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Self-driving car lanes are coming: Will they help or hinder Level 5 autonomy progress?

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6 years ago

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Tesla’s long-term Robotaxi plans require Level 5 autonomous driving, i.e., no humans involved, and it certainly sounds like things are moving along quite well. CEO Elon Musk has been chatting about the Full Self-Driving progress on Twitter lately, and some recently published patent applications by the all-electric carmaker have revealed even more details about the machine learning going into an Autopilot overhaul. However, Tesla’s self-driving competitors have another approach to autonomy in mind, and it involves infrastructure restructuring in a major way.

The State of Michigan recently announced plans to create transport lanes dedicated to self-driving vehicles via a public-private partnership project. Over the next 24 months, a study will be conducted to explore the opportunity and viability of building a 40-mile corridor of this type between Downtown Detroit and Ann Arbor. The company chosen to lead the effort is Cavnue, a subsidiary of Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners which is owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet.

Cavnue’s plans involve a digital model of a roadway that analyzes road conditions in real-time, shares information, and provides proactive guidance to autonomous vehicles and their (optional) drivers. Based on their published promo materials, this is achieved using layers of technologies like sensors, specialized road markings and signage, and signal hubs for transmitting information to vehicles. Essentially, rather than rely on a vehicle’s onboard self-driving software to analyze, predict, and respond to its environment, this connected infrastructure is supposed to provide that data instead – or supplement it heavily anyhow. It’s also supposed to enable the connected cars to talk to one another so coordinated responses like simultaneous braking, slowing, etc. are possible based on environmental factors from the larger infrastructure system.

As part of their role in Michigan, Cavnue will be drawing on an advisory committee with representatives from Ford, GM, Argo AI, Arrival, BMW, Honda, Toyota, TuSimple, and Waymo (also a subsidiary of Alphabet).

Both Tesla and Rivian are notably absent from the project’s advisory mentions, which isn’t surprising considering their competitor status through the Alphabet-Waymo connection. But if the lanes are going to involve both long hauler transportation and consumer vehicles, i.e., the Tesla Semi and Models S, 3, X, Y, etc., it must be assumed that the missing companies will eventually get on board with the overall connectivity imagined.

Could efforts like this affect the future of Level 5 autonomy in a negative way? Does it force companies like Tesla and Rivian into a self-driving standard dictated by, say, Waymo? Cavnue’s proposal says its standards will be “open” and “OEM-neutral” if implemented, so it could be a matter of a software install option for owners living in areas with these dedicated lanes. The ability for a competitor’s software to control their vehicles, though, might be a little too big an ask. Or would it?

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Tesla is already under an atomic microscope anytime something goes wrong and Autopilot is (or isn’t) involved. What happens when Autopilot is taking a back seat to another OEM’s self-driving software that’s been adopted by a local government? Will that create a code mess to sort through for investigators? How would liability be handled? What if two updates didn’t play well together – something really common in phone and computer apps after OS updates?

Tesla’s Robotaxi won’t need a steering wheel. (Image: Tesla)

“The vision for the corridor is intended to create lanes that are purpose built to accelerate and enhance the full potential of CAVs [connected autonomous vehicles] and move people,” Michigan’s official announcement stated. Getting governments even more involved in the self-driving push is inevitable and already presents one of the biggest obstacles to its adoption. It’s clear from the Great Lakes State’s initiative that this involvement is also intended to be helpful – first by isolating the autonomous cars, then by supplementing their capabilities, and finally by controlling their movements for safety’s sake.

Of course, cars talking to one another isn’t a new or unexpected idea. Even centralizing the information that’s being shared, as proposed in Cavnue’s system, doesn’t seem to impose or hinder anything generally. A legal authority adopting a self-driving standard, though, is another matter. This concern assumes that the authority in question makes it a mandatory standard since millions, perhaps billions, would be invested into these dedicated roadways. What good would they be if the majority of autonomous vehicles that used them were, say, Teslas that don’t bother with the Waymo-developed system?

Then there’s the question of handicap. Once a system is in place to centralize all the environment information self-driving vehicles are supposed to respond to, will it make it more difficult for companies like Tesla to gain local regulatory approval to use their software? Will it disincentivize other companies from improving their software since there’s a centralized program available (or mandatory)? Level 5 autonomy is no easy feat, nor is it cheap to develop. Car maker’s invest in it expecting a return – like in the case of Tesla’s Robotaxi plan.

Cavnue paints a really safe and pretty picture for the future of self-driving vehicles: Less congestion, faster movement at closer distances, more capacity in the same space, reducing or eliminating choke points, etc. But it also seems to require a lot of cooperation from those who don’t necessarily stand to gain from that cooperation.

Whatever the answers, hopefully none will put much damper on current progress towards Level 5 autonomous driving. And if they do, perhaps The Boring Company will have a few big projects under its belt and ready to provide better answers.

You can watch Cavnue’s promotional concept video here.

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Accidental computer geek, fascinated by most history and the multiplanetary future on its way. Quite keen on the democratization of space. | It's pronounced day-sha, but I answer to almost any variation thereof.

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Elon Musk

Tesla primes Cybercabs for 4K streaming and high bandwidth gaming with Starlink integration

Tesla is now shipping Cybercabs from Giga Texas with Starlink hardware built in as standard.

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1 week ago

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September 8, 2026

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tesla cybercab with no manual controls showing a movie with two employees inside

Tesla’s Cybercabs are now leaving Gigafactory Texas with Starlink hardware on the rear hatch in significant numbers, according to drone footage captured Tuesday by longtime Austin drone observer Joe Tegtmeyer. Production at the factory ramped back up after the Labor Day weekend, and his flyover of the outbound lot showed rows of gold Cybercabs alongside Model Y Long Wheelbase units, many carrying the satellite module for the first time as standard equipment rather than a one off retrofit.

Tesla first showed Starlink built into an actual Cybercab on August 10, when the Robotaxi account posted images of a single gold unit with the antenna integrated into the roofline above the taillights and called it the first Cybercab with Starlink integration. That followed a July reveal where Tesla and Starlink jointly posted a cutaway diagram of the antenna placement without a working vehicle to back it up. Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s VP of AI software, said at the time that the connection isn’t required for the car to drive itself. It exists mainly for navigation, customer service and keeping tabs on the fleet.

Musk has made a different case in public. During Tesla’s Q2 earnings call, he said the company can’t afford robotaxis stranded in what he called “Bermuda Triangles of lack of cellular connectivity,” and he separately claimed on X that Starlink will eventually reach every Tesla built, calling it the only way to deliver high bandwidth to billions of vehicles. He has also pitched the antenna as an entertainment upgrade, telling riders they would be able to stream 4K video or play games during a trip.

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The rollout has moved fast since. Robotaxi service opened to the public in Austin on September 3, and Cybercabs had already been spotted with Starlink hardware in Houston and near Miami International Airport in the weeks before Tuesday’s factory footage showed the module shipping at volume rather than on scattered test units. Whether the satellite link earns its keep is still an open question. Tesla’s unsupervised service currently runs in dense metro geofences in Texas and Florida, markets where cellular coverage is already strong, which is not where the rural dead zones Musk describes tend to show up.

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Tesla Cybertruck targets job site crews with new Tailgate Utility Track and Bed Gear Box accessory

Tesla launched a $350 tailgate track and a $985 lockable Bed Gear Box for Cybertruck.

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2 weeks ago

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September 3, 2026

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Tesla Cybertruck construction site

Tesla’s Cybertruck team added two more items to the Tesla Shop, targeting job site crews and owners who use the truck bed for actual work rather than just showing it off. The official Cybertruck X account posted the Tailgate Utility Track and the Bed Gear Box within minutes of each other, part of a five item batch that also included a reflective jacket, a spray paint hat and an updated reflective tee.

The Tailgate Utility Track runs $350 and turns the folded down tailgate into another mounting surface. It’s a single aluminum track with a T-slot for sliding accessories and two L-track attachment points, plus two load stops included in the box. The pitch is straightforward: strap down oversized cargo, like lumber or a cooler, that hangs off the back of the bed without it sliding out mid-drive. It bolts onto the existing tailgate and works on every Cybertruck trim.

The Bed Gear Box costs $985 and is a different kind of accessory. It’s a lockable aluminum storage box, 55.78 inches long, 19.8 inches wide and 7.79 inches tall, that mounts to the bed’s L-track rails and comes with two internal bins for smaller items. According to Tesla, at just over 57 pounds empty, it’s meant to stay in place rather than come in and out with each trip, giving owners a factory-fit alternative to loose totes for tools, recovery gear or emergency supplies. Tesla’s listing notes that Long Range and Dual Motor AWD Cybertrucks need the L-Tracks accessory installed separately before the Gear Box will mount, since L-tracks come standard only on certain configurations.

Tesla Cybertruck bed gear box accessory

Tesla Cybertruck bed gear box accessory

Both accessories lean on the idea Tesla has been building toward since Elon Musk first described the Cybertruck’s third-party attachment strategy at the 2023 shareholder meeting, when he said the truck would ship with mounting points so outside companies, and Tesla itself, could keep adding gear without redesigning the bed. That’s the same L-track backbone underneath the tailgate shield and jumpseats Tesla launched last year, and the off-road armor package that arrived through the same X account in 2025.

Owners looking to round out the rest of the L-track ecosystem, cargo dividers, MOLLE panels, bed racks and similar gear, can find a wider range of options through our Cybertruck accessories collection.

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Elon Musk says he knows how to save Earth for a billion years

Elon Musk says sentient AI satellites launched from the Moon could keep Earth livable forever.

Published

2 weeks ago

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August 30, 2026

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Elon Musk spent part of his weekend describing a plan to keep the planet livable for roughly a billion years, and it starts with satellites that can think for themselves.

In a post on X, Musk argued that swapping fossil fuels for solar and wind power will not be enough to protect humanity from what he called extremely severe extinction events, the kind that occur roughly every 100 million years. His fix is what he called sentient satellites, or solar-powered satellites, controlled by AI, that would sit in a fixed spot between Earth and the Sun after being launched off the Moon using a giant electromagnetic catapult instead of rockets.

The satellites’ onboard AI would make continuous, small adjustments rather than waiting on human instructions. The mass driver is Musk’s proposed way of getting the raw material there cheaply by using an electromagnetic launch track built on the Moon, where lower gravity and no atmosphere make it far easier to fling cargo into space than it is from Earth.

Musk shared a Grok generated estimate suggesting roughly 5 percent of Florida’s land, or about 1.68 million acres, could face regular flooding by 2070 under a high sea level rise scenario, and said humanity has about 50 years to act before coastal living looks very different than it does today.

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This is not the first time Musk has floated the idea. He raised a similar concept in November, describing a solar powered AI satellite constellation that could make tiny adjustments to incoming sunlight to fine tune Earth’s temperature. Musk has also tied planetary risk to his broader vision at SpaceX, where his compensation package is explicitly linked to establishing a self-sustaining Mars colony, one he has described as an insurance policy against the kind of extinction event he referenced this weekend, and where he has said humans could set foot within five to seven years.

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