Tesla Motors Inc. is positioning itself as a software company, as well as an auto maker, committing to a series of upgrades for its Model S electric cars that it will start delivering to owners via the Internet within the next 10 days.The upgrades will be rolled out over a series of months and will include a suite of groundbreaking features that would allow the car to operate with complete autonomy on highways. Unlike most of the auto industry’s upgrades, which are delivered to customers through an independent dealer network, Tesla is building on a sales and marketing philosophy that cuts out the middleman by sending the new software directly to its cars over their embedded wireless connections.

“We really designed the Model S to be a very sophisticated computer on wheels,” Chief Executive Elon Musk said Thursday during a conference call with reporters and analysts.