Sorry, Elon: Fully Autonomous Tesla Vehicles Will Not Happen Anytime Soon

In a typically bold statement, Tesla CEO Elon Musk declared earlier this month that his company's vehicles are on the brink of becoming fully autonomous. This raised more than a few doubtful eyebrows, including mine. "I'm extremely confident that Level 5 autonomy, or essentially complete autonomy, will happen, and I think it will happen very quickly," Musk said in a video message to the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai. "I remain confident that [Tesla] will have the basic functionality for Level 5 autonomy complete this year." Musk's optimism is commendable and is certainly the kind of spirit that spurs innovation.