Tesla could have millions of electric autonomous cars on the road by 2023
Tesla is known for taking the lead in the self-driving autonomous motoring arena and it is looking very could have millions of cars on the road by 2023.
There is no doubt about it that Tesla is expected to roll out tens of thousands of electric cars onto the roads in the next few years, giving the company a huge advantage in the race to develop self-driving cars.
As of 2017, there are as little as 200,000 Tesla-made vehicles on the road today but with the launch of the Model 3, that number will most likely hugely increase to as much as three million vehicles by 2023.
As the number of Tesla electric vehicles increases, it will mean that the company will be able to collect more data from its cars that could ultimately be used to improve the company's machine learning technology.
Machine learning is the technological way of teaching algorithms by example or experience, and it's essential to developing the systems necessary for self-driving cars.
All Tesla cars are equipped with the software and hardware necessary specifically designed for the collection of important data that can be used to improve its machine learning systems.
If Tesla is ahead in the race and they are collecting so much information from there machine learning systems it will mean that the electric car company could have a huge edge on other automakers and tech companies working on autonomous vehicles. Adam Jonas, a Morgan Stanley analyst had this to say:
"Miles travelled accumulation rises with the car population, helping Tesla to train its machine learning network faster than competitors,"
"We estimate that Tesla's cars travel a bit more than 7 million miles per day, a figure we forecast to reach 100 million miles by the 2023 or 2024 time frame, a level on par with what we estimate Uber's fleet is executing on a daily basis today. In our view, firms that can capture sufficient quantity and quality of miles data will be in a strong position to develop competitive autonomous transport networks,"
Jonas estimates that there will be 300,000 Tesla cars on the road by the end of 2017 and 531,000 vehicles in use by the end of 2018.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has not been shy about his plan to develop a fleet of self-driving cars. Last year, Musk said in his "Tesla Master Plan, Part Deux" that he aims to eventually roll out a car sharing program that enables Tesla owners to make money by renting out their autonomous car.
The company has since dubbed the service the "Tesla Network" and is expected to reveal more details about the service sometime this year.
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Justin Kavanagh
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