GM Exec Says Elon Musk is “Full of Crap” on Level 5 Autonomy Claims

Many automakers don't expect to offer highly automated self-driving cars until the 2020s, but Tesla has gotten the jump on the competition by introducing hardware it says can accommodate full autonomous vehicle operation. But apparently not everyone is impressed.

According to a report fromCarAdvice, Scott Miller, GM's director of autonomous car integration, told reporters in Detroit that Tesla CEO Elon Musk is "full of crap" regarding claims his cars are equipped for Level 5 autonomy. SAE defines Level 5 as "full automation," capable of operating "under all roadway and environmental conditions that can be managed by a human driver."

"To be what an SAE level five full autonomous system is, I don't think he has the content to do that," Miller said. Tesla's new Autopilot system features at least eight cameras, one forward-facing radar, and 12 updated ultrasonic sensors.

"The level of technology and knowing what it takes to do the mission, to say you can be a full level five with just cameras and radars is not physically possible," Miller continued. "I think you need the right sensors and right computing package to do it. Think about it, we have LIDAR, radar, and cameras on this. The reason we have that type of sensor package is that we think you need not be deeply integrated in to be level five, you should have redundancy.

Do you really want to trust just one sensor measuring the speed of the car coming out of an intersection before you pull out? I think you need some confirmation," he said.

Miller said it will be able to build highly automated Level 4 autonomous cars "within quarters." Instead of rolling out the tech out to individual customers, however, it will offer it on just ride-sharing cars initially. Fully autonomous GM vehicles should show up in dealerships within the next 15 years. In the meantime, GM just introduced its SuperCruise semi-autonomous driving system on the Cadillac CT6.

Source: CarAdvice