“Fully automated software” does not mean Tesla is autonomous, the company makes clear – Tesla

Tesla recently told California regulators that the “fully automated software” it is developing is available to select customers that will not make the vehicles autonomous – nor will it be in the future.

This assumption is important because the company charges $ 10,000 in addition to the custom automatic speed and course control system available on all models. At the same time, the company’s CEO Elon Musk said that this fully autonomous technology (in the indefinite future) will allow investors to develop Tesla into robotic taxis, which will bring revenue to their owners.

The problem is, Tesla is currently saying different things to its customers and investors and different things to regulators.

Blinsight website that deals with legal transparency cases Released several news items last week Tesla is exchanged with California Motor Vehicle Service by attorneys who regulate the operating structure for autonomous vehicles.

The service has been pressing Tesla since the end of 2019 to provide details about the growing capabilities of this technology, while reminding the company that it has not been licensed to allow the introduction of autonomous vehicles in California.

In fact, in a reply letter in November 2020, Tesla insisted that the beta version of the full car software (FSD), including the City Streets navigation feature, would not be autonomous. Even when it is available to all of the company’s customers, the FSD system will “continue to be an advanced level 2 driver assistance”.

Simply put, “full car software” is not designed to operate the vehicle autonomously, it must always be under the control of a person who constantly monitors data from the driver’s position.

For their part, the California authorities They told Forbes They continue to gather information about Tesla’s plans to introduce new software in all vehicles, but have declined to comment on whether they consider the company’s description of “full car” technology to mislead consumers.

In the past, consumer rights groups and road safety advocacy groups have repeatedly accused Tesla of raising high expectations, including the “full car” option for its vehicle’s auto-navigation function.

With this data, Musk has set a target of launching one million robotic Tesla taxis on the roads by 2020. In addition to the fact that the original date has already passed, Seems less than before.