Tesla boss says “almost all cars will be autonomous in ten years”

Tesla boss Elon Musk says that the new car market will be dominated by electric and autonomous cars in the next decade.

Speaking at the National Governors Association’s Summer Meeting in Rhode Island, USA, Musk said: “I think almost all cars will be autonomous. It will be rare to find one that is not in ten years. That’s going to be a huge transformation.”

He also said that he believes “more than a half of new vehicle production is going to be electric in the US” in the same time period.

Musk later pointed out that although he foresees a huge shift in new car production in the next decade, we could be looking at the same time again before all cars on the road are predominantly electrified and autonomous.

When asked whether he meant fully autonomous or simply cars with semi-autonomous features as is becoming increasingly common now, he said: “In 20 years there will not be a steering wheel.

“Having a regular car will be like having a horse, people still have horses now, but it’ll be unusual to have that as a mode of transport.”

Musk covered a wide variety of subjects during the talk, in which he called on governors to make sure they “get the rules right” on new tech and use incentives to reward innovation and support smaller businesses.

He also took a moment to praise China, saying: “China has been really pro-active with electric vehicles – I don’t think many people know this, but China’s environmental policies are way ahead of the US.

“They’re by far the most aggressive on Earth.”