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Behold the future of automotive travel, which will come bearing gifts for the extremely lazy.
This week, Elon Musk captured the world's attention for a brief spell as he unveiled the D, an all-wheel drive version in the Model S line. While some of us have to live vicariously through others bumping around in a Tesla, one reporter recorded a video that gives us a semblance of where technology is headed.
The Verge's Josh Lowensohn managed to sit in P85D, which boasts a nice 0-to-60 time of 3.2 seconds. Here is what Lowensohn captured on video:
The acceleration is certainly worth our attention, but it's the autopilot that really had us smiling. Once the driver engaged the technology, the P85D slows according to the posted speed limits, and it even stops when a car up ahead is spotted.
Lowensohn is careful to point out that we don't have self-driving cars just yet. But boy are we close.
The reporter writes, "The second half of the course demos some of the car's new 'autopilot' features. This isn't full control of the car. It's little things like letting you change lanes just by flicking your turn signal (while the car looks out for anything that may be around you), as well as identifying signs and people."
Lowensohn continues, "Eventually Tesla is hoping to tune its autopilot system into something that will let people just kick back and be a passenger in their own car."
If that weren't enough, Mashable's James O'Brien, in a July article about the driverless car tipping point, flat out wrote, "Here's a recent prediction from Cisco's technology trend watchers: In 5 to 7 years, it'll cost us more to drive our cars than to let them drive us."
We are inching closer to a day when driving to our destinations might be akin to sitting back in our plane seat with a book in hand, allowing someone else to do all the work.
In this case, it would be a something to do the heavy driving.
CNET's Eric Mack quoted Musk who was on with Bloomberg Television recently. Tesla's CEO stated the following on driving technology:
"That will be the case at some point in the future. Like maybe five or six years from now I think we'll be able to achieve true autonomous driving where you could literally get in the car, go to sleep and wake up at your destination."
Of course, as Musk notes, it will be some time after that before officials are ready to allow people permission to do just that behind the wheel.
As for Tesla's autopilot, it's just that. Musk states, "Autopilot is what we have in airplanes. For example we use the same term that is in airplanes where there is still an expectation that there will be a pilot. So the onus is on the pilot to make sure that the autopilot is doing the right thing."
For now, the lucky few driving a D will have an assist far greater than our current cruise control, but it is indeed a big step.
We can see a glimpse of the future, and it's a glorious one; complete, we hope, with traffic delays that allow for a nice afternoon nap.
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