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Mercedes-Benz exec shades Tesla FSD rollout: “Promising too much”
The head of Mercedes-Benz’s autonomous driving program recently commented on the rollout of advanced driver assist systems to consumers. While the executive did not specifically name Tesla, he subtly expressed his disapproval of the electric vehicle maker’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) rollout strategy.
While speaking with Australian publication Drive at Mercedes-Benz’s Intelligent Drive Insight event in Melbourne, Jochen Haab, who heads the automaker’s autonomous driving efforts, stated that the rollout of advanced driver assist systems must be a step-by-step process. He noted that by doing so, consumers can build trust in the product. Otherwise, the company could overpromise and underdeliver and consumers’ confidence in autonomous driving could decline.
“(Rolling out autonomous capabilities) should be a step-by-step approach. Do it slowly, but do it the right way. Build trust, build confidence. We’re concerned about others, let’s say, promising too much. That’s not the way we approach things. The problem is if things are overpromised or do underperform, even if it’s very seldom, the entire trust in autonomous driving itself loses confidence. And that’s a bad thing,” Haab noted.
The Mercedes-Benz executive also described how the veteran luxury car maker rolls out its advanced driver assist solutions. As per Haab, Mercedes-Benz makes it a point to do a lot of testing before it releases updates to consumers. The automaker uses no beta testers on the road outside company employees as well. This is very different from Tesla’s strategy, which has been using real-world data from its customers to improve Autopilot and FSD.
“We deal with the risk and then we take the step. We do field validation, we act as if we we’re the customers. We do up to a million kilometers (621,371 miles) with a new system before we give it to the customer. We don’t have beta testers on the road from outside of our company. We have beta testers and they’re Mercedes employees and (only in) the late stage.
“They’re not even developers in the early stages. They’re trained drivers. Then they’re skilled engineers or testing drivers. And then, eventually as it matures, we even have factory workers, cooks, security — it’s an incentive program actually — but we have measuring devices in the car so we always know what’s going on,” the executive said.
Mercedes-Benz’s Drive Pilot is a Level 3 autonomous driving suite that is available to consumers in select areas. While Drive Pilot exceeds FSD in the way that it is a Level 3 system, its is quite limited, as it only works in clear weather, during daytime, and only on some specific freeways in California and Nevada in the United States. It also only works when the vehicle is traveling less than 40 miles an hour. In comparison, Tesla’s FSD is designed to work anywhere conditions, including inner city streets, anytime, and in most weather conditions.
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Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) reported its earnings for the first quarter of 2026 on Wednesday afternoon. Here’s what the company reported compared to what Wall Street analysts expected.
The earnings results come after Tesla reported a massive beat on vehicle deliveries for the second quarter, delivering 489,126 vehicles and building 451,758 cars during the three-month span.
This was a major shock for those on Wall Street as they anticipated somewhere around 400,000 deliveries for the quarter, and showed Tesla still has plenty of demand for its vehicles around the world and in the U.S. despite losing the $7,500 EV Tax Credit last year.
Tesla Q2 2026 Earnings Results
- Non-GAAP EPS – $0.33 reported vs. $0.53 expected
- Revenues – $28.236 billion reported vs. $26.4 billion expected
- Free Cash Flow- -$1.092B
- Profit -$ 4.751B
Tesla (beat/missed) analyst expectations, so the market response to the company’s quarter is what we will look for next.
Tesla shares closed today down just over 1 percent, trading at $374.01.
In the past, it has been anyone’s guess with what Tesla shares will do after they report earnings. Strong quarters have resulted in sharp drops, while lackluster quarters have seen the stock shoot up considerably.
Tesla will hold its Q2 2026 Earnings Call in about 90 minutes at 5:30 p.m. on the East Coast. Remarks will be made by CEO Elon Musk and other executives, who will shed some light on the investor questions that we covered earlier this week.
You can stream it below. Additionally, we will be doing our Live Blog on X and Facebook.
Q2 2026 Earnings Call https://t.co/zZS6ii2TWK
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 22, 2026
Tesla is about to make parking in busy parking lots at businesses and other points of interest less stressful than ever by allowing drivers more control over where they park and how, CEO Elon Musk confirmed on X.
Tesla has been working to improve the parking performance of vehicles utilizing the Full Self-Driving suite, but now it is looking to add more customization, allowing drivers to choose the specific space they park in, but also potentially the orientation the car pulls into the spot:
It’s coming soon
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 21, 2026
Musk has reiterated on X twice over the past several weeks that Tesla is working to make things with the FSD suite based more on the driver’s specific preferences and behaviors that were seen in past drives.
Essentially, it sounds like if you tend to park away from a business to avoid other vehicles, Tesla FSD will soon recognize that preference of yours and start parking further away as well. Additionally, the prospect of assigned parking spaces has been something many owners have voiced concerns about.
Living in a community with assigned parking spaces makes using FSD incredibly difficult as it will rarely park in the correct spot when there are so many to choose from. This is also pertinent in work settings where there are sometimes assigned parking spaces.
The updates to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving suite in terms of listening to driver preferences with parking are also extending to routing. Tesla announced yesterday that with the release of its 2026 Summer Update, it was adding Automatic Navigation and Preferred Routes:
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
Tesla has always maintained the idea that any human input is bad input, and that, ideally, Tesla Full Self-Driving will always make the right decision. Of course, this is all in theory, but the issue is that so many of Tesla’s interventions have come because it does something that is not necessarily wrong, but perhaps not what the driver would prefer.
Taking these preferences into account will help Tesla alleviate some of the potentially unnecessary interventions that drivers perform.
Tesla is starting to prepare for the launch of the Optimus robot in its smartphone app, new coding strings show. Elon Musk has referred to Optimus as what will be the greatest-selling product of any kind of all time, and now, Tesla is getting ready for its launch.
Tesla’s smartphone app had several first-time mentions of the Optimus program, according to Tesla App Updates, who intially reported on the appearance. Here’s what they found:
A Dedicated “Robot” Phone Key Authentication
Tesla is working on a Bluetooth Low Energy, or BLE, authentication that is specifically for robots. This does not only apply to Optimus, though, as Robotaxi, which is Tesla’s autonomous ride-hailing platform, might also identify vehicles within the fleet as robots as well.
Tesla shows rapid teardown of Model S and X lines, paving the way for Optimus at Fremont
Essentially, pairing your phone as a key to anything Tesla identifies as a robot to a “whitelist” of authorized devices. Optimus, Robotaxi, or other products that fall into this category will only respond if the device trying to communicate with it is authorized.
This is a great security feature that will eliminate at least face-value and low-level threats.
Home Data Collection and System Alerts
This appears to be somewhat of a neural network for Optimus within your house. There will be a dedicated screen that asks for consent to collect both video and spatial data while Optimus performs in-home tasks. Everything from vacuuming, washing dishes, dusting, and other activities will be tracked.
There will also be a comprehensive alert system that will track everything from low battery to mechanical issues.
Other Changes
Most of the changes tracked in this particular app update are related to Tesla’s 2026 Summer Update, and include things such as image assets for new features, a preview of the new custom wraps feature, and other unique features.
You can check out our coverage on what is included with the 2026 Summer Update here:
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
Tesla is about to make parking in busy lots less stressful than ever
