Finally. I feel heard.
I feel like a lot of people truly believe that Tesla vehicles can drive themselves. On the way up to a track day this weekend, two of my fellow Lotus drivers said that they had ridden along with family members who own a Tesla and the vehicles can really drive themselves! You enter the address, and Tesla takes it from there, getting you to your destination and even parking!
The issue? That’s not actually true. CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla vehicles were essentially autonomous over a decade ago, but Full Self-Driving mode has never achieved a Level 2+ rating. Despite Tesla dangerously suggesting that even blind people can drive their vehicles to this day, Musk admitted earlier this year that FSD isn’t autonomous as multiple lawsuits over his alleged deception rage on.
Even with all this controversy, Tesla was still calling it Full Self-Driving mode, though it dropped the “Autopilot” name from its driver assistance technology after California accused the EV maker of misrepresenting its capabilities to customers.
Until now.
Europe is skeptical of Tesla’s FSD
Well… In Europe. Overseas, European regulators have continuously confronted Tesla about its misleading FSD until it finally caved in. Now, the company has renamed the system “Tesla Assisted Driving.”
While Americans seem to blindly trust Tesla vehicles, the company has had a tougher time over in Europe. Various governments have raised concerns about distracted driving and FSD following the laws of the road. Tesla’s FSD is not even allowed in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, or the UK. While smaller countries like Lithuania and Denmark have signed off on it, the European Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles has postponed a vote on FSD until December since the more influential countries were not on board.
The name is one of Tesla’s steps in gaining that approval.
And Tesla has been pushing for that approval. Hard. One Reuters report noted that Tesla has been trying to pressure European regulators to approve FSD through social media campaigns. However, regulators are still very wary, accusing Tesla of sending doctored statistics about FSD system crashes. Hiding and altering crash data is very common at Tesla, including refusing to hand over a complete report to the U.S. government. So far, Tesla has not been able to support the claim that FSD “saves lives” over in Europe.
There are no changes to FSD itself, just the name.
What is FSD?
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving mode is not autonomous. It falls under SAE Level 2, which also includes General Motors’ Super Cruise and Ford’s BlueCruise.
Level 2 systems require drivers to pay attention to the road and stay engaged. There’s a chance they may need to take over at any minute.
Level 3 allows drivers to take their eyes off the road in certain conditions (although we all know drivers would just never look again). GM plans to offer a Level 3 system in the 2028 Escalade IQ. This would put them ahead of Tesla’s capabilities. Yet Tesla has pedal-less robotaxis…
Speaking of which, Waymo and the like are Level 4, which is autonomous. This puts Waymo’s capabilities far beyond Tesla’s, but one has Musk behind it, influencing fanboys all over the internet. Especially X.
America seems to have no issue continuing to call Tesla’s FSD autonomous. I’m sure I’ll keep hearing horror stories about people relying on their vehicles to drive them all the way to their destination. We are on the road with these people who are driving Level 2 vehicles without intervening. You should be scared.
