Tesla gears up to launch self-driving software but with a catch
Tesla will monitor driving behaviors before allowing owners to take advantage of its Full Self-Driving software.
For the past year, around 2,000 Tesla employees and customers have been testing the carmaker’s Full Self-Driving beta software. Recently, CEO Elon Musk announced that Tesla is launching an updated version of the software on Oct. 8, which will only be available to owners who purchased the Full Self-Driving (FSD) option.
Tesla has charged customers as much as $10,000 for the software and claims that the system will eventually handle both long- and short-distance trips without a driver intervening with the system. According to Tesla’s website, a few of FSD’s capabilities include autopark, smart summon, traffic and stop sign control, auto land change, and navigate on Autopilot, which “actively guides your car from a highway’s on-ramp to off-ramp, including suggesting lane changes, navigating interchanges, automatically engaging the turn signal and taking the correct exit”
Musk surprised potential FSD users earlier this month by tweeting that before potential customers could download the software, Tesla will request car owners’ permission to assess their driving behavior for seven days. If the driving behavior is deemed “good,” the company will grant access to FSD beta.
Tesla has consistently led the pack in driver assistance systems, making it the world’s most valuable automaker, but skeptics of its Autopilot and FSD systems have made known that they believe Tesla is reckless, misleading and deploying technology that is not road-ready.
In August, the NHTSA began investigating Tesla’s Autopilot system after nearly a dozen collisions occurred at accident scenes involving first-responder vehicles. NHTSA is assessing the technologies and methods that Tesla uses to monitor and enforce drivers’ engagement when using Autopilot and is also investigating the system’s detection of objects and events on the road and how the feature responds.
Tesla also recently announced that it is going to replace the steering wheel in its newest Model S and Model X SUVs with what the company is calling a “yoke.” The yoke is rectangular and reminiscent of the steering mechanisms found in jets and racecars. Musk has indicated that the change has been made because a traditional steering wheel is “boring” and “blocks the screen.” The switch seems to have been made mainly based on aesthetics, as Musk also noted that “FSD in panoramic mode looks way better with a yoke.” According to a Consumer Reports review, test drivers using the yoke found it difficult to hold on to and awkward to maneuver.
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