Tesla is pushing through with the wide release of Full Self-Driving. The company hopes regulators will understand the technology more after the wide release.
So, this quarter, we expect to go to a wide release of Full Self-Driving Beta in North America. So, anyone who has ordered a Full Self-Driving, will have access to the FSD Beta program this year, probably about a month from now,” Elon Musk said during the Q3 2022 earnings call. “So anyone who buys a car and purchases a full self-driving option, will immediately have that available to them.”
According to Musk, Tesla observed that the car’s safety is “significantly greater” when FSD Mode is activated than when it is not. He added that regulatory approval for FSD is a separate matter altogether. Musk is hopeful that Tesla will release an FSD update next year that shows regulators the car is safer than the average human.
When Tesla releases FSD this quarter, it will not have regulatory approval. However, Musk assured users that FSD would be able to take the car to work, a friend’s house, or the grocery store “without you touching the wheel.” He did not clarify whether FSD would be labeled Level 4 or Level 5 autonomy upon its wide release.
“This debate is like what’s the — what are the interventions per mile and maybe safety interventions per mile. Like we’re not saying that that’s quite ready to have no one behind the wheel. It’s just that you will almost never have to touch the control, vehicle controllers,” Musk noted.
In September, Tesla’s Senior Director of Investor Relations Martin Viecha noted that the company planned to release “supervised” FSD. Viecha’s words echos Elon Musk’s at the Q3 2022 earnings call.
Viecha explained that “supervised FSD” was basically “supervised autonomy,” where drivers still actively participate in the car’s mobility. Based on Musk’s explanation at the recent earnings call, supervised FSD requires drivers to stay attentive while on the road and only intervene when absolutely necessary.
Tesla is expected to release FSD Beta version 10.69.3 this week. The latest version of FSD Beta is v.10.69.2.3.
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