Elon Musk Sees No Company Beside Tesla Solve 'Insanely Hard' FSD In Next 5 Years

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk said on Friday that it may take five years or more for any company other than his own to crack the ‘insanely hard’ fully-autonomous driving technology.

What Happened: Musk was responding to a post on the microblogging site Twitter that criticized the media and analyst reaction on Tesla’s fourth quarter earnings and called them "hilarious."

Given how hard insanely FSD is, I think it may take 5 years or more before any company besides Tesla solves it

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 28, 2022

See Also: Tesla CEO Elon Musk Says FSD Level 4 Likely Next Year

Musk, who has been promising full self driving (FSD) for years now, had on Wednesday told investors that he would be “shocked” if Tesla did not achieve the FSD milestone this year.

As per SAE International, which defines five levels of automation, a Level 4 and Level 5 system implies the vehicle can handle all aspects of driving without human intervention. Tesla’s Autopilot is currently classified at Level 2.

Where Are Rivals At: German automaker Mercedes-Benz had last month said it has secured Level 3 autonomous driving. The newly achieved status, it said, will let drivers take their hands off the steering wheel in slow-moving traffic.

General Motors Co (NYSE: GM) and Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) have been trying out their autonomous taxi services Cruise and Waymo in San Francisco for months now. 

See Also: See Also: Cathie Wood Buys $28M Shares In Tesla As Stock Crashes, Ending Months-Long Profit Booking Spree

GM CEO Mary Barra on Thursday revealed she took her first ride in a driverless Cruise taxi in San Francisco. Barra shared details of her ride with Cruise’s co-founder Kyle Vogt in a three-minute video on various social media sites.

I took my first @Cruise driverless ride in San Francisco with @kvogt, and it was nothing short of incredible. This is the type of experience we used to dream about, and now with Cruise, our autonomous future is here. Congrats, Cruise team! https://t.co/X9aBKR1wiU

— Mary Barra (@mtbarra) January 27, 2022

GM claims Cruise Origin is a Level 4–5 driverless vehicle.

Ford Motor Co (NYSE: F) has been testing out its self-driving technology in the U.S. with Argo AI. 

Price Action: Tesla stock closed 11.55% lower at $829.10 a share on Thursday. The stock is down 30.9% so far this year.

Photo: Courtesy of Nvidia Corp. via Flickr