Watch This Tesla Drive Itself At The Press Of A Button

Last night, Tesla unveiled its latest wonder, the Model S “with a D”. There are three new models that come with dual-motor functionality (all-wheel drive), most notably the P85D which is built for high-end performance, and Elon Musk plans to sell half a million of them in the next year.

The P85D can go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 3.2 seconds, and comes with an auto-pilot feature that uses sensors to detect the road ahead, street signs, lights, and neighboring cars.

And while speed and performance are important, the ability for a car to drive itself around at the press of a button is highly impressive. Luckily for us, the folks over at SlashGear captured a video of the auto pilot feature in action.

As you can see from the video, the car can change speeds based on speed limit signs, curve around bends in the road based on the lines on the street, and come to a smooth stop when a car is parked ahead.

Plus, it can do a lane-change for you, triggered simply by activating the turn signal left or right.

The car is able to do this by employing a system comprised of 12 sensors and a forward facing camera. Each sensor sees 16 feet in every direction offering a 360-degree sense of the surroundings.

Still, that doesn’t mean that you can tip down your hat and take a nap for the ride. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the car theoretically could drive itself, but that “the levels of redundancy are not there for full autonomy,” according to SG.

It’s unclear if the auto pilot functionality will be included in the price of the car or if it will be a paid unlock. The hardware is built into every new Model S rolling off the line, according to Jalopnik, but functionality will be unlocked through a software update in the next two or three months.