- Musk announced that fully autonomous driving will soon move to an unattended state
- Tesla CEO went on to say that next-generation FSD will allow drivers to fall asleep
- No explanations offered for such a big jump in autonomous driving
Elon Musk has gone on record saying that the company is at a point where it is “almost comfortable” with Tesla owners texting and driving when using the company’s fully self-driving system.
This is based on the fact that Tesla hopes to enable full unattended autonomous driving within a month or two, where drivers will be able to distract themselves with secondary tasks while Tesla’s autonomous technology does all the hard work.
However, Elon Musk did not offer a clear roadmap for how the company intends to move from Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Level 2 autonomous driving, which is essentially smart cruise control in which the driver must keep their hands on the wheel, eyes on the road, and be prepared to take control at a moment’s notice, to a much more advanced SAE Level 3 or 4.
To this point, 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 take their eyes off the road in very specific situations.
This usually occurs in traffic jams on clearly defined motorways at speeds of up to around 60 km/h, while the warning from both companies is that drivers should only interact with the infotainment system, rather than with personal handheld devices.
What’s more, German authorities granted a special exception 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’s a similar case for Mercedes-Benz in California and Nevada.
As Electrek noted, texting and driving is illegal in most jurisdictions, including the United States, meaning Tesla would have to take big regulatory steps to legalize its “unsupervised” self-driving systems.
So far, there is no evidence that the EV maker has made any progress in that area.
Analysis: Highly autonomous driving is still far away
Considering that Tesla’s full 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 secondary 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 field), regulatory frameworks have not yet been finalized to ensure that use of the systems is considered safe and legal in many markets.
More worryingly, Musk went on to claim that the FSD V14.3 build, which the company is working on, will be the build for “falling asleep and waking up at your destination,” according to 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, having 1 million robotaxis in operation, selling 1 million robots, and earning up to $400 billion in core profits, according to PakGazette.
It’s clear that autonomous driving and AI are a huge part of Musk’s future focus, and now that he’s tied to that record-breaking pay package, it looks like the CEO will say anything to keep shareholders interested.
Including that he believes that one day criminals will be spared from jail and that an Optimus robot will “just follow you everywhere and stop you from committing crimes.”
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