Latest news with #FSDBeta
CNBC
8 hours ago
- Automotive
- CNBC
Tesla robotaxi incidents caught on camera in Austin draw regulators' attention
Tesla was contacted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Monday after videos posted on social media showed the company's robotaxis driving in a chaotic manner on public roads in Austin, Texas. Elon Musk's electric vehicle maker debuted autonomous trips in Austin on Sunday, opening the service to a limited number of riders by invitation only. In videos shared widely on social media, one Tesla robotaxi was spotted traveling the wrong way down a road, and another was shown braking hard in the middle of traffic, responding to "stationary police vehicles outside its driving path." A spokesperson for NHTSA said in an e-mail that the agency "is aware of the referenced incidents and is in contact with the manufacturer to gather additional information." Tesla Vice President of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moravy, and regulatory counsel Casey Blaine didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The federal safety regulator says it doesn't "pre-approve new technologies or vehicle systems." Instead, automakers certify that each vehicle model they make meets federal motor vehicle safety standards. The agency says it will investigate "incidents involving potential safety defects," and take "necessary actions to protect road safety," after assessing a wide array of reports and information. NHTSA previously initiated an investigation into possible safety defects with Tesla's FSD-Supervised technology, or FSD Beta systems, following injurious and fatal accidents. That probe is ongoing. The Tesla robotaxis in Austin are Model Y SUVs equipped with the company's latest FSD Unsupervised software and hardware. The pilot robotaxi service, involving fewer than two-dozen vehicles, operates during daylight hours and only in good weather, with a human safety supervisor in the front passenger seat. The service is now limited to invited users, who agree to the terms of Tesla's "early access program." Those who have received invites are mostly promoters of Tesla's products, stock and CEO. While the rollout sent Tesla shares up 8% on Monday, the launch fell shy of fulfilling Musk's many driverless promises over the past decade. In 2015, Musk told shareholders Tesla cars would achieve "full autonomy" within three years. In 2016, he said a Tesla EV would be able to make a cross-country drive without needing any human intervention before the end of 2017. And in 2019, on a call with institutional investors that helped him raise more than $2 billion, Musk said Tesla would have 1 million robotaxi-ready vehicles on the road in 2020, able to complete 100 hours of driving work per week each, making money for their owners. None of that has happened. Meanwhile, Alphabet-owned Waymo says it has surpassed 10 million paid trips last month. Competitors in China, including Baidu's Apollo Go, WeRide and are also operating commercial robotaxi fleets.
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
An Old Promise About Full Self-Driving Catches Up to Tesla
Tesla CEO Elon Musk says older versions of computing hardware for Full Self-Driving (Supervised) will need to be updated, contrary to Tesla's longtime position that the computer hardware would not need upgrades. Tesla is expected to retrofit HW4 in place of HW3 for a certain population of Tesla models stretching back over half a decade. FSD is still operating at SAE Level 2 and requires driver attention to the road at all times, though the automaker has indicated that future software updates will permit higher levels of automated driving. Tesla's Full Self-Driving system, which recently received a Supervised suffix to hint at the limits of its actual capabilities, has seen no shortage of promises or controversy since its launch. And several years in, it appears that one particular promise is catching up to the automaker. On this week's conference call with investors, Tesla CEO Elon Musk was asked by an audience member regarding the possibility of owners who have purchased Full Self-Driving years ago facing a hardware upgrade for the still-evolving system at some point. In the past, Tesla had said FSD capabilities would increase via over-the-air updates, and that the hardware itself would not need to be upgraded. Specifically, hardware version 3, or HW3, which debuted in 2019 was signaled to not require updates in the future as FSD's own abilities grew via software. However, this plan now appears to have been too confident, with the Tesla CEO indicating that hardware version 4, or HW4, will need to be installed in all cars for future FSD capabilities. "We are going to have to upgrade Hardware 3 for people who bought FSD," Musk said during the call. "That's the honest answer. It's going to be painful and difficult but that's what we're going to have to do." Aside from the optimistic view that computer hardware that debuted in 2019 would never need to be replaced, especially for a system that relies on processing power, plans to update the hardware itself could impose hefty service costs on the automaker. However, one issue that this predicament ignores is the reality of how long people actually keep their cars. Tesla had been selling FSD since 2016, before HW3 arrived, and had launched FSD Beta in October 2020. The system has been offered to buyers and lessees on a monthly subscription basis, as well as the one-time purchase, with the current one-time price set at $8,000 outright or $99 a month. FSD is also not transferrable to new owners once a Tesla is sold on the aftermarket. Additionally, Tesla has not disclosed just how many FSD subscriptions or outright purchases have been made by Tesla owners in recent years, so the number of cars that would require this retrofit remains unknown. Therefore, the pool of cars that Tesla would have to realistically worry about updating does not stretch all the way to 2016, but is likely far more recent. When it comes to actual capabilities, at the moment FSD has not progressed beyond SAE Level 2, thus requiring driver attention to the road at all times, while some competitors' systems are already offering eyes-off capabilities of SAE Level 3. "The currently enabled features require a fully attentive driver, who has their hands on the wheel and is prepared to take over at any moment," Tesla notes regarding FSD. For now, SAE Level 3 is permitted in only two US states (California and Nevada), and Mercedes-Benz remains the sole automaker that has offered it to buyers in the US. A nationwide regulatory standard for automated and autonomous driving is one of the things that is expected to emerge from the Tesla CEO's involvement in the Trump administration, possibly paving the way for a more permissive Level 3 landscape. Will FSD need lidar and radar to achieve eyes-off, hands-off operation in coming years, or can it accomplish this with video alone, as Tesla proposes? Please comment below.
