- Musk announced that Full Self-Driving will soon move to an unsupervised status
- Tesla’s CEO went on to say that the next-generation FSD will allow drivers to fall asleep
- No explanations are offered for such a large jump in autonomous driving
Elon Musk has written that the company is at a point where it is “almost comfortable” with Tesla owners texting and driving when using the company’s Full Self-Driving system.
This is based on the fact that Tesla hopes to enable Unsupervised Full Self-Driving in a “month or two”, where drivers will be able to be distracted by side tasks as Tesla’s autonomous technology does all the hard work.
However, Elon Musk did not offer a clear road map of how the company aims to jump from Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Level 2 autonomous driving — which is essentially intelligent cruise control, where the driver must keep their hands on the wheel, eyes on the road and be prepared to take over at any time — to a much more advanced SAE Level 3 or 4.
Until now, only Mercedes-Benz and BMW have legally offered SAE Level 3 autonomous driving technology, which allows drivers to take their hands off the wheel and eyes off the road in very specific situations.
This is typically in traffic jams on clearly defined motorways at speeds up to around 38km/h, while both companies’ caveat is that drivers still only need to interact with the infotainment system rather than personal handheld devices.
Furthermore, the German authorities have granted a special exemption to the two companies to explore and develop the technology on public roads, meaning that many other markets are still stuck at SAE Level 2. It is a similar case for Mercedes-Benz in California and Nevada.
As pointed out by Electrek, texting and driving is illegal in most jurisdictions, including the US, meaning Tesla would have to make huge regulatory leaps in legalizing its “Unsupervised” self-driving systems.
So far, there is no evidence that the EV maker has made progress in that area.
Analysis: Highly autonomous driving is still some way off
Given that Tesla’s fully self-driving is still under scrutiny due to a series of high-profile accidents involving the technology, it seems highly unlikely that the company will suddenly deliver a system where it’s legal to take both hands off the wheel and eyes off the road to engage in distracting side tasks in the coming months.
While it can be argued that the technology exists to make this happen (Chinese manufacturers are very advanced in this area), the regulatory framework has yet to be finalized to ensure that the systems are considered safe and legal to use in many markets.
Even more worryingly, Musk went on to state that the FSD V14.3 build the company is working on will be the “fall asleep and wake up at your destination” build, according to the Not a Tesla App.
Tesla shareholders recently voted in favor of Elon Musk’s record $1 trillion compensation package, which involves a number of goals including delivering 20 million vehicles, operating 1 million robotic axes, selling 1 million robots and earning as much as $400 billion in core profits, according to Pakinomist.
It’s clear that autonomous driving and artificial intelligence are a massive part of Musk’s future focus, and now that it’s tied to the record-breaking pay package, it seems the CEO will say anything to keep shareholders interested.
Including, he believes, one day criminals will be spared prison and an Optimus robot will “just follow you around and stop you from committing crimes” instead.
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