Tesla took a cautious tone this week during the beta of Full Self-Driving (FSD) mode, warning that “do the wrong thing at the worst possible moment”.
In reference to CEO Elon Musk’s Twitter post yesterday, in which he said the FSD beta version would be introduced “extremely slowly and cautiously”, the release notes published online showed that the electric author takes safety seriously and urges his drivers to watch the road.
“[FSD] is in an early beta phase with limited access and must be used with additional caution. It can do the wrong thing at the worst possible moment, so you must always keep your hands on the steering wheel and pay particular attention to the road. Don’t get complacent,” it was said.
Pictures and videos of the dashboard of the Tesla full-drive mode used this week appeared in social media when the software update was made available to a limited number of people who were eligible for an early access program, Tesmanian reported.
Some of the more detailed insights into the system in use were posted from Tesla owners Silicon Valley and Brandonee916’s Twitter accounts, which showed how the car mapped the environment in real time, driving curves and giving way.
While Tesla vehicles are already equipped with an “autopilot” driver assistance system that provides the driver with traffic-conscious cruise control and steering assistance, the long-awaited FSD mode is designed to provide fully self-driving navigation and autonomous capabilities.
According to Tesla, this includes intersection navigation, autonomous lane changes, call-up, turn signals, automatic parking, traffic stops and even auto-steer.
“The future is coming,” Brandonee916 twittered this week. “I hope Tesla is making progress to pass this on to more people soon! The full intersection playback on the DEV user interface is incredible. I had no interaction other than changing my following distance”.
The future is coming… FSD BETA is here, I hope @Tesla is making progress to bring this out to more people soon! The full intersection display on DEV-UI is incredible. I had no other interaction than changing my following distance. pic.twitter.com/eKhvmPsAt2
– Brandonee916 (@brandonee916) October 22, 2020
It is absolutely incredible what comes with the FSD BETA! @Tesla gave me the OK to post this in social media. One day soon we will have self-propelled cars… so excited to be part of this movement! â¤ï¸ This is part of the development UI and not the final version..sneak peek! pic.twitter.com/vSnkw1rFKa
– Brandonee916 (@brandonee916) October 22, 2020
Tesla owners Silicon Valley have released a video showing their reactions to their first trip with the FSD features enabled: “Elon Musk you crazy man. You’ve done it. Complete self-drive is here.” A second clip showed the car driving around a bend on its own.
[email protected] Musk you crazy man. You have done it. Full auto-drive is here. Me and @tesla_raj are like off the face of the earth. pic.twitter.com/BZqiQjzl7g
– Tesla owner Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) October 22, 2020
Fsd beta Right turn from inside and outside. @elonmusk you are a life hack and the @tesla AP team is ð¤¯ð¤¯ð¤¯ð¤¯ð¤¯. @ElonAccessories @tesla_raj pic.twitter.com/BTTXxBXClf
– Tesla owner Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) October 22, 2020
The account also contained a picture of the full beta release notes.
They said: “When Full Auto Drive is enabled, your vehicle changes lanes off the highway, selects forks to follow your navigation route, navigates around other vehicles and objects, and makes left and right turns. Use Full Self-Driving in the limited beta version only if you are constantly watching the road and are prepared to take immediate action, especially in dead ends, intersections and tight driving situations.
When Musk was asked yesterday on Twitter about a worldwide beta version, he wrote that Tesla would have to do tests and get official permissions: “So many different road signs, rules and languages around the world, not to mention driving on the left side of the road! Also, there is a long and challenging road ahead of us to get to high… reliability (far beyond the human level)”.
In another article yesterday, billionaire Tesla said that the price of the FSD, whether new or retrofitted, will increase by about $2,000 starting Monday, and repeated that a broad release by the end of this year “is dependent on proof of high reliability”.
The FSD beta launch will take place tonight. Will be extremely slow and cautious, as it should be.
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 20, 2020
As soon as we have completed the tests and the regulatory authorities give their approval. So many different road signs, rules and languages around the world, not to mention driving on the left side of the road! There is also a long and challenging road ahead of us to achieve a high reliability of 9 âs (far beyond human reliability).
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 22, 2020
In a conference call yesterday on the Q3 results, Musk praised his autopilot team and said the launch would be slow and cautious “because the world is a complex and messy place”.
He said, “We released it last night, and then we’ll see how it goes and probably release it this weekend or early next week for more people to see.
“Then we’ll speed it up bit by bit until we hopefully have a broad release by the end of this year. Of course, as the system gathers more data, it becomes more robust.
“So it’s something like: How Google is getting better as a search engine,” Musk continued during the winning call. “That’s because everyone programs it by asking questions all the time and clicking on certain links. So it has this great feedback loop, and that makes it a very effective search engine. The same goes for the autonomy”…
