Elon Musk Tells BMW There Are No Shortcuts To Full Self-Driving — Has This Advice Instead

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday doled out some advice for legacy rival Bayerische Motoren Werke AG BMWYY, popularly known as BMW, on achieving full self-driving (FSD).

What Happened: The billionaire entrepreneur said the only way to find success with FSD is “hardcore real-world AI software” with dedicated chips, a visual neural network, and over 10 billion miles of data.  

“They (BMW) have no idea how hard FSD is,” Musk wrote on Twitter.

Earlier this month BMW announced a long-term, strategic partnership with tech companies Qualcomm Inc QCOM and Arriver to jointly develop Level 3 self-driving by the second half of 2025.

They have no idea how hard FSD is. Only path to success imo is hardcore real-world AI software with dedicated NN inference acceleration ASICs in car, multibillion dollar NN training supercluster and 10+ billion miles of vehicle data. Good luck.

— Elona Musk (@elonmusk) March 16, 2022

ASIC implies an application-specific integrated circuit while NN refers to Tesla’s use of visual neural networks.

See Also: Elon Musk Says Don't Underestimate Value Of Autonomous Vehicles As Tesla Raises FSD Price To $12,000

Why It Matters: Musk said late last year that he believes the electric vehicle maker is likely to achieve the full self-driving level 4 system in 2022.

Tesla first started testing out the FSD in beta in late 2020 among a select group of customers, with the software priced at $8,000 at the time. 

There are five levels of automation under standards created by SAE International. A Level 4 system implies the vehicle can handle all aspects of driving without human intervention. Tesla is currently at Level 2.

Austin, Texas-based Tesla has switched to strictly cameras and stopped using radar sensors. 

See Also: Tesla CEO Elon Musk Says FSD Level 4 Likely Next Year

Germany’s Mercedes-Benz Group DMLRY in December said it has secured Level 3 autonomous driving that will let drivers take their hands off the steering wheel in slow-moving traffic.

Price Action: Tesla stock traded 2.47% higher at $821.71 in the pre-market session on Wednesday.