Elon Musk has a stunning prediction for what cars will be like 10 years from now
"I think we will see autonomy and artificial intelligence advance tremendously," Musk said at the World Government Summit in Dubai On Monday.
"My guess is that in probably 10 years it will be very unusual for cars to be built that are not fully autonomous," Musk said.
Tesla's cars are already being produced with a sensor system that Musk claims can enable full autonomy. In fact, Musk has previously said that Tesla aims to drive one of its cars in autonomous mode across the country by the end of this year.
But just because Tesla vehicles have the tech to enable full autonomy doesn't mean the company has rolled out its self-driving system yet. Tesla says its autonomous feature is dependent on more software validation and regulatory approval.
Other major automakers have similar timelines as Tesla for their autonomous vehicles. Ford, for example, aims to roll out its level four autonomous car in a commercial setting by 2021. And a slew of other companies are working to launch level 3 autonomous systems by 2021.
Yet, while driverless cars will be here soon, it will still take some time before the masses feel the true impact of the technology, Musk said.
"There are about 2 billion cars in the world and the total annual production capacity is about 100 million cars, which makes sense since the average life of a car before being totally scrapped is about 20 to 25 years," Musk said.
"So the point at which we see autonomy appear will not be the point at which there is a massive societal impact on people because it will take a lot of time to make enough autonomous vehicles to disrupt. So that disruption will take place over about 20 years."
You can view Musk's full interview in the video below. His remarks about autonomy begin at the 36-minute mark.