Can Elon Musk's Tesla Deliver Its 'ChatGPT Moment' Before it's Too Late?

Expressing confidence in Tesla's advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) last year, Elon Musk said the automotive company will soon have its "ChatGPT moment". While technically impressive, Tesla's moment doesn't quite live up to the ChatGPT hype.

While interacting with CNBC's David Faber on Twitter Spaces, Musk shed some light on Tesla's AI efforts saying: "I think Tesla will have sort of a ChatGPT moment, maybe if not this year, I'd say no later than next year".

Musk went on to explain that the "moment" alludes to an achievement where Tesla vehicles would be able to drive themselves without any human intervention.

He hinted at a future possibility where millions of Tesla vehicles would operate autonomously. "Suddenly 3 million cars will be able to drive themselves," he said.

Can Tesla deliver on its AI promises?

Musk feels like Tesla's AI capabilities get unfairly ignored compared to ChatGPT and generative AI. He admitted that people do discuss Tesla's AI online, but wants people to realise his AI is making waves too, even if other AI topics get more headlines.

Musk's audacious claim about Tesla's AI is now facing its real-world test. The latest version of Tesla's Full Self-Driving software was made available to select US-based customers ahead of the company's quarterly earnings call with investors this week.

This iteration, V12, will see Full Self-Driving (FSD) finally completing its "beta" testing on U.S. roads. "Version 12 won't be beta," Musk stated in late June. Well, the EV maker has started rolling out the Beta v12 update, but early reports suggest it may not be the "ChatGPT moment" Musk hyped.

Tesla influencer Omar Qazi, who is one of the early recipients of the FSD v12, said engineers warned him that the recently arrived update was still a "rough early build".

After initial testing, the man behind the Whole Mars Catalog X (formerly Twitter) account (with 420k followers), predicted a March release in the US for Beta v12.

"There are major improvements in virtually every aspect people care about," Qazi told X Spaces, before adding, "it's not really ready for the public".

However, he did not say that the software is now capable of handling driving in well over 99.99 per cent of the cases, which is the level of reliability needed before a vehicle can drive without a human behind the wheel at all times.

Renowned FSD driver Chuck Cook urged Tesla fans to "slow down the FSDBeta v12 enthusiasm". Cook, who is known for posting videos of unprotected turns said: "Don't project autonomy on this build yet."

FSD is still not ready

Tesla's self-driving technology used to be the reason everyone thought the company would be super valuable. However, the hype around the FSD faded when a top Tesla engineer admitted he staged an inaccurate self-driving video on Musk's bidding.

During the October Q3 investor call, Musk described FSD as a rudimentary form of AI. "It's basically baby AGI. It has to understand reality in order to drive—baby AGI," he explained.

"Tesla has the best real-world AI team on earth, period," he told investors in October. "And it's getting better". It is worth noting that even Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, hasn't described ChatGPT in such a manner.

While other car companies hit record highs, Tesla hasn't budged much since December 2020, according to a Fortune report. In fact, Tesla stock is down 16 per cent since the year began. Moreover, Tesla stockholders felt the sting of a missed opportunity. While they continued holding onto Tesla shares, AI chipmaker Nvidia soared 3 times in value.

Amid his attempt to gain more control of Tesla, Musk recently indicated that a slew of new Tesla products are set to arrive soon. The success of Tesla's upcoming products, particularly their features and market reception, will play a key role in boosting the company's value.

With the clock ticking, it is time for Musk's AI team to prove his bold claims by delivering a "ChatGPT moment" to keep investors on board.