AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE (TESLA AUTOPILOT)
Autonomous Vehicle (Tesla autopilot)
Introduction
The modern society has witnessed significant developments in the technological world. Developments in information technology characterize these advancements. Many companies are embracing technology in the development of their products, along with how they offer services to their clients. Consequently, innovation has witnessed a boost in pace thanks to the developments in information technology. Companies can easily design and produce new products by using computer-aided manufacturing and computer-aided design. Companies have developed flexible techniques in construction that have significantly reduced production time.
When a company takes a short period to produce a product, it can provide several products within a specified period. Consumers have different needs and often need variations on a given product so that they can attain satisfaction. On this front, companies can produce many products with subtle differences that will ensure the satisfaction of each of their consumers. For example, vehicle production companies may create more than twenty different vehicle types under the same production line. These vehicles may have slight differences, such as various passenger capacities, speed limits, and varying levels of luxury.
By providing a variety of products, companies move ahead of their competitors because they can meet several individuals within the targeted market. Differentiation is a vital feature in determining the levels of success that a company will enjoy. In the case of Tesla, the production of autonomous vehicles was the company’s strategy of choice. The policy is not present in many other vehicle production companies, allowing Tesla to stand out in the eyes of consumers.
Therefore, this paper aims at identifying the different aspects associated with the production of autonomous vehicles. The paper will examine the merits and demerits of Tesla’s autopilot initiative, along with the factors that promote the success of the project. The paper will also explore the origins of the innovation and the measures employed by the company in promoting the products.
Analysis of Markets and Technology Trends
Partially-automated vehicles have been in the market for a considerable period. These vehicles elicited various responses from drivers who used cars for transport purposes. Studies carried out on the general perception of this innovative idea revealed that many people exhibited higher levels of satisfaction with such products. The main factor that influenced the people’s opinion on the use of these cars was the amount of trust that they had in these vehicles. The younger people had higher levels of trust in these vehicles than their older counterparts (Dikmen and Burns, 2017). Therefore, older people were less likely to buy such cars, unlike younger people. However, as time went by, the number of people that trusted this innovation increased.
Many companies made efforts towards developing this innovation further in a bid to attract more consumers. The companies had to create a proper understanding of the psychological and cognitive issues that influenced individual perceptions on this matter. They could derive a significant portion of this information by investigating how the drivers had responded to using partially automated vehicles. The positive attitude towards this innovation drove notable companies to start moving towards fully-automated cars for their clients.
Tesla is one such company that wasted no time in exploring the development of fully automated vehicles. Dating back to 2015, Tesla drivers began enjoying the benefits that come with automated driving. Tesla stepped up by introducing a pair of driver assistant systems, namely, Autopilot and Summon (Dikmen and Burns, 2017). Each assistant had unique features that offered a different range of benefits for the drivers that were using them. The implementation of these features allowed for the development of semi-automated Tesla cars, each offering a varying degree of assistance to the driver.
Autopilot allows drivers to enjoy hands-free driving, although to a limited degree. This system offers assistance to the driver by providing steering assistance between different lanes and adaptive journey control. Lane steering assistance requires that the driver has both hands on the steering wheel. Any violations of this requirement will result in a warning from the car that will immediately catch the driver’s attention. The driver will then assume a proper position for holding the steering wheel as required. Also, this system warns the driver in case the car starts to drift away from its lane.
On the other hand, Summon mainly focuses on parking strategies. The system allows the car the move into and out of a garage under the guidance of a smartphone app. Therefore, the driver can move the vehicle efficiently without the risk of knocking anything over or denting the car.
Despite the benefits offered by these systems, they were far from being perfect. These issues of imperfection raised questions among drivers who relied on such systems. Some drivers entirely rely on these systems for navigation, a situation that has left them prone to adverse effects resulting from system automation failures. For example, on May 7th, 2016, a Tesla vehicle set on autopilot mode was involved in a fatal accident that left the driver dead (Yadron and Tynan, 2016). This incident immediately had doubts creeping into the minds of drivers who relied on the technology. The drivers had to have second thoughts before entirely relying on these automated features of the vehicles.
Therefore, it became necessary for car developers, such as Tesla, to make improvements to their automated vehicles. Driven by this fact, Tesla company began working hard to produce fully automated cars that would be instrumental in saving lives, rather than ending them. It was also imperative for the company to earn the trust of drivers concerning the safety of their automated vehicle models.
Organizational Strategies and Practices
Tesla has been keen on ensuring that its autonomous vehicles do not lead to accidents and, possibly, death. The company’s first step towards ensuring the safety of its consumers is ensuring that they understand the extent to which they can trust the automated features. The company put measures in place to educate its drivers on situations that involve the use of autopilot. During the introduction stages of autopilot, Tesla’s Elon Musk made it clear that the company’s autopilot system was a representation of the initial steps towards achieving full autonomy (Schweinsberg, 2017). This information aimed at sensitizing the public that autopilot systems aim at assisting the driver, rather than completely replacing the individual. As such, the company discouraged activities that would interfere with the driver’s concentration. Such activities include reading literature, sleeping, playing games on gadgets, and engaging in deep conversations with passengers or over mobile phones.
Initially, Tesla worked on the Autopilot option in conjunction with MobilEye, a company based in Israel. The joint product of the companies included an EyeQ3 CPU along with a monochromatic camera that focused forward. After the model had been in circulation for a considerable period, Tesla realized that the technology was not sophisticated enough to facilitate the full automation of their vehicles. As a result, they decided to get a software upgrade to help come up with cars that could exhibit much more automation.
Tesla’s upgrade plan included working together with NVidia, which produced more advanced software. NVidia’s GPUs were better suited for enhancing automation of the vehicles produced by Tesla. The chip developed by Nvidia was dedicated to Tesla’s sensor that included twelve sonars, one radar, and eight cameras (Yan et al., 2016). Consequently, the quality of automation in the vehicles increased substantially, attracting a considerable consumer population to Tesla’s cars. Based on these levels of success, NVidia saw the potential to increase its revenue from businesses related to their advanced GPUs.
NVidia decided to make the chip more generic so that it could sell it to other vehicle manufacturers. This procedure would make the chip compatible with other sensors in different car types, increasing NVidia’s targeted market. However, this idea did not bode well for Tesla as they realized that they would lose their monopoly in the industry as their vehicles would have similar characteristics with those produced by other companies. Therefore, the company decided to assemble its team of experts to help with the independent development of cars with self-driving capabilities.
The assembled team came up with a sensor suite that was unique from the others that Tesla had used in the past. The innovation aimed at helping the company has heightened control over the vehicles they produce while ensuring that it gets maximum efficiency in terms of cost and power requirements. Also, this move would allow Tesla to have more control over the required schedule. At the time of its release, Tesla’s chip immediately stood out from the previous technological inventions in this field. This invention proved instrumental in facilitating the success rates enjoyed by Tesla presently.
Tesla’s chip turned out to be the fastest in the world at the time of its inception. The disk had a 100watt ceiling for FSD specific to Tesla’s sensor suite. In comparison, critics described the chip as being three to four years ahead of the corresponding NVidia chip. Despite all these advantages, the chip was also cheaper than those already in existence. This technology allowed Tesla to produce approximately a million cars in a year equipped with these features. These features provide a great marketing advert for Tesla’s vehicles as people love acquiring products that can serve them efficiently, giving them value for money spent on purchasing the products.
Tesla’s marketing strategy heavily relied on its employees. After the production of its latest cars, dubbed model 3, the company provided the vehicles to its first thirty customers. Reports suggested that most, if not all, of these customers, were the company’s employees (Hawkins, 2017). This move was a great marketing strategy, following previous concerns raised by faults in the autopilot systems. The employees had had enough interactions with the models and knew how to use the features as required. Therefore, it was unlikely that any of them would have problems while using the car. At the same time, they could promote the product to their friends and family, as these individuals are more likely to trust them with such information. Afterward, Tesla would market the new product following the successful release of the first thirty vehicles.
Internal and External Barriers
Tesla’s efforts in developing and distributing its autopilot innovations face several barriers. These hindrances are present both within and without the company’s operations. Therefore, the company needs to identify these barriers and immediately find ways to overcome them if the company remains successful. This section analyzes some of the potential obstacles to the effective marketing of Tesla’s product.
Internal Barriers
Lack of adequate preparedness on Tesla’s is a significant barrier to Tesla’s aspirations. Many people can describe Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, as being too ambitious. This character has led the man to make promises to people about delivering specific promises within a short deadline. Ultimately, the company manages to perform most of the pledges, albeit at later dates than promised (Stewart, 2016). This statement shows that the company embarks on projects without adequate preparedness. Consequently, the company fails to deliver the breakthrough within the stated deadline, resulting in some consumers losing faith in the company’s abilities.
Initially, Tesla’s reliance on other companies such as NVidia and MobilEye slowed down the company’s progress. This dependence denied the total company control over some features of their innovations, such as the chip provided by the technology companies. Also, before releasing any of their vehicles, Tesla had to wait for input from these companies, thus slowing them down further. However, Tesla has since taken care of the problem by developing the chip that allows them to have total control over the production process. The move was instrumental in overcoming this significant barrier.
Tesla is a relatively wealthy company capable of funding the development of an electric vehicle model and having it in the market within a short period. Therefore, funding for innovation is not a problem for the company. However, the company may fail to go through with its plans if the shareholders fail to reach a unanimous decision regarding the implementation of fully autonomous vehicles (MacDuffie, 2018). The company cannot go through with any plans unless the majority of shareholders are in agreement. Conflicts may arise from a large amount of capital required for the project, yet there are no guaranteed returns. As such, some investors may consider the risk too high, leading to them opposing the idea.
External Barriers
The cost of acquiring an autonomous vehicle is usually discouraging for many consumers. Many people consider such cars to be too expensive for them to afford. Notably, only a few individuals acquired Tesla’s semi-autonomous vehicles at the time of their inception. The main reason behind the small number is the price tag of such cars. Many people would prefer to acquire manual vehicles that are cheaper and will still meet their travel requirements. As such, it becomes difficult to sell such cars to people, especially those that are struggling financially. However, in a bid to address this concern, vehicle production companies, including Tesla, are producing less expensive cars for their users. This move aims to make the vehicles affordable so that many more people can acquire them without much strain.
Government policies are a massive hindrance to the mass spread of Tesla’s autopilot vehicles. Presently, the government does not allow the use of fully autonomous cars on public roads. The decision comes because there have not been enough experimental tests to provide substantive evidence on the safety of allowing such vehicles on the way. Additionally, the government has limited the use of semi-autonomous vehicles to urban environments where cars can easily recognize the road features (Aaron, 2015). As such, people in urban and peri-urban areas have no use for such vehicles, as the government would not allow them to use these vehicles’ automated features.
Contributing Factors
The success of Tesla’s innovative function depends on several factors that come into play. These factors either contribute positively or negatively to Tesla’s ambitions. The major contributing factor towards Tesla’s success is the level of trust that people have in their inventions. People who do not believe that autonomous vehicles are safe are unlikely to even think of acquiring one. Therefore, it is up to Tesla to come up with ideas that will provide substantial evidence that the vehicles are safe for use.
On the one hand, statistics indicate that innovation has helped reduce the incidences of road accidents among road users. The cars have a variety of systems that contribute towards ensuring road safety. These features include automatic emergency braking and pre-collision warnings (Casner and Hutchins, 2019). The computer systems within the vehicle can inform the driver when the car is leaving its designated lane, which could increase the possibility of a road accident. Also, the system reminds drivers to have both hands on the steering wheel as a precaution that helps minimize cases of road accidents.
On the other hand, many individuals have criticized the systems for their role in facilitating road carnage. In several instances, the methods have failed to operate correctly, resulting in fatal accidents (Yadron and Tynan, 2016). Such incidents have led to people questioning the safety levels associated with reliance on these systems. For example, the system cannot detect stationary objects such as motionless humans (Ingle and Puhte, 2016). However, it is essential to note that majority of these failures result from human tendencies (Neumann, 2016). Some of these actions include reduced skill level over time, or lack of concentration on the system’s operation because the system should play the role of an assistant, rather than replacing the driver.
Tesla needs to address the issue of driver incompetence more comprehensively. For many of these drivers, the acquisition of such vehicles is a gateway to reduced concentration while driving. Some go to the extent of relying entirely on the systems to get them through traffic to their destinations (Dikmen and Burns, 2017). These high levels of trust and reliance on these systems are risky because their design does not equip them as replacements to drivers. Therefore, drivers need to have a better understanding of how the systems work before being allowed to take such vehicles to the road.
Currently, Tesla makes efforts to educate its drivers on how these systems work. However, many people feel that the current measures are not adequate to address the problem adequately. Currently, the only efforts towards drive education include additional pages in the manual that provide instructions on how the systems work (Casner and Hutchins, 2019). Unfortunately, this approach is not sufficient because many drivers do not take the time to read these manuals. In many cases, drivers rely on the knowledge that they acquired in driving schools to help them handle their cars. Therefore, understanding the user manuals that come with vehicles is a significant waste of time for them.
Scholars suggest that Tesla and other companies that manufacture autonomous vehicles should invest more in educating their drivers on the products they avail to them. Some go further to suggest that drive schools should add this material in their teachings as autonomous vehicles are gaining popularity among the population. Based on these findings, it is safe to say that Tesla’s autopilot is likely to continue gaining popularity, making it stick around for the foreseeable future. Additionally, Tesla continues to promise fully autonomous vehicles that would not require human intervention in a few years to come. This dream is entirely possible and could revolutionize the world by making driving safer.
Conclusion
Tesla’s rise in the motor production industry is an incredible story that could motivate anyone to follow their dreams. At the time of its launch, the industry was already crowded and full of competition. However, the company managed to create a name for itself through innovative ideas that helped it stand out from its competitors. One such innovation was the development of autopilot systems. The system has already facilitated massive success for the company so far. Based on the company’s promises, things are likely to get much better for the company as it makes improvements to its already popular technology.
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