Tesla Tests Self-Driving Functions with Secret Updates to Its Customers' Cars

When Tesla Motors introduced the Model S sedan in 2012, one of its many notable features was an always-on cellular Internet connection. A Tesla executive explained today that it has turned into a powerful advantage in the company's contest with other carmakers and Internet giants such as Google to get self-driving cars onto public roads. Tesla can pull down data from the sensors inside its customers' vehicles to see how people are driving and the road and traffic conditions they experience. It uses that data to test the effectiveness of new self-driving features. The company even secretly tests new autonomous software by remotely installing it on customer vehicles so it can react to real road and traffic conditions, without controlling the vehicle.