Tesla battles Google in race to get driverless cars on the road: Elon Musk says company will produce self-driving vehicles by 2016



Drivers would be able to hand 90 per cent of the control to car's computer

Competitor Google has been tight-lipped about its own robot car programme

Tesla's three year timeline is more ambitious than other car makers who don't expect to develop autonomous vehicles until end of the decade



Electric car company Tesla Motors will produce a driverless car within the next three years, according to its chief executive, Elon Musk.

The move will see Tesla overtake Google, who three years ago began the race to bring driverless cars on to the road.



Google’s programme, however, has been slow to get off the ground because carmakers are worried about potential liabilities from accidents, according to a source speaking to the Financial Times .

Tesla Motors will produce a driverless car within the next three years, according to its chief executive, Elon Musk. Its autonomous car would allow the driver to hand over 90 per cent of the control of the car

California-based Tesla said its autonomous car would allow the driver to hand 90 per cent of the control of the car over to the vehicle's computer system.

Fully autonomous cars would take longer to develop, said Musk, in an interview with the Financial Times.



The self-driving car would be developed in-house using Tesla's own technology, not that of another company, Musk said in comments confirmed by a Tesla spokesperson.



Tesla's online job board currently has a post for an Advanced Driver Assistance Systems Controls Engineer, who will be responsible for helping ‘Tesla's effort to pioneer fully automated driving.’

Tesla founder Elon Musk (left) and Google chief executive Larry Page (left) are now going head to head in the race to get a safe and practical self-driving car on to the road



Prior to this announcement, Tesla had been one of the leading contenders to collaborate with Google on its driverless car programme.

Google has already fitted out several cars with radar-like equipment that lets them navigate roads in California and Nevada.



California Governor Jerry Brown signed a law last year allowing the Mountain View-based internet giant to test its self-driving cars on the road.

Google did not immediately respond to an enquiry about the status of its driverless car programme.



Google has already fitted out several cars with radar-like equipment that lets them navigate roads in California and Nevada

This image from Google shows what a driverless car sees when it is roaming the streets

Musk's three-year timeline is more ambitious than those set out by other car makers, as well as analysts that say it will take 10 to 15 years before self-driving cars become a reality.



Germany's Daimler AG and Japan's Nissan have both said they hope to begin selling self-driving cars by the end of the decade.



Daimler already offers technology that allows for partly automated driving such as traffic jam assistance in its top-line S-Class Mercedes, which can maintain distance to other cars in stop-and-go situations.



As well as technical obstacles, legal and safety issues must be overcome before driverless cars are allowed on the road.



European Union laws currently call for drivers to control their cars at all times.



And it is unclear whether the multi-billion dollar car insurance industry has any appetite to back the cars until the technology is proven.

