Electrical vehicle manufacturer Tesla has revealed plans to press forward with autonomous features and branch into car sharing.
In a blog post on the company’s website, founder Elon Musk unveiled his second ‘Master Plan’.
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The company announced intentions to continue development of the software for its Autopilot feature, boosting the capacity for autonomous driving.
This comes just months after a fatal car accident involving a driver using Autopilot mode saw Tesla face calls to disable the feature.
“It would make no more sense to disable Tesla’s Autopilot, as some have called for, than it would to disable autopilot in aircraft,” Musk argued.
Musk used the argument that autonomous driving generally caused fewer accidents to explain Tesla’s continued push towards it.
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By GlobalData“When used correctly, it is already significantly safer than a person driving by themselves and it would therefore be morally reprehensible to delay release simply for fear of bad press,” added Musk.
The company plans to develop self-driving to a level where it is 10 times safer than manual through what it terms “massive fleet learning.”
Tesla also announced that it will enter the car sharing market once autonomous driving has been approved.
The company would allow vehicles to be summoned from remote distances, and create a shared fleet of Tesla cars on standby to be used by members of the car sharing scheme.
In addition, Tesla owners will be able to sign up their cars to the scheme, and receive payment for usage.
“You will also be able to add your car to the Tesla shared fleet just by tapping a button on the Tesla phone app and have it generate income for you while you’re at work or on vacation,” Musk writes.
“In cities where demand exceeds the supply of customer-owned cars, Tesla will operate its own fleet, ensuring you can always hail a ride from us no matter where you are.”
Tesla also announced they would work to create solar roofs with integrated battery storage, and expand the product line to address all major segments of the car market.
