Latest news with #FSD
Miami Herald
2 hours ago
- Automotive
- Miami Herald
Tesla's robotaxi rollout is alarming the public, new report shows
As the calendar turns to June, many people are focused on a key event that Elon Musk has been touting all year: the Tesla (TSLA) robotaxi rollout. After a volatile and complicated start to the year, marked by a disappointing earnings report and declining sales across multiple key markets, the electric vehicle (EV) producer has put investors through many motions. This prompted investors and analysts to call for Musk to refocus his energy on the company. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter Now the CEO seems to be doing that, after announcing he will be ceasing his work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and returning to his responsibilities at Tesla and SpaceX. This comes at a pivotal time, as the automaker prepares to roll out its self-driving robotaxi fleet in Austin, Texas. Despite the positive momentum surrounding this key event, though, a recent report shows that public perception toward Tesla's new technology isn't positive. The rise of self-driving vehicles has become a defining trend over the past few years, as companies like Tesla and Waymo have worked to outmaneuver each other. While the latter has already established a presence in several major U.S. cities, Elon Musk has made sure the world knows Tesla's launch is coming soon. Related: Analyst sets eye-popping Tesla stock price target A true master of hype, Musk has successfully kept the nation's focus on Tesla's historic event, making it clear that it is proceeding as planned. However, a market research initiative that tracks consumer sentiment toward EVs recently published a detailed report with some statistics that may concern Musk. In the May 2025 edition of the Electric Vehicle Intelligence Report (EVIR), its authors highlight some potential problems both for Tesla and any automakers seeking to venture into the autonomous driving space. However, much of the negative sentiment seems to center on Tesla. It adds, though, that younger, higher-income individuals who live in urban areas are more open to autonomous driving technology than other groups. Those are the type of consumers Musk is likely targeting with the new robotaxi fleet. Even so, the authors also flag another concerning element for Tesla. They note that the former EV leader has been declining in areas such as brand positivity and trust but add that its rivals, such as Lucid and Rivian, have recently made progress in these areas, indicating that consumers are increasingly shifting away from Tesla. More Tesla News: Billionaire fund manager dumps Tesla in favor of other tech stockElon Musk, Tesla send bold message to Washington, DCElon Musk's robotaxi ambitions hit with major roadblock Other experts have also raised concerns regarding Tesla's robotaxi launch. TheStreet's Tony Owusu reports that Wall Street analyst Alexander Pots of Piper Sandler has speculated that the company's FSD technology isn't advanced enough to handle the challenges that the launch will pose. With the robotaxi launch drawing closer by the day, investors and consumers are watching closely to see how the event will turn out. Musk has described himself as being "extremely paranoid" about it, even after Tesla reported that its FSD system has almost tripled the cumulative miles it has driven over the past year. Related: Fund manager has shocking Elon Musk and Tesla prediction Evan Roth Smith, head of research for the EVIR, spoke to TheStreet about the report's statistics and their potential implications for Tesla and Musk. While he sees damage to the brand's reputation as a likely problem, he states: As Roth Smith sees it, Tesla is likely facing an uphill battle as it bets big on robotaxis. The report's data makes it clear that many consumers don't trust the technology behind them and therefore aren't likely to embrace it, which could severely compromise Tesla's growth prospects. Related: Tesla decision reveals a major demand problem The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Time of India
Tesla hiring drivers in Delhi and Mumbai to test ‘Autopilot' ahead of India launch
Tesla is gearing up for its much-anticipated entry into the Indian market, and as a part of its preparation, the electric vehicle (EV) giant is now hiring drivers in Delhi and Mumbai to test its renowned 'Autopilot' system. These drivers will serve as 'Prototype Vehicle Operators' responsible for gathering crucial data by driving engineering vehicles through real-world Indian conditions. The role is essential for adapting Tesla's Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Full Self-Driving (FSD) features to the complexities of local traffic. This marks a major milestone as Tesla moves closer to launching in India. Tesla's drivers job responsibilities and requirements Tesla's job posting calls for experienced and highly skilled drivers who can handle long hours behind the wheel in dynamic urban environments. The selected drivers will be responsible for collecting data through Tesla's advanced sensor suite, which includes external cameras and computer vision systems. The job includes: Driving engineering vehicles 5–8 hours daily Operating audio and video recording equipment Analysing the quality of data collected Offering feedback for process improvements Tesla emphasized that applicants should be familiar with ADAS and autonomous driving technologies, and must thrive in fast-paced, high-performance work settings. What is Tesla's Autopilot Tesla's Autopilot is an advanced driver assistance system designed to enhance safety and convenience. It automates several functions like lane centering, adaptive cruise control, and traffic-aware lane changes. The more advanced Full Self-Driving (FSD) capability, currently available under supervision, allows Tesla vehicles to navigate complex road environments including intersections and turns, though driver monitoring is still required. All Tesla vehicles for the North American market are now built with Tesla Vision—an AI-powered, camera-based system that eliminates radar dependency. This system will now be tested and adapted to suit Indian roads. Why testing in India matters India presents a unique driving environment with high traffic density, diverse vehicle types, unpredictable pedestrian behavior, and inconsistent road infrastructure. This makes local data collection essential for Tesla to ensure its Autopilot features function safely and reliably. By testing on Indian roads , Tesla aims to train and fine-tune its machine learning algorithms to recognize local driving patterns and obstacles—something that simulations or foreign data sets can't replicate effectively. A step closer to India launch Tesla's hiring move comes after years of speculation about its India plans. With regulatory permissions, charging infrastructure, and import duties long considered hurdles, this new development is a clear indicator that the EV maker is finally taking concrete steps toward a formal entry. Hiring local drivers and testing vehicles in India shows that Tesla is not only committed to launching its vehicles but is also focused on adapting them to the realities of Indian driving. Tesla's recruitment of drivers in Delhi and Mumbai for its Autopilot testing marks a significant turning point in its India strategy. By collecting data on local roads, the company is laying the groundwork for a smarter, safer, and more localized version of its driving technology. For Indian consumers, this could mean a more efficient and tailored driving experience when Tesla cars eventually hit the roads. Discover everything about the automotive world at Times of India .
Business Insider
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Business Insider
My Tesla FSD diary: 5 months of curiosity, amazement, shock, and embarrassment
When I picked up my new Tesla Model 3 Performance in December, it came with a free trial of the company's Full Self-Driving (FSD) software. I originally made the purchase to enjoy driving a fast sports car. But I've also been fascinated by the promise of autonomous vehicles ever since I experienced Google's early driverless technology as a reporter at The Wall Street Journal over a decade ago. So, for the past five months, I've been using FSD (in "Chill" mode only) to see what it can and can't do. I still drive the car. Legally, functionally, and by necessity. Tesla calls this software Full Self-Driving, but it's really an advanced driver-assistance system. Every moment it's engaged, I am still the driver, and Tesla makes that very clear when you're in the car in FSD mode. The company is planning to launch a robotaxi service in Austin in June. That will come with fully autonomous software that requires no supervision. However, the reason for this diary is to give you a sense of what Tesla's latest and greatest published driving software is capable of right now. Here are my observations, feelings, and takeaways from driving more than 1,000 miles in FSD around Silicon Valley and beyond. I also shared this diary with Bryant Walker Smith, a lawyer who focuses on mobility, driver-assistance, and autonomous-vehicle technology. I've included some of his context and thoughts throughout. I also shared my diary with Tesla's press office and CEO Elon Musk via email on Wednesday. They didn't respond. More relaxing, especially in traffic Let's get this out of the way first: This is one of the best cars I've ever driven. On and off for over 20 years, I have test-driven cars from Hummers to Porsches to Alfa Romeos. The Model 3 Performance has incredible steering, high build quality, and incredible speed, for a lot less money than a BMW M4. It's a great deal and I love it. In early January, switching on FSD was a surprise at first. It handled way more situations than I expected — basically everything on most trips. Driving in traffic, with a destination punched into Tesla's onboard screen, is less stressful than handling stop-and-go congestion yourself and trying to decide which turn to take next. It's a new, slightly more relaxing experience. I get to my destination in a better mood. Tesla FSD always comes to a full stop at stop signs. Obviously, I do too. But maybe I don't? This was annoying at first, but now I don't notice, and it's safer. I thought I would lose time, but really, there's no difference. What started as an irritation became a reminder of how easily humans normalize cutting corners when driving themselves. The FSD is a more efficient driver. It uses less battery power than I do driving the car. I know this because I look at the onboard map, which predicts the battery level upon arrival. Once I switch to FSD, that prediction drops and stays lower once I arrive. Potholes and disengagements Pothole avoidance, please! My Tesla in FSD drives straight over most potholes on the road. I try to (carefully!) avoid them while driving myself. Is this why some Tesla owners say they have to replace their tires so often? I disengaged FSD in San Francisco a few months ago. There was a car parked on the side of a thin side road. I knew I could squeeze around it, but Tesla FSD just sat there. So I took over, drove around, and then restarted FSD. I disengaged another time on Highway 80, going from Silicon Valley to Lake Tahoe with my wife. We were in FSD (Chill mode) in the slow lane. Traffic built up ahead, and the faster lanes started backing up. Another car darted into our lane, right in front of us. We screamed, and I grabbed the wheel. Maybe FSD would have handled it, but I wasn't willing to find out. Speaking of lanes: In Chill mode, FSD stays in the slow lane, and it's slow to move across when a highway intersection is approaching. This gets me stuck behind cars merging onto the highway. When I drive myself, I get over into the outside lanes before this stuff happens. I know a few blocks in advance that something is going to get snarled, so I adjust early. Tesla FSD doesn't do that in Chill mode. So, we have to slow down and get into complex merge situations. I suspect being in other FSD modes, such as "Hurry" mode, would mean my Tesla drives in the faster, outer lanes of the highway. A test and a change of heart I was impressed during the first two to three months of using FSD. When my free trial ended in June, I thought I would probably start paying $99 a month for this technology. And I don't even drive that much. I bought this car to drive a fast sports car. Now, I barely drive it. That paragraph above was the thrust of the story I planned to write earlier this year. Then, my colleague Lloyd Lee and I tested Tesla FSD against Waymo in San Francisco on May 1. You can read all about that here. TLDR: We ran a red light while in my Tesla's FSD mode. Waymo refused to go that specific route, suggesting that Waymo's software system can't handle that specific intersection either. However, I was shocked by the experience. Walker Smith says there's "a huge difference between running a red light at an intersection and proactively avoiding the intersection." An uncomfortable U-turn About two weeks after that aforementioned test, I was driving in FSD mode with a friend on Highway 280 north toward San Francisco on a sunny and clear day. Traffic built up ahead, so my Tesla pulled off on an exit lane. The onboard map showed that the car planned to wait by a traffic light and then go straight ahead — basically getting back on the highway to try to overtake a few other cars stuck in traffic. Similar to what the Waze app sometimes has drivers do. Once the light turned green, my Tesla turned left under the highway instead, even though the Tesla map showed that we should have gone straight. Then it did a U-turn at a slightly uncomfortable speed (a little too fast, I felt). The worst part was that it did this U-turn from the outside lane on a multi-lane road rather than the designated left-turn lane. And it did this maneuver in front of several traffic police who were attending to a minor incident about 70 feet away. Luckily, there were no cars in the left lane, which was the correct lane from which to do a U-turn or to just turn left. If there had been a car trying to turn left at that moment, we might have crashed into it. I'm not 100% sure of this, but that's my feeling. There was a risk of this happening. After doing the U-turn, the FSD system was going to try to turn left again, taking us, finally, back on Highway 280 north. But again, it was trying to turn from the center lane, not the left turn lane. I disengaged at this point and took over the driving. My friend turned to me in shock. I blushed, which was a strange experience. It was as if I were embarrassed by my car. "Your U-turn examples are new to me," Walker Smith said. "They are wild!" "It's possible that, if another vehicle had been in the left-most lane, then your Tesla would not have attempted a turn," he added. "But it's also possible that it would have." To FSD or not to FSD More recently, about 2 weeks ago, I was in FSD "Chill" mode in San Francisco, driving toward Ocean Beach. The car was on a two-lane road, and the Tesla map showed that it was supposed to pull into a left turn lane in the center of this road. The idea being that we would wait for oncoming traffic to clear and then turn left across the two lanes going the other way. The car put the left indicator on, but didn't go into the left turn lane. I disengaged and pulled gently into the correct lane myself. I still switch FSD on a lot, in "Chill" mode. On Tuesday, for instance, I drove on Highway 101 north to work from one of our WeWork office locations. This trip, and the return journey home, were uneventful and less stressful than driving myself in highway traffic. My FSD free trial ends in June. I'm now less likely to pay $99 a month for this technology. However, when I'm expecting to drive a lot during a particular period, I might pay for it occasionally. The key difference The final words should go to Walker Smith. Having read my diary, he made a crucial point. "Your (and every) version of so-called 'FSD' is merely a driver-assistance system," he told me. "Accordingly, it only works unless and until it doesn't. That's why you have to supervise — indeed, why you are still the driver who is driving." This may seem like quibbling over slight language tweaks. But there's a giant gap between "driver-assistance" systems that still need human supervision and fully autonomous technology that does not have anyone behind the wheel. Walker Smith slapped me on the wrist for writing in my original diary that "I barely drive it." He described this as "a fundamental misunderstanding and misrepresentation of driver-assistance systems." (He also thinks BI should correct the wording of our San Francisco Waymo vs Tesla test story. I checked with my editor, who said no.) Walker Smith described the difference between driver-assistance and automated driving as "climbing a 500-foot cliff with a rope or free-soloing it." Or, the difference between hearing a pilot on a plane say "Hi folks, today we'll be using autopilot" and hearing the pilot say "Hi folks, today you'll be using autopilot because I'm getting off the plane." FSD is an incredible piece of software, until it's not. When it works, it feels like the future. When it doesn't, it reminds you we're not there yet.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Tesla's Robotaxis Won't Be Driving Alone — Humans Will Be Watching
Tesla's Robotaxis Won't Be Driving Alone — Humans Will Be Watching originally appeared on Autoblog. Tesla's long-promised fleet of self-driving robotaxis is finally arriving — sort of. CEO Elon Musk says the company will launch a small pilot of driverless Model Ys in Austin, Texas, by the end of June. But rather than letting the cars roam entirely on their own, Tesla is quietly hiring human teleoperators to monitor and, if necessary, take control of the vehicles remotely. This hybrid approach isn't unusual in the autonomous vehicle industry, but it stands in contrast to Tesla's public messaging around 'Full Self-Driving.' While Musk has long dismissed the need for external sensors like LIDAR and radar, calling Tesla's camera-based AI system sufficient, the company is still relying on human assistance to address real-world challenges. Investment analysts at Morgan Stanley recently confirmed that Tesla is relying heavily on human oversight, citing visits to the company's Palo Alto office. Several job postings back this up, including roles for 'Teleoperation' engineers who will help create tools that allow humans to see what the car sees and intervene when things go wrong. These workers won't just be steering stuck robotaxis from afar. Tesla says they'll also help build the user interface that connects remote humans with onboard AI — essentially shaping the collaboration between man and machine. Tesla hasn't yet released safety data for its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software, which is still under federal scrutiny. Both Autopilot and FSD have been linked to hundreds of crashes, including some fatal ones. The company maintains that its approach will prove safer than human drivers in the long run, but for now, it's taking extra precautions. The Austin rollout will start with just 10 vehicles and be limited to an invite-only group of users. Musk says Tesla plans to scale up to 1,000 robotaxis within a few months, assuming the pilot runs smoothly. Tesla's teleoperation setup now looks surprisingly similar to what Waymo, a longtime autonomous driving competitor, already uses. Waymo employs 'fleet response agents' who step in when its cars get confused. Tesla's version may go even further, using virtual reality rigs and custom software to give operators a real-time view and control of the car's surroundings. Tesla's upcoming robotaxi rollout may mark a major milestone for the company, but it also underscores how far we still are from truly autonomous driving. Despite bold claims and years of promises, even Tesla is leaning on human intervention to make its system viable in the real world. That's not necessarily a setback; it's a pragmatic step. As the line between autonomy and remote assistance blurs, Tesla joins a growing list of companies accepting that 'self-driving' often still requires a safety net. Whether this hybrid model is a short-term bridge or a long-term necessity remains to be seen. For now, the road to autonomy still has a human hand on the wheel, just not inside the car. Tesla's Robotaxis Won't Be Driving Alone — Humans Will Be Watching first appeared on Autoblog on May 29, 2025 This story was originally reported by Autoblog on May 29, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Two words keep cropping up with Elon Musk's business promises: ‘Next year'
Elon Musk has repeatedly made promises that don't come to fruition when it comes to his multibillion-dollar businesses. The world's richest man is accused of overpromising the timeline for everything from Tesla's Full Self Driving vehicles, affordable cars, and Robotaxis to humans landing on Mars. 'Next year' has become a firm favorite for Musk, who has been distracted lately by cutting and dismantling federal agencies through the Department of Government Efficiency on behalf of President Donald Trump. Musk recently announced he is stepping back from frontline politics and taking his vast wealth with him after Tesla's earnings took a hit in April, dipping 71 percent in profits. It was a wake-up call for Musk, who vowed to refocus on his businesses and leave Washington, D.C and the trail of destruction behind. While his investors may be pleased that his chainsaw-wielding, cheese-hat-wearing days are over for now, they are also likely 'frustrated' by all of the times Musk's predictions have fallen flat, WIRED reports. 'My predictions have a pretty good track record,' Musk told Tesla staff in March, but WIRED found otherwise in an assessment of all the times his predictions were wrong. In October 2015, Musk promised Tesla 'will have a car that can do full autonomy in about three years.' He then amended that deadline in January 2016 to be 'within two years.' In June 2016, Musk even claimed he considered 'autonomous driving to be a basically solved problem,' WIRED noted. 'We're less than two years away from complete autonomy,' he said in the familiar statement. But the deadline consistently kept slipping. In November 2018, he told tech journalist and podcast host Kara Swisher: 'I think we'll get to full self-driving next year.' Five years later, in May 2023, Musk told CNBC that 'it looks like' autonomous driving is 'gonna happen this year.' Two months later, he acknowledged he is 'the boy who cried FSD.' On an earnings call last month, Musk repeated the prediction yet again. 'I feel confident in predicting large scale autonomy around the middle of next year,' he said. 'There will be millions of Teslas operating autonomously, fully autonomously in the second half of next year.' Similarly, Musk predicted his long-awaited robot taxi would be on the road by mid-2020. 'Next year for sure, we'll have over a million robotaxis on the road,' he said in April 2019. Five years on, Tesla's robotaxi service will be on the streets of Austin, Texas by the end of June, Musk pledged last week. There is also no confirmed date yet for the launch of Tesla's Optimus robots, which Musk said would be able to 'clean your house, will mow the lawn, will walk the dog, will teach your kids, will babysit.' At an earnings call two months ago, he claimed: 'I'm hopefully ready for Optimus to be used outside of Tesla controlled environment maybe around the middle of next year second half of next year.' Musk also predicted humans could step onto Mars by 2024, which he called in December 2020 in an interview with Business Insider. 'When will we see the first human on Mars?' the billionaire was asked. 'Most likely six years from now, possibly four years,' Musk said. He first pledged in 2006 to deliver an affordably priced family car, which is now delayed until 2026, according to Reuters. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
