Every Single New Tesla Will Come With Fully Autonomous Hardware, But You Won't Be Able To Use It

Elon Musk has been teasing us all over Twitter about some big, fancy Tesla-shaped news, and now we know what it is. The company today announced that going forward, every single one of its new cars will be built with the necessary hardware to handle ‘Level 5’ autonomy.

We’re talking eight surround cameras giving 250 metres of visibility, plus 12 updated ultrasonic cameras that can tell the difference between a hard or soft object from twice the distance as previously possible. In other words, it’s much less likely to slam the brakes on because an empty beer can just blew in front of the car.

With all the shiny near gear, Tesla’s Autopilot system will become much more than the semi-autonomous don’t let go of the steering wheel or I’ll get angry ‘Level 3’ deal you get today. No - with the new system, Tesla reckons you’ll be able to ‘drive’ from New York to Los Angeles without having to touch the steering wheel once.

There is a catch though - you won’t be able to use any of these new Level 5 abilities. At least not just yet; the software to access all that juicy self-driving hardware fully won’t be here until late 2017.