SAN JOSE, Calif. — The days of humans driving their own cars are numbered, according to Elon Musk.
The reason, he said, is advances in sensor and software technology will eventually make cars' onboard computers safer and better drivers than humans wielding "two-ton death machines." The Tesla CEO shared his thoughts on the future of self-driving vehicles during the keynote presentation at NVIDIA's GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, where he appeared onstage with NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang.
"In the distant future," he said, "They may outlaw driven cars because they're too dangerous."
This future is not actually as far off as you might think, Musk said, adding that he considers autonomous vehicles to be a "solved problem" and that the larger issue is making the software and hardware reliable enough to conform to safety standards that regulators will expect. He predicted regulators won't come on board until at least two to three years after self-driving cars become safer than human-driven ones.
