Tesla pushes past Musk’s limits on ‘unsupervised’ car

We’ve come across yet another Elon Musk self-driving car. Tesla cars that use the company’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system have traveled more than 10 billion kilometers, according to the company. modified secure page. This means that the company has it crossed the line that Musk established earlier this year in a “safely unattended” vehicle.

But Tesla owners didn’t suddenly wake up today to find their FSD (Supervised) cars changed to FSD (Unsupervised). FSD is still a Level 2 system that requires an alert human driver behind the wheel to monitor the road and prepare to take over at any time.

In January, Musk said at X that “about 10 billion miles of training are needed to be able to drive without supervision” – the meaning is that when Tesla reaches this point, the company will change the configuration and all of its customers will suddenly be able to find a way to drive without supervision.

Of course, this would have been a risky move for Tesla, especially when there are so many questions about the company’s willingness to accept responsibility for over a million vehicles with FSD. When a Waymo vehicle is involved in an accident, Waymo is responsible because it owns the technology and fleet. But Tesla’s system puts the onus on the owner, based on its FSD status as a Level 2 supervised system. What happens when FSD goes unsupervised? So who takes responsibility for the accident?

It’s not clear if Tesla found it yet. Over the years, there have been hundreds of accidents involving Tesla’s autonomous systems and many fatalities. But the company has been able to avoid prosecution, either by settling with the victims or by forcing the courts to dismiss the cases. On his websiteTesla says that FSD (Supervisor) “requires driver supervision and does not make the car autonomous.”

A federal judge in Florida last year found Tesla guilty in a 2019 fatal crash involving the Autopilot driver assistance program, and ordered the company to pay $243 million to the victims’ families. Tesla appealed the decisionbut the judge rejected that.

However, it is important to acknowledge the incredible achievement of 10 billion miles driven in the FSD (Manager). Tesla says its FSD-equipped vehicles drive an average of 5.5 million miles before a major collision, compared to 660,000 miles for the average US driver. Tesla cites this as evidence that FSD is safer than human driving.

Experts have long questioned Tesla’s strategy. Research has shown that the company’s safety reports fail to take into account important facts about traffic statistics, such as that traffic accidents are more common on city roads and on undivided roads than on the highway, where Autopilot is used the most. Some researchers believe that Tesla may be making mistakes to make Autopilot and FSD appear safer than they actually are.

Unmanned driving can be difficult for Tesla customers, but the company is expanding the use of unmanned vehicles in its robotaxi fleet. After launching in Dallas and Houston with only two cars, Tesla has added more cars to its fleet. Dallas now has five unmanned robotaxis, while Houston has six, according to Robotaxi Tracker. Austin, where Tesla launched its robotaxi service, now has 29 supervised (front-seat) and 22 unsupervised vehicles.

Naturally, this makes many Tesla owners feel like they are too close to being able to drive unsupervised. But questions about responsibility should continue to delay their chances. In a earnings call last month, Musk said that unsupervised driving is coming “to be allowed.” When asked specifically about FSD being unsupervised in consumer vehicles, he predicted it would arrive in the fourth quarter of the year.

Another part, or another marker that will move?