Elon Musk Says Tesla Autopilot Will Achieve 'Level 5' This Year

Tesla Inc. TSLA is "very close" to achieving level 5 autonomous technology, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said Wednesday.

What Happened

Musk is confident that Tesla would attain the basic functionality of the technology by the end of this year, Reuters reported.

The billionaire entrepreneur made the remarks during a video message at the opening of Shanghai's annual World Artificial Intelligence Conference, according to Reuters.

Why It Matters

The level 5 autonomy for a vehicle refers to the ability to self-drive anywhere in the world without requiring any assistance from a driver. There are currently no vehicles on the road at the moment that are considered to fully self-driving in such a manner.

Musk had made a similar claim last year that Tesla will develop the level 5 full self-driving feature by the end of 2019, as reported by Forbes at the time.

The Palo Alto-based automaker currently builds electric vehicles with an autopilot driver assistance system, which "require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous."

Price Action

Tesla shares closed 1.7% lower at $1,365.88 on Wednesday. The shares further slipped nearly 0.4% in the after-hours session at $1,361.03.