Hyperdrive
Tesla Seals Deal for China Maps That Musk Says Cars Don’t Need
- CEO referred to relying on maps as ‘false and foolish’ in 2019
- China requires mapping authorization for driver-assist systems
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Tesla Inc.’s pivotal partnership with Baidu Inc. in China may amount to a U-turn of sorts for Elon Musk, who’s long claimed his company can eventually offer self-driving without high-definition maps.
The chief executive officer told investors five years ago that Tesla “briefly barked up the tree” of relying on traffic lane-level maps for its driver-assistance systems, before realizing this was “a huge mistake.” Musk’s position is that adaptive artificial intelligence systems that can recognize in real time any changes to roadways are the superior approach.