The discussion on the Internet of Things is incomplete without talking about its impact on the automotive industry. Tesla Motors, a silicon-valley based company was built on the philosophy of smart vehicles. Named after the world's greatest scientist Nikola Tesla, the company sells electric cars, electric vehicle powertrain, and batteries. Tesla Roadster was the first fully electric sports car, launched in 2008. This model was followed by Tesla Model S:
Beginning September 2014, all Model S were equipped with a camera mount on the windshield, forward facing RADAR, and ultrasonic acoustic location sensors giving the car an ability to sense 360-degree buffer. At that time, Model S had the ability to recognize obstacles and road signs. This well-equipped car was given the capability of auto-pilot in October 2015 in the software v7.0 which allows hands-free driving. The update on January (software v7.1) contained "summon" feature that allows the car to park itself automatically without the driver. Another big thing to know here is that the software updates for Tesla are over-the-air unlike some of its competitor. The autonomous driving feature ignites a mixed reaction from the community where some users were excited, others were doubtful about the safety. The update resulted in this car to become a true Internet of Things marvel as it satisfies the requirements perfectly.
The car is now fully aware of its surroundings and can make decisions to navigate safely on the road. Industry experts showed concerns regarding the autonomous driving but Tesla CEO and Google's director of self-driving cars showed their confidence in the technology:
