--- description: Tesla is two years away from building fully autonomous cars, CEO Elon Musk told Fortune in an interview. title: Elon Musk Says He's Very Close to a Major Gamechanger image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0c75c6846f59e7c/6988786f0a4a2274ef9c7d26/gettyimages-177205743.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Elon Musk Says He's Very Close to a Major Gamechanger  by [Alex Fitzpatrick](/author/alex-fitzpatrick/)  ## Alex Fitzpatrick Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 11, 2016 2:33 PM CUT  A view of a fully electric Tesla car on an assembly line at the new Tesla Motors car factory in Tilburg, the Netherlands, during the opening and launch of the new factory, on August 22, 2013. A view of a fully electric Tesla car on an assembly line at the new Tesla Motors car factory in Tilburg, the Netherlands, during the opening and launch of the new factory, on August 22, 2013.AFP—AFP/Getty Images  by [Alex Fitzpatrick](/author/alex-fitzpatrick/)  ## Alex Fitzpatrick Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 11, 2016 2:33 PM CUT Tesla is two years away from building fully autonomous cars, CEO Elon Musk [told _Fortune_ in an interview.](http://fortune.com/2015/12/21/elon-musk-interview/ "undefined") “I think we have all the pieces, and it’s just about refining those pieces, putting them in place, and making sure they work across a huge number of environments—and then we’re done,” said Musk. Tesla’s high-end, all-electric vehicles have been [getting new semi-autonomous features](http://time.com/4074730/tesla-autopilot-update/ "undefined") thanks to software upgrades delivered over the Internet. These abilities, like automatically staying in a highway lane at a safe distance from traffic ahead, are just a hint of what’s to come for Tesla and other automakers. For the rest of Musk’s interview, head over to [Fortune](http://fortune.com/2015/12/21/elon-musk-interview/ "undefined"). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4174989/elon-musk-tesla-driverless-autonomous-model-s-x-3/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4174989/elon-musk-tesla-driverless-autonomous-model-s-x-3/"},"headline":"Elon Musk Says He's Very Close to a Major Gamechanger","datePublished":"2016-01-11T14:33:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:07:14.309Z","description":"\"I think we have all the pieces\"","url":"https://time.com/4174989/elon-musk-tesla-driverless-autonomous-model-s-x-3/","keywords":["Tech","Autos","Elon Musk","Tesla"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0c75c6846f59e7c/6988786f0a4a2274ef9c7d26/gettyimages-177205743.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alex Fitzpatrick","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alex-fitzpatrick/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0c75c6846f59e7c/6988786f0a4a2274ef9c7d26/gettyimages-177205743.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"NETHERLANDS-US-EU-AUTO-BUSINESS-ECONOMY-TESLA-MOTORS","caption":"NETHERLANDS-US-EU-AUTO-BUSINESS-ECONOMY-TESLA-MOTORS","creditText":"AFP—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4174989/elon-musk-tesla-driverless-autonomous-model-s-x-3/","name":"Elon Musk Says He's Very Close to a Major Gamechanger"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Tesla Autopilot - Summon","description":"Tesla Autopilot - Summon","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/xIcNIipF/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-01-11T19:07:31.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xIcNIipF.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4174989/elon-musk-tesla-driverless-autonomous-model-s-x-3/","duration":"PT48S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4174989/elon-musk-tesla-driverless-autonomous-model-s-x-3/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```