[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] Elon Musk, CEO of American electric vehicle company Tesla, announced that he plans to release a fully autonomous vehicle that requires no human driver onboard by the end of the year.
According to Fox Business on the 29th (local time), Musk attended an energy-related conference in Norway and stated, "Our goal is to launch a fully autonomous vehicle by the end of this year," adding, "A fully autonomous vehicle does not require a human driver onboard at all."
Tesla claims that with the current Full Self-Driving (FSD) software level, the vehicle can automatically stop at stop lines, park on its own, and respond to changing traffic conditions while cruise control is activated. However, it remains uncertain whether U.S. authorities will approve this by the end of the year.
Various lawsuits related to Tesla's autonomous driving features are also expected to delay the release of fully autonomous vehicles. Tesla is currently involved in several class-action lawsuits, including issues with sudden braking during driving. One Tesla Model 3 user in San Francisco, California, filed a class-action lawsuit claiming that the autonomous driving assistance feature "Autopilot" malfunctioned, causing their vehicle to stop suddenly despite no obstacles being present.
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been investigating 416,000 Tesla vehicles since February this year regarding reports of brake malfunctions related to Autopilot. Separately, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) filed a complaint earlier this month with the California Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH), accusing Tesla of false advertising by portraying FSD as having autonomous driving control functions when it is merely a driver assistance system.
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