We'll Take Autonomous Cars For Granted In Quite Short Time: Elon Musk

Every car on the road today, and many more in the future will eventually be outlawed, according to Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk.

"In the distant future, [legislators] may outlaw driven cars because they're too dangerous," Musk told NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang at company's annual developers conference Tuesday. "You can't have a person driving a two-ton death machine."

"We'll take autonomous cars for granted in quite a short time," Musk told attendees gathered in the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. "I almost view it as a solved problem. We know what to do, and we'll be there in a few years."

Musk added that his company is already functionally hardware-capable of driving themselves thanks to the cars' 360-degree ultrasonic sensors, camera and radar, but they lack the software necessary for it to be safe.

"Autonomy is really about what level of reliability, of safety, do you want," Musk said. "Even with the current sensor suite, we could make the car go fully autonomous, but not to a level of reliability that would be safe at a complex urban environment at 30 miles-per-hour, with lane markings not there, and children playing, and things coming at you from the side."

This is where NVIDIA's new Drive system comes into play. Made up of a "digital cockpit computer" and an "auto-pilot computer," Drive is capable of identifying road signs, pedestrians and other common roadway obstacles. Reportedly the company will release Drive PX developer kits to automakers in May for $10,000 a piece.

"What NVIDIA is doing with Tegra is really interesting and really important for self-driving in the future," Musk said referring to the advanced mobile processors in the PX supercomputer - the most advanced NVIDIA has ever built.

Musk also added that there was little to worry about in regard to automobile AI.