Waymo CEO takes a dig at Tesla’s Autopilot full autonomy capability

KUALA LUMPUR: Several auto-enthusiasts see Tesla as a world leader in self-driving technology; the company’s CEO Elon Musk has also stated a number of times that the brand is on its way to get fully self-driving technology. Well, the CEO of Waymo, an autonomous driving tech development company, John Krafcik has a different view on this.

In an interview with a German publication Manager Magazin, Krafcik said Tesla’s approach with its Autopilot system is not the right to achieve a fully autonomous vehicle. “It is a misconception that you can simply develop a driver-assistance system further until one day you can magically jump to a fully autonomous driving system.”

However, this is not the first time when the Tesla Autopilot is criticized, the system has been in controversies over the years for the way it’s publicized, specifically in its latest version, which is called ‘Full-Self Driving’. With the name, it appears to be a completely autonomous driving tech, but in reality, it is intended for use with an attentive driver, who needs to keep his hands on the wheel all the time to take over control at every given moment.

Currently, Tesla's website states that all new Tesla cars have the hardware needed in the future for full self-driving in almost all circumstances. The system has eight cameras with 360-degree visibility, twelve sensors, and a forward-facing radar.

According to Krafcik, Tesla is not a competitor to Waymo. "We manufacture a completely autonomous driving system. Tesla is an automaker that is developing a really good driver assistance system."

Presently, the Google-owned Waymo is running a fully autonomous system, which it decided after a long analysis that the presence of the human operator behind the wheel to take over sudden control was too risky. It operates a commercial self-driving taxi service in Phoenix, Arizona, and is currently involved in developing a ‘Waymo Driver’ system meant for real roads as well as for simulation.

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