Tesla is rolling out a 'Full Self-Driving' update to drivers it deems safe, even though the car giant is currently being probed by...
Tesla is rolling out a 'Full Self-Driving' update to drivers it deems safe, even though the car giant is currently being probed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration over multiple autopilot crashes, two of them deadly.
The update, unveiled by Tesla boss Elon Musk last week, works in neighborhoods and city streets, allowing drivers to navigate their cars from Point A to Point B, ideally with no driver interventions.
Tesla's more basic autopilot feature, found on all its cars, enables the car to steer, accelerate and brake automatically within its lane, with the firm insisting that drivers should keep their hands on the wheel at all times when using autopilot and Full Self-Driving.
Full Self-Driving is available to drivers with high safety scores, with those scores decided by giving the firm permission to monitor their driving using in-car software.
Musk made the announcement October 7, tweeting: 'FSD Beta 10.2 rolls out Friday midnight to ~1000 owners with perfect 100/100 safety scores. Rollouts will hold for several days after that to see how it goes. If that looks good, beta will gradually begin rolling out to 99 scores & below'
YouTuber Jeremy Judkins shared a clip of himself trying out Full Self-Driving, and admits turning a corner in his Tesla while in the new mode made him feel anxious
New Yorker Jean Louis, pictured, was struck and killed by a Tesla while changing a car tire in Long Island in July. His death has been added to an ongoing probe by the NTHSB into crashes linked to Tesla's autopilot software
The aftermath of the smash that killed Louis is pictured, with an attorney hired by his wife condemning the rollout of Full Self-Driving
He shared another update October 9, writing: 'A few last minute concerns about this build. Release likely on Sunday or Monday. Sorry for the delay.'
And on October 11 he added: 'A few last minute concerns about this build. Release likely on Sunday or Monday. Sorry for the delay.
Select Tesla drivers then gained access to the software this week.
One of them was YouTuber Jeremy Judkins, who shared a video of himself testing out Full Self-Driving on his car Monday.
He was noticeably nervous as the car took its first corner in the new mode, and said afterwards: 'That was a little wild, the wheel was a little wild. It gave me a little bit of anxiety.'
And a Tesla worker claims the scoring criteria used to select drivers to try out the new software has flaws.
Braking sees drivers penalized, with many saying there's now an incentive to gun their Tesla through yellow lights, instead of stopping in anticipation of a red.
Sharp turns also see a safety score hit - with drivers in densely-populated areas like New York at a disadvantage compared to those living in areas with widely-spaced, quiet roads like Kansas.
Tesla wants to test the software on safe drivers in the hopes it will 'learn' good habits from safe drivers, rather than people who behave dangerously behind the wheel, and who could influence their software to do the same.
Full Self-Driving was unveiled as the NHTSA continues to investigate 12 different crashes - two of them fatal - involving Teslas running on the firm's autopilot software.
Many of those smashes have involved Teslas slamming into emergency responder vehicles, sparking speculation that flashing lights may confuse the Teslas' sensors which help operate the self-driving software.
Musk's announcement has seen him condemned for using the general public as guinea pigs, with one New York woman whose husband died after a Tesla Model Y hit him in July, blasting the firm for 'outsourcing testing.'
Tesla has previously rolled out 'Ludicrous' and 'Insane' modes on its cars, which let drivers accelerate extremely rapidly, and have been condemned for encouraging drag racing
'They outsourced the testing to total nonprofessionals and fans,' said Joshua Brian Irwin, attorney for Bernadette Saint Jean, whose husband, Jean Louis, was killed on New York's Long Island Expressway in July when a Tesla using automated features struck him on the side of the road while he changed a tire.
'Of course they're going to figure out how to hack the scoring system and cover up the AI's flaws.'
Tesla previously raised eyebrows after unveiling 'Ludicrous' and 'Insane' modes on its cars, which let drivers accelerate extremely rapidly, and which some critics say encouraged drag racing.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a federal government agency designed to oversee transportation safety in the United States and prevent vehicle-related crashes, are currently investigating the crash.
Jean Louis's death joins 11 other accidents they are probing, including a December 2019 smash in Indiana which saw young mom Jenna Monet die of her injuries.
Meanwhile, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Jennifer Homendy told The Washington Post last month that she was worried Tesla was rolling out new features without addressing the Board's prior safety recommendations.
They include limiting the use of automated features to the conditions for which they were designed and developing better driver monitoring.
The company says that the emphasis on drivers meeting the aforementioned safety criteria and caution as to the update's wider release was meant to ensure that the feature only gets granted to the safest of road users - but others argue the criteria encourages the opposite.
'The lesson of Safety Score Beta is to gun every yellow light,' wrote one Twitter user hours after the update's release, adding that if drivers do not slow their car considerably before coming to a stop, 'you're gonna get dinged for hard braking.'
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