'Self-driving Sounds Like Some Magical Fiction, Until You Actually Use It': Why Elon Musk Is Optimistic About Tesla FSD

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk was asked about having “overly optimistic” timelines for full self-driving in electric vehicles in a recent interview.

What Happened: Musk was asked about the overly optimistic timeline he has put forth for Tesla’s FSD.

“I think it’s still tracking for this year,” Musk said during an interview with the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley Club.

Musk said he didn’t understand the full scope before, which led to different timelines of the availability of FSD.

In the end, Musk said that when Tesla has FSD available for all, it will be far ahead of other companies. “Tesla will have FSD and no one will be even close.”

Musk highlighted the importance of FSD to him by telling the interviewers that FSD and SpaceX’s Starship take up the majority of his brain space currently, representing an estimated 70% of Musk’s thoughts.

Related Link: Elon Musk Said To Have A New Timeline On Achieving FSD, Now Aims At Scoring Level 4 Goal In 2023 

Undervaluing Self-driving: Musk was critical of how the world sees self-driving and many questioning the big focus by Tesla or if it will ever reach mass adoption.

Musk compared self-driving to a unicorn.

“Self-driving sounds like some magical fiction, until you actually use it,” Musk said.

Musk said that self-driving has way fewer crashes than traditional driving. The Tesla CEO also said that companies like Tesla should not be penalized for the crashes that do happen, as the company “massively reduces crashes and deaths.”

“You’re gonna get no praise for the 98% of people you save and sued by the rest,” he noted.

Photo: Courtesy of Tesla Owners Club Belgium on Flickr