Tesla Leads Autonomous Driving Sector, Cheaper 60kWh Model S To Get Scrapped

The autonomous driving sector is saturated with major companies vying for dominance, but in terms of access to sheer amount of data, Tesla is taking the lead. By having the most number of vehicles on the road capable of driverless functionality, it’s only natural that the company would have an immense network of units to gather information for research. In related news, Tesla is also going to stop selling the cheaper version of the Model S.

As Seeking Alpha points out, the world of autonomous driving is driven by machine learning, and this requires a vast amount of data. This makes data a commodity in the sector and no other company has access to as much of the resource than Tesla.

Just to put this in perspective, Google’s Waymo division boasted 2 million miles of autonomous driving data in 2016. Meanwhile, Tesla is doing about 1 million miles per day thanks to the cumulative efforts of thousands of its vehicles on the road. Based on this discrepancy, it’s easy to see which of the two companies is poised to dominate the market.

As it is, Waymo only has a few hundred vehicles on the road testing out its autonomous driving feature. While it may have the advantage in terms of the technology, it won’t be rid of Tesla’s shadow until it can send out the same number of cars as Elon Musk’s company is currently doing.

In related news, it would seem that Tesla is getting rid of the cheapest Model S on offer with a 60kWh battery pack. According to Marketwatch, the reason for the discontinuation is the lack of interest among buyers. The cheaper Model S was meant to provide customers with access to a more affordable version of its electric vehicle line.

It seems customers didn’t see much sense in going for the underpowered units, however, since they opted for more expensive models anyway. As such, it didn’t make much sense to keep the 60kWh units around.