"It Will Be Quite Rare for People to Drive Themselves"... Musk's Optimism on Autonomous Driving

Musk Announces Widespread Driverless Car Deployment in U.S. by Year-End

Robotaxi Expansion Race Continues as Waymo Leads the Market

"AI Will Handle 90% of Driving Within 10 Years"

Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tesla, has offered an optimistic outlook on the potential of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered autonomous driving technology.

Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tesla. Photo by Reuters Yonhap News

According to Yonhap News on May 18 (local time), citing Bloomberg and other sources, "CEO Musk attended the Smart Mobility Summit held in Tel Aviv, Israel, via video conference and stated that within five years, and certainly within ten years, AI-powered autonomous vehicles will be responsible for 90% of all driving." Musk also said, "Within ten years, it will be quite rare for people to drive their own cars," and predicted, "By the end of this year, we will see widespread operation of driverless cars in the United States."

Currently, Tesla is applying supervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology and is conducting pilot operations of autonomous robotaxis in Austin, Dallas, and Houston, Texas.

In the U.S. autonomous driving market, Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet, leads the industry, operating approximately 3,700 robotaxis. As of February 2026, Waymo's cumulative fully driverless mileage reached 200 million miles, with weekly paid rides exceeding 450,000. Tesla’s accumulated FSD mileage surpassed 10 billion miles as of May 2026; however, this figure reflects supervised driving with a human driver present, which is fundamentally different from Waymo’s fully driverless miles.

Last year, CEO Musk stated that Tesla robotaxis would cover half of the U.S. population by the end of 2025. In reality, however, operations have been limited to certain areas of Austin. Although the service expanded this year to Dallas and Houston, it still operates with safety supervisors on board. As a result, some have pointed out that Musk’s announcements regarding autonomous driving have repeatedly failed to materialize.

Meanwhile, CEO Musk explained that he attended the summit via video conference from Texas because, "I need to formally begin work on the SpaceX initial public offering (IPO) soon." SpaceX, an aerospace company valued at 2 trillion dollars (approximately 2,760 trillion won), is expected to be listed on Nasdaq next month. Musk emphasized, "We can achieve success in launch system reusability technology within this year. Once developed, this technology will mark a turning point in human history and pave the way toward a spacefaring civilization."

Regarding Neuralink, a brain implant company, Musk announced, "By the end of the year, we will perform the first procedure for people who have lost their sight." He added, "Initially, vision restoration will be limited, but over time, patients will acquire highly detailed vision," and noted that "technology to help paralyzed patients walk is also under development."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.