-driving cars will be here soon and they won't disappoint.

"Autonomy is going to come a hell of a lot faster than anyone thinks it will, and I think what we've got under development is going to blow people's minds. It blows my mind," he said.

It's worth noting that, last September, Musk said that Tesla's fully autonomous cars will likely be ready by 2018. But he also said at the time that government rules regulating self-driving cars will likely not be put in place by then, so Tesla's self-driving vehicles will roll out in some places at different times.

Last month, Musk shared the second part of Tesla's master plan, which entails a strong focus on autonomy.

In the near-term, the company aims to make Autopilot, its semiautonomous system, as much as 10 times safer than the average US vehicle. But once regulators have laws in place that govern self-driving cars across the country, Tesla plans to roll out an autonomous car-sharing service as well.

The concept is simple: Tesla owners will be able to add their cars to a shared fleet of Tesla vehicles whenever they want so that they can make money off of their vehicles.

Major automakers and tech companies — including Google, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and reportedly Apple — are all working on autonomous-driving technology. But, like Tesla, many carmakers are first rolling out Autopilot-like functions into their newer cars, which enable the vehicles to do things like autonomously drive on highways and self-park.

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