Tesla admits FSD is a pipe dream

daveo4EV

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I’ve been saying this for year - Tesla auto-pilot is years ahead of every one else, but that’s does’t mean they are anywhere close to full-self-driving…

TESLA ADMITS TO CALIFORNIA DMV THAT THEIR ‘FULL SELF DRIVING’ MODE IS NOT CAPABLE OF AUTONOMOUS DRIVING
Robert Baldwin, writing for Car and Driver:

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been promising FSD (Full Self Driving) software for years. For owners, opting for the chance to have their Tesla drive them to work and back mostly on its own has set them back to the tune of up to $10,000. But according to a letter that Tesla sent to the California DMV about FSD’s capability, acquired by PlainSite via a public records request, the dream of a self-driving car from the automaker this year might be just that, a dream.
The key correspondence comes from December 28, 2020, between Tesla’s associate general counsel Eric C. Williams and California DMV’s chief of the autonomous vehicles branch, Miguel D. Acosta. A letter details the capabilities of both Autopilot and FSD: “Currently neither Autopilot nor FSD Capability is an autonomous system, and currently no comprising feature, whether singularly or collectively, is autonomous or makes our vehicles autonomous,” Williams states.
The Tesla true believers are as convinced that level 5 autonomy is just around the corner as the Qanon kooks are about The Storm.
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Reg

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not so sure about that...remember that as of 2016, all Teslas built have all the FSD hardware they need and they are going to do a coast-coast FSD trip in 2017!

oh wait...checks calendar...never mind
 
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daveo4EV

daveo4EV

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Miwa

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I’ve been saying this for year - Tesla auto-pilot is years ahead of every one else, but that’s does’t mean they are anywhere close to full-self-driving…
They're not years ahead of everyone else, they are at best 3rd place behind Waymo and Cruise. They're painting themselves in a corner by avoiding LIDAR.

A better technical article is at Ars
 


Reg

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the real letters - are hilarlous - the DMV is trying to figure out what the system can actually do - and Tesla is saying yeah but it’s only level 2 so we’re good right?

there is a SNL skit here somewhere…

https://www.plainsite.org/documents/242a2g/california-dmv-tesla-robotaxi--fsd-emails/
I was also surprised at how small the new beta program was and how they managed it - like 54 non-employees in the program. They have sold over 1M cars. LOL. They make it sound like it is way larger than that, so given the size and they talk to each of the participants it makes sense that they can better control the videos that are being uploaded on youtube.
 


louv

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tigerbalm

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I had never driven a car with any kind of "driver assistant system" until I got my Taycan with innodrive and active lane keep.

I had low expectations and I was pleasantly surprised how well or helpful it was on a motorway. I hate to admit it, but if you're being a little bit of a distracted driver – say adjusting cabin temperature or adding a waypoint to a route – it feels genuinely helpful to allow you to perform that task a little safer.

Its a Porsche – I don't want too much assistance – but I'm real happy with active lane keeping – so far!
 
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daveo4EV

daveo4EV

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good lane keeping and adaptive cruise control meet a lot of my personal needs - and tesla active lane keeping is really really good - porsches is good enough - anything further is really beyond the scope of what i trust software to do
 

JimBob

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good lane keeping and adaptive cruise control meet a lot of my personal needs - and tesla active lane keeping is really really good - porsches is good enough - anything further is really beyond the scope of what i trust software to do
Agree, LKA and ACC/Innodrive and variants probably cover most peoples requirements. One additional one for city driving is protection against rear ending someone. If someone hits you in the rear, well generally you are going to win that one. Also opening doors and accidentally hitting a bicycle rider. And parking would be nice. And finding your car when you forget where you left it.

Can see lots of room for public transit especially on local routes where the route can be clearly known and delineated.

Some of this stuff looks more like a solution in search of a problem.
 

tigerbalm

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Also opening doors and accidentally hitting a bicycle rider.
My Taycan has this - but I'm not about to test it. I can see the light in the door where it would flash!
 

rich_r

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Yep - good lane centering and full range adaptive cruise are nice to have in stop and go traffic or long highway runs. Whenever I read tesla forums or watch youtube videos from Tesla fans, i get the sense that many of them don't realize that these technologies are quite common on other cars now (I mean its pretty much standard on most Hondas now for example). Sadly they also dont realize how many useful car tech features they miss out on in exchange for having stuff like Netflix and video games. Surround cameras, carplay, cooled seats, heads up displays, just to name a few. It's not 2013 anymore.

What's also kinda sad/funny is that I think some people pay the extra $10k for "autopilot" in order to get those features which are actually standard on teslas. The extra stuff you get w/ "full self driving" seems sketchy at best and dangerous at worst. Do you really trust 'smart summon' to drive your car through a parking lot to pick you up? Or decide when to take an exit ramp off a highway? Or even change lanes for you? I don't. And frankly, the amount of babysitting you'd need to do to safely use those features would make it more stressful than just doing it manually in the first place.

Also agree that all signs point to there be no f'ing way Tesla is close to anything resembling "robotaxis" or "full autonomy". Honestly, GM is probably even ahead of them in terms of driver assistance with "super cruise".
 
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