Tesla is showing off the autopilot feature on its Model S cars in what may be the company's first television ad, "Revolutionize Your Commute."

Needless to say, the autopilot looks fantastically futuristic. But the ad also points to what consumers will gradually be seeing more and more starting this year: the middle steps between dumb cars that need a driver and fully autonomous vehicles.

The video, released online by Tesla late last week, shows what a daily commute looks like when you have a car that can drive itself in autopilot mode: Namely, way more awesome than your commute now.

It starts with hitting the "Summon" button on your smartphone, which remotely wakes the Model S up. The car starts itself, and then pulls out of the garage (which is connected to Telsa's EVE Connect app) and then valets itself to your doorstep.

Once you're on the road, you can turn on the Model S's autopilot with the flip of a lever, just as you would cruise control.

Autopilot - Revolutionize Your Commute from Tesla Motors on Vimeo.

Then the magic happens. The video highlights some of the specific intelligent features that make up the autopilot experience, including road navigation, positional awareness with the flow of traffic, and the ability to change lanes by itself once you've cued it by flipping on the turn signal. There's no footage of what happens to those drivers who inadvertently keep their turn signal going for miles on the highway, but we're betting the car is smart enough not to veer off the road.

The video ends with the Model S parallel parking itself on command, which isn't a revolutionary feature these days, as an increasing number of luxury vehicles can do this, but it nevertheless puts a nice button on the ad's commuting narrative.

Revolutionary, But Prudent

Speaking of self-driving features becoming more ubiquitous, one interesting understated aspect of the autopilot ad, pointed out by The Next Web, is that during the entire narrative, the driver never takes his hands off the steering wheel.

Of course, there are the obvious safety reasons, but also public relations reasons behind that: Tesla is combating perceptions that its Autopilot software, which the company released in a software update for Model S vehicles late last year, may make drivers act more carelessly or worse, may not be as in control as advertised. Tesla's founder Elon Musk has often expressed confidence in the safety of Autopilot, while also cautioning that drivers will probably want to keep their hands on the wheel, "just in case."

In any case, it wouldn't make a good impression to flaunt autopilot that way (imagine if the commuter turned on Autopilot, took out an iPad and started playing Fruit Ninja) in Tesla's first TV spot -- even if that's the real dream of the future of autonomous driving.

More broadly, Tesla's ad is following the cautious, incremental approach to autonomous vehicle technology that Musk's company has taken, in contrast to Google, whose first public prototype for its autonomous driving technology came with no steering wheel at all.


That's the logical endpoint for driverless car technology, as Musk has conceded, but it's also much further down the road than the Model S's Autopilot and other middle-ground, "hybrid" autonomous car features that are headed to our lives in the very near future.

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