Tesla Updating Its Cars With Semi-Autonomous Driving Starting on Thursday

Aaron Cole
by Aaron Cole

Tesla will begin rolling out its firmware update Thursday to enable some Model S and Model X cars to partially drive themselves, the company’s CEO announced on Twitter.

Tesla’s AutoPilot feature will reportedly steer the car during some highway driving and help parallel park the car. A valet feature that would park and retrieve the car without a driver will reportedly come later. It’s unclear how autonomous the cars will be after Thursday, so we’ll save up the $75,000 and let you know as soon as we can.

Model S cars built after September 2014 will reportedly be eligible for the driver-less updates. Cars without the needed sensors and cameras receive a UI update, according to CEO Elon Musk.

The update, which will be delivered over the air to owners, will roll out starting Thursday and will take several days for some owners.

Musk told followers that the automaker’s 7.1 update would feature more extensive UI upgrades for the cars.

The update comes after several stock analysts downgraded Tesla’s stock, saying the carmaker may not meet volume targets for 2015 and that its Model X may be too expensive.

Aaron Cole
Aaron Cole

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  • Madman2k Madman2k on Oct 13, 2015

    Oct 15th will begin the rise of the machines!

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    • 28-Cars-Later 28-Cars-Later on Oct 13, 2015

      @RideHeight Johnny Cab here we come.

  • Wmba Wmba on Oct 13, 2015

    Tesla - desperate as ever - announces yet another item of little consequence with the greatest fanfare of blowing trumpets and not a little artifice.

    • Luke42 Luke42 on Oct 13, 2015

      One of the reasons for the fanfare is that a lot of us think Musk believes the idealistic things he says. Which means that we expect a lot of this stuff to trickle down to more affordable cars. If that does not happen, then the hype is overblown. We'll find out when the Model 3 is revealed in March.

  • VoGo VoGo on Oct 13, 2015

    Last week McDonald's gave us breakfast all day, and now this. Is life grand, or what?

  • Brock_Landers Brock_Landers on Oct 13, 2015

    Yep, every Tesla press release and tweet from Musk is treated like the second coming of Jesus Christ. Nobody bothers to check if its really any of importance or even more - worth praising. At the opposite side is Toyota who sucks at marketing so bad that even this kind of news has totally slipped under the mainstream media's radar. Even ttac hasn't mentioned it :) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bslJVikdUjo

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