Musk: Tesla on the cusp of achieving level five autonomous driving

Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk said on Thursday the electric automaker will have the basic functionality for level five autonomy completed this year.

"I am extremely confident that level five or essentially complete autonomy will happen and I think that will happen very quickly," he said during a video conference call during the opening ceremony of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2020 in Shanghai.

Level five autonomy refers to completely autonomous driving where the passenger does not have to assume control at any point, and where the vehicle can handle any road conditions and weather types.

Musk praised the Tesla China team for doing an "amazing" job and said he looked forward to visiting the Gigafactory in Shanghai as soon as possible.

"I really can't say enough good things. We expect over time to use more AI and essentially smarter software in our factory," he said, noting that it will take a while to employ AI effectively in a factory.

Tesla sold 11,095 of its made-in-Shanghai Model 3 electric sedans to China-based customers in May, according to the China Passenger Car Association.