Elon Musk has announced that Tesla’s advanced driver assistance system, Full Self-Driving (FSD), will be made more widely available in North America and eventually globally. Musk stated on Twitter that a free one-month trial of FSD will be offered to all North American cars once the system is “super smooth,” with worldwide trials to follow once approved by local regulators.
The FSD beta software, which does not yet enable cars to drive themselves fully, automates some driving tasks on both city streets and highways but still requires the driver to stay alert and take control of the vehicle at any time. Tesla’s aim is to train and improve the system using the data collected during the trial period, as FSD is still technically in beta stage.
However, Tesla has faced stricter regulations on FSD outside North America, and drivers in Europe currently only have access to the standard ADAS, Autopilot, which includes automatic steering within a lane, automatic braking, and automatic navigation to highway on- and off-ramps. The European Commission is currently working on new regulations for ADAS, with the aim of submitting them in full by September 2024.
Tesla is planning to conduct large-scale testing of Full Self-Driving (FSD) in Asian markets such as China, where its Autopilot system is already available. However, FSD and Autopilot have been the subject of multiple investigations and lawsuits, including a criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice. Elon Musk is also facing legal action from the family of an Apple engineer who died in a car accident while allegedly using Autopilot, and is expected to defend comments he made about the system’s capabilities.
