---
title: "Elon Musk Says He’s Surprised to Discover That Self-Driving Cars Are Difficult"
description: "After once again delaying the launch of the next Tesla Full Self-Driving beta, Elon Musk said he was surprised by how hard making autonomous cars can be."
date: "2021-07-06"
modified: "2021-07-06"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-surprised-self-driving-cars-difficult"
categories:
  - "Advanced Transport"
  - "Elon Musk"
  - "Future Society"
  - "Self-Driving Vehicles"
  - "The Industrialists"
tags:
  - "elon musk"
  - "full self-driving"
  - "tesla"
  - "the digest"
---

# Elon Musk Says He’s Surprised to Discover That Self-Driving Cars Are Difficult

![After once again delaying the launch of the next Tesla Full Self-Driving beta, Elon Musk said he was surprised by how hard making autonomous cars can be.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/elon-musk-surprised-discover-self-driving-cars-difficult.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Tesla\</em\>*

## Shocked-Pikachu.png

After Tesla once again delayed the launch of its next "Full Self-Driving" (FSD) software beta, Elon Musk admitted that he's been caught off guard by just how difficult it is to develop autonomous vehicles.

The upcoming beta of FSD 9 won't actually make a Tesla fully autonomous no matter what the name implies, *[Insider ](<https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-tesla-full-self-driving-beta-cars-fsd-9-2021-7>)*[notes](<https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-tesla-full-self-driving-beta-cars-fsd-9-2021-7>). But whenever it does come out, the beta will still be able to handle many aspects of driving including steering, changing speed, switching lanes, and parking.

"Haha, FSD 9 beta is shipping soon, I swear!" [Musk tweeted](<https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1411280212470366213>) on Saturday. "Generalized self-driving is a hard problem, as it requires solving a large part of real-world AI. Didn't expect it to be so hard, but the difficulty is obvious in retrospect. Nothing has more degrees of freedom than reality."

## Sisyphus' Publicist

To be fair, Musk and Tesla have taken on a [herculean challenge](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/full-self-driving-tesla-legal>) by trying to introduce self-driving cars to the world, and it's not like there's anyone around to ask for help who isn't working on the same challenge [for a different company](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/waymo-ceo-blasts-teslas-self-driving-tech>).

But Musk has set so many unrealistic timelines along the way. Remember when he said there'd be over 1 million [fully autonomous Tesla "robotaxis"](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/teslas-plans-robotaxis-network-nonsense>) on the streets by 2020?

These delays and unrealistic timelines have also impacted the FSD 9 beta. Back in July 2018, Musk said that the full version of FSD 9 would be released that August, according to *Insider*. Then, in April 2021, [Musk tweeted](<https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1382460531550785541?lang=en>) that he'd be surprised if it launched later than June. Again, this is an incredibly difficult challenge that Tesla has taken on. Even when the new beta finally comes out, fully autonomous cars will still be a dream for the distant future — no matter how many times Musk hints that it's just around the corner.

**READ MORE:** [Elon Musk says making autonomous cars is much harder than he expected, after Tesla's timeline for the latest 'full self-driving' software slipped again](<https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-tesla-full-self-driving-beta-cars-fsd-9-2021-7>) \[*Insider*\]

**More on Tesla:** *[Tesla Admits Elon Musk Exaggerated Autopilot Capabilities](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/tesla-admits-elon-musk-exaggerated-autopilot>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)