- Musk announced that fully autonomous driving will soon move to unsupervised status.
- Tesla CEO added that next-generation FSD will allow drivers to fall asleep
- No explanation offered for such a big leap in autonomous driving
Elon Musk has publicly stated that the company is at a point where it is “almost comfortable” with Tesla owners texting and driving when using the company’s fully autonomous driving system.
This is based on the fact that Tesla hopes to enable unsupervised fully autonomous driving in “a month or two”, where drivers can be distracted by secondary tasks while Tesla’s autonomous technology does all the work.
However, Elon Musk has not offered a clear roadmap for how the company intends to move 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 ready to take over at a moment’s notice – to a much more advanced SAE Level 3 or 4.
Until now, only Mercedes-Benz and BMW legally offered SAE Level 3 autonomous driving technology, which allows motorists to take their hands off the wheel and take their eyes off the road in very specific situations.
This typically happens in traffic jams on clearly defined highways at speeds up to around 38 mph, while both companies caution drivers that they should always only interact with the infotainment system, rather than personal handheld devices.
Additionally, German authorities granted a special exception to the two companies to explore and develop the technology on public roads, meaning many other markets are still stuck at SAE Level 2. It’s a similar case for Mercedes-Benz in California and Nevada.
As Electrek pointed out, texting and driving is illegal in most jurisdictions, including the United States, meaning Tesla would have to make huge regulatory strides to legalize its “unsupervised” self-driving systems.
So far, there is no evidence that the electric vehicle maker has made any progress in this area.
Analysis: highly autonomous driving is still far away
Given that Tesla’s fully autonomous driving is still under scrutiny due to a number of high-profile accidents involving the technology, it seems highly unlikely that the company will suddenly deliver a system where it is legal to take both hands off the wheel and eyes off the road to engage in distracting secondary tasks in the coming months.
While it can be argued that the technology exists to achieve this (Chinese manufacturers are very advanced in this area), regulatory frameworks still need to be finalized to ensure that the systems are deemed safe and legal for use in many markets.
More worryingly, Musk went on to state that the FSD V14.3 release, which the company is working on, will be the “go to sleep and wake up at your destination” version, according to Not a Tesla App.
Tesla shareholders recently voted in favor of Elon Musk’s record $1 trillion compensation package, which involves a series of goals including delivering 20 million vehicles, operating a million robo-taxis, selling a million robots and making a base profit of up to $400 billion, according to PK Press Club.
It’s clear that self-driving and AI are a big part of Musk’s future priorities, and now that it’s tied to this record payday, it seems the CEO will say anything to keep shareholders interested.
In particular, he believes that one day, criminals will be spared from prison and that a robot Optimus will “just follow you everywhere and stop you from committing crimes” instead.
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