Fully-autonomous cars are not only a real possibility, but they’re also proven to be safer than manual vehicles, according to a former Tesla executive.

Tesla Motors Founder and Chief Executive Elon Musk published a blog titled ‘Master Plan, Part Deux’ Wednesday night mapping his vision for fully-automated vehicles, car sharing, extending Tesla’s product line and tying together power generation and storage.

George Blankenship, an ex-VP of the company who was one of the first senior officials Musk hired six years ago, supports this vision and believes it’s completely possible. Blankenship rolled out Tesla’s retail store strategy after working as an executive with the Gap. Before that, he joined Apple to help establish its retail footprint. 

Blankenship told BNN in an interview that he was inspired to work with Musk after hearing his compelling ideas about getting affordable, sustainable cars to the masses.

“If you look at [Musk’s] first manifesto, it was really focused on the electric car, and getting that up and running,” he said. “Then the goal was always to get the Model 3, an affordable car that could be a mass-market car, that could really make a difference in sustainable transport.”

It’s been 10 years since Musk released that first manifesto, and it’s taken that long for the masses to consider electric cars. 

“People didn’t believe in electric cars, now they do,” Blankenship said.  

While Blankenship admits Musk’s new vision may take some time to come to fruition, it’s not far off. Safety, for example, is one of the features of Tesla’s self-driving cars that Musk has continued to boast. In Wednesday’s blog, Musk said he plans to develop self-driving capability that will be 10 times safer than cars we drive manually.

“It has already proven itself to be safer than regular driving,”  Blankenship said.

Blankenship also noted that self-driving cars are already available and that it will only be a matter of time before we see fully-autonomous vehicles on the road, with the need for regulations possibly slowing down the process.

Even though Musk’s vision outlined in his latest manifesto may seem ambitious, Blankenship says Tesla’s access to information and advanced technology makes it all possible.

“I think all of it’s achievable – it’s just a matter of time,” he said.