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A few years ago, Tesla seemed to be leading the race to develop cocky-driving cars. The visitor had rolled out a lane assistance feature, dubbed AutoPilot, leading to controversy related to the employ of that proper name and overall consumer expectations of what a production labeled "AutoPilot" could reasonably attain. Now, a new report from Navigant Inquiry has dropped, rating the relative positions of various firms racing to develop cocky-driving cars — and it ranks Tesla dead last, behind the entire field. Even Uber ranks amend, which has to be particularly galling, given that company's various legal problems, accusations of IP theft, overall treatment of drivers, and customer privacy concerns.

Navigant'southward take on Tesla'southward AutoPilot is that the system has "stagnated and, in many respects, regressed since it was first launched in tardily 2022… More than i year after launching V2, Autopilot still lacks some of the functionality of the original, and there are many anecdotal reports from owners of unpredictable behavior."

The research team notes that despite Musk'due south claim of upgrading the systems in modern Tesla's to capable of Level 5 automation in the hereafter, they doubt this is practically achievable. Tesla vehicles, co-ordinate to Navigant, lack cocky-cleaning sensors and redundant systems that are present on other vehicles to ensure self-driving systems remain fully functional under all atmospheric condition. Other companies, like Waymo and GM, take stressed redundancy, with multiple computers, redundant power supplies, and redundant controls for steering and braking systems to guard against the possibility that a single point of failure could pb to catastrophic outcomes.

Navigant-Chart

Past Navigant Research

Tesla talks a big game regarding cocky-driving cars, but most of its cars haven't shipped with hardware that would be capable of Level five self-driving. It was just in October of 2022 that Nvidia began declaring its new Pegasus platform would be capable of Level five. Its ad copy still asserts that its Bulldoze PX2 systems are capable of "full self-driving capability," but this doesn't hateful Level 5. Level iii provides total self-driving capabilities nether specific conditions, and Tesla's earlier models may still qualify nether this standard.

Self-driving-Car

Tesla's decision to part ways with MobilEye and its reliance on radar rather than lidar are seen every bit part of the reason the company has lagged behind the competition. Product bug with the Model 3 may besides have seized the visitor's attentions; it's running far behind where it intended to be with its new mass model EV and isn't expected to spin up to full production on the car for a few months nevertheless. Still, Tesla has loftier mind share on the idea of a self-driving car, and could take a market value hit if customers begin associating the concept with companies similar Ford or GM instead. Elon Musk has a habit of over-promising earlier eventually delivering several years past his initial target, but that could really cost his company hither.

At present read: How Self-Driving Cars Work