Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk is apparently in talks with Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) about adding driverless technology to its vehicles. That’s right. Musk can’t just help himself when it comes to making press for his company, which is certainly a good practice for a CEO to have.
Bloomberg’s Alan Ohnsman reports that Musk said self-driving—or as he preferred to call them, autopilot—cars is the next logical step in automotive evolution. He likened the technology to the autopilot systems that are found in aircraft because he said that “self-driving” sounds more negative, “like it’s going to do something you don’t want to do.”
Musk tweeted about his conversations with Google, saying that the comments he made about self-driving cars to Bloomberg were not a “big announcement,” but rather, “just off-the-cuff.”
Tesla Motors And Google: Match Made In Heaven?
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page both invested in Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) before it went public in 2010, so it makes sense that they would team up with Musk to put driverless technology in Tesla’s vehicles.
The U.S. military has been pushing for driverless vehicles for a long time, holding competitions for automakers. While some experts say we won’t see driverless cars for 10 years, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) said it expects to have the technology ready in just five.
Bringing Costs Down For Tesla Motors
According to Musk, the big problem with Google’s technology at this point is that it’s too expensive. He said an optical system using cameras and software would be less expensive and better than the sensor system Google is currently using.
Musk has been on a quest to bring down the cost of Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s vehicles so that they can get into the mainstream. Currently the Model S starts out at just under $70,000, but Musk believes the company will be able to bring their costs down so that they can offer a vehicle starting at around $30,000 in the next few years.
Shares of Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) have fallen 3.52 percent since the markets opened this morning. They climbed to a new record high today before falling down ahead of the company’s next earnings report.
