Recently, Elon Musk (Tesla CEO) responded to someone on Twitter who had stated that drivers with over 10,000 miles of FSD experience on the road shouldn’t have to receive alerts about keeping their hands on the steering wheel while making use of the feature. The CEO agreed and said that an update was coming in January.
It’s a debatable idea as the alerts have a purpose that is both obvious and safe for others on the road. Human error is all over the place and these alerts help keep the peace when it comes to making baby steps toward true full self-driving experiences. At the same time, they can get annoying when they pop up even when your hands are resting on the wheel.
Either way, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) seems to have taken notice as it was quick to its feet at responding by looking into these tweets. Removing these notifications can play a major role in what is expected from the “FSD” features of the vehicles (or what certain drivers may expect or assume is or is not ok).
This goes along with other investigations being made into the company’s FSD capabilities, use of terms, and other related concerns.
There is a chance this “update” will not see the light of day as long as it is drawing the attention of agencies concerned. Making for another gutsy tweet made by the CEO. This would also (obviously) make for a great opportunity to roll out a game-changing update to the FSD system, if it existed, to prove there is justification for such efforts. Sadly, those updates are likely to be nowhere near ready at this time.
Meanwhile, Mercedes was recently granted SAE Level 2 for autonomous driving, which allows the company to slide ahead of Tesla slightly. Meaning the self-driving race between companies is already making quite the milestone for 2023 and the year has only started.
