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What comes next for Tesla Autopilot and autonomous driving systems?
The world seems to have oddly realized for the very first time that driving assist systems are still in its infancy stages and haven’t seen the decades of iterations that other technology platforms have had. As to why people have entrusted so much of their safety and lives to the word “autopilot”, going as far as shamelessly playing mahjongg on the internet while behind the wheel, checking their e-mail, and brazenly hopping away from the driver’s seat while their two-ton Autopilot-enabled Tesla drives on its own, goes beyond me.
And it’s because of this lack of human judgment that the statistically inevitable fatal accident behind the wheel of a Tesla may have arrived before its time.
Certainly Elon Musk and Tesla Motors have taken great pains to inform drivers they must remain in control of the car at all times when Autopilot is active. A message on the vehicle’s instrument cluster and warning chime reminds us of this. So why is there such a disconnect between what the system is capable of and what people’s expectations are?
“Everyone in the autonomous vehicle industry understands consumer over-trust is a significant problem,” says John Maddox, CEO of the American Center for Mobility. It is a proposed proving ground for connected and automated vehicles that is under development on 335 acres at Willow Run in Michigan. “No one has an answer to that problem yet, to be perfectly blunt. It’s human nature that when we’re bored with a given task we find something else to occupy our minds. There are ways the industry can look at to maintain driver interest,” Maddox says via USA Today.
Michigan wants to be at the forefront of development for autonomous driving systems and connected cars. “These technologies will be significantly better when the vehicles can ‘talk’ to each other and to signals in traffic lights and elsewhere,” says Kirk Steudle, director of the Michigan Department of Transportation. MDOT is working with General Motors, Ford, and the University of Michigan to deploy vehicle-to-infrastructure communication technology on more than 120 miles of metro Detroit roadway.
But the infrastructure to support connected car technology is still decades away. Those 120 miles of roads in Detroit are a minuscule proportion the millions of miles of roads in the US.
In the meantime, drivers need to be better educated about what systems like Tesla’s Autopilot can and cannot do.
In the wake of Joshua Brown’s fatality, the NHTSA is expected to issue its first set of regulations for semi-autonomous cars in the fall of this year. The Senate Commerce Committee has decided the highest and best use of taxpayer dollars is to launch its own investigation. Its chairman, John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, has sent a request to Tesla to come and tell the committee what it is doing to prevent more fatal accidents. Apparently, Senator Thune thinks the members of his committee must weigh in on this issue while the headlines are there to be had, rather than waiting for NHTSA and NTSB to finish their investigations.
“An informed consumer is the best consumer,” MDOT’s Steudle said. “They really need to understand the limitations of what the technology can do currently. There’s a lot of information out there about where it can take us. But it’s not there yet.”
Strategies to reduce driver expectations might be a wise course of action for Tesla to follow at this juncture.
Tesla has expanded the footprint of a massive safety feature worldwide with a recent Software Update labeled as 2026.20.6. The expansion of the “Blind Spot Warning While Parked” feature represents the more widespread availability of the feature, which aims to prevent “dooring.”
Dooring is when a driver or passenger opens a car door into the path of an oncoming road user, usually a cyclist or motorcyclist. It is among the most common types of cycling accidents, the League of American Bicyclists says.
For this reason, Tesla created a feature that warns occupants not to open the door because an object is approaching. The feature will sound a chime, and it will also delay the opening of the door to prevent an incident.
The release notes state (via Not a Tesla App):
“If you attempt to open a door while an approaching object is detected in your blind spot (for example, a bicyclist approaching from behind) a chime sounds, and your door will not open upon initial button press. Wait a short time and press the button a second time to override the warning.”
Tesla initially rolled out this feature back in 2024 with the Model 3 “Highland.” However, it remained with the Model 3 exclusively for over a year; that was until Tesla added it to the Cybertruck this past Spring.
Now, it is making its way to the new Model Y, 2021 and newer Model S, and 2021 or newer Model X.
The prevention of dooring incidents could eliminate many injuries to cyclists, especially in an urban setting. Dooring accounts for 10-20 percent of bike-related crashes in major cities, and over 17,000 dooring-related incidents were treated in the U.S. over the course of a decade. These usually involve fractures, contusions, and head trauma.
Tesla confirmed this morning that it has sent the first production units, manufactured with no steering wheel or pedals, to on-road testing in Austin, sharing video of the first rides with no human controls.
The lack of steering wheels and pedals in the Cybercab aligns with Tesla’s self-certification of Robotaxi as Level 4 SAE, a platform it plans to make widespread through internal vehicles and customer-owned cars that will operate and generate revenue for individuals.
The start of these engineering tests is a major signal for Tesla, which plans to bring driverless, wheel-less, and pedal-less Cybercabs to market in the coming months. With production already well underway at Gigafactory Texas, where the Cybercab is built, there is some inclination to believe the first public rides could happen sooner rather than later.
Engineering tests of the first production Cybercab have begun in Austin pic.twitter.com/fk3KQvcE8a
— Tesla (@Tesla) June 30, 2026
Tesla’s engineering tests will put the Cybercab in real-world scenarios, testing not only the hardware, but more importantly, the software that drives the car around Austin with nobody supervising it within the car.
This is perhaps the biggest part of the internal testing process, especially prior to allowing regular, everyday people to hail the Cybercab for an autonomous ride. These early rides serve as a true benchmark for Tesla: How many rides can it achieve safely? How many miles did it travel consecutively without needing an intervention? What scenarios challenge the Full Self-Driving suite the most?
The proper precautions have already been put into place as well, as Tesla released the First Responders Guide to Cybercab over the weekend, ensuring that emergency services have 24/7 access to Robotaxi Assistance, as well as other boundaries, such as Geofencing features that can be used to redirect autonomous vehicle traffic due to accidents, road closures, construction, or maintenance.
Cybercab seems genuinely close to being added to the Robotaxi fleet in Austin, but Tesla has prioritized safety throughout this entire process. Therefore, we think it could be months before it truly starts giving rides to the public. People have been frustrated with this, but Robotaxi in Austin has a tremendous safety record so far, so the slow rollout has kept people safe and accidents to a minimum.
The most important thing is that Tesla continues to show consistent progress in the Cybercab’s ramp-up toward fleet addition. A few weeks back, we saw the EPA reward the Cybercab a Certificate of Conformity, allowing it to enter the stream of commerce. Then, we saw Tesla add decals, signaling that it was likely about to start testing it publicly. That has now happened.
The next big move will be the announcement of the first rides, so this Summer should be filled with anticipation.
For years, there have been images and videos across social media platforms that have reminded me of when I was a 15-year-old kid teased by “Xbox 720” videos on YouTube. These videos are of the supposed “Tesla Phone” that Elon Musk was secretly developing in between leading Tesla with its electric cars and SpaceX with its reusable rockets.
Would you buy a Tesla phone ? pic.twitter.com/aaTwvvIJit
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) October 6, 2023
Although Musk has put those rumors to bed several times, it was never completely out of the realm that he could get involved in cell phones in some capacity. Think outside the box and more macro-level, though. Instead of reinventing the computer, Musk reinvented connectivity by developing Starlink with SpaceX.
It could be something similar, TD Cowen analyst Gregory Williams said in a note last week, where he hinted SpaceX could be gathering some steam to acquire T-Mobile.
Williams said it would be the “clear choice” for SpaceX if it decided to go through with a network acquisition. He also suggested AT&T.
The move would be possible through selling more of its own stock, which would help SpaceX raise the money to purchase T-Mobile, which would cost roughly $300 billion. It could be one of the moves SpaceX makes post-IPO in terms of an acquisition: it already acquired Cursor AI for $60 billion.
Other analysts, like Dan Ives of Wedbush, believe SpaceX and Tesla will eventually merge into one anyway, and that conglomeration could come as soon as this year, some have said.
The implications of SpaceX purchasing T-Mobile are massive. A combined entity would create a truly ubiquitous network: T-Mobile’s terrestrial 5G towers and Starlink’s growing constellation of Direct-to-Cell satellites. This would essentially eliminate dead zones across the U.S. and potentially globally.
SpaceX would instantly become a full-scale facilities-based carrier with satellite differentiation; a huge advantage. This would pressure AT&T and Verizon heavily.
There are also concerns like a potential reduction in long-term competition, and of course, a deal of that size would face intense scrutiny from government agencies.
The strategic fit is compelling due to the existing Starlink–T-Mobile partnership and complementary technologies (space + terrestrial). It could create a dominant integrated communications player. However, the regulatory, financial, and execution hurdles are enormous — this remains highly speculative with no indication SpaceX is actively pursuing it right now.
Tesla expands massive safety feature worldwide in latest update
Tesla sends production Cybercab with no steering wheel, pedals to on-road testing
