By
Bena Ilyas
April 23rd, 2024
Although Musk claims that there is now a lot of improvement with the Full Self-Driving, concerns continue to rise about its safety.
Despite widespread criticisms about Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) cars, the firm’s founder Elon Musk appears to be going ahead with his plans to release the FSDs by year-end. Musk revealed on Monday that Tesla plans for a nationwide release across the United States, as well as a possible entry into Europe. However, he also mentioned that the release would be dependent on getting regulatory approval from relevant authorities.
Pressure Mounts on Tesla to Ditch Its FSD Project
Tesla has been the subject of massive negative criticisms and commentaries regarding its FSDs. This follows after a test was recently conducted by the Dawn Project. Per the test result, the safe-technology campaign group says self-driving cars pose real threats to children road users.
During the test, the FSD software failed to detect a non-moving, child-sized mannequin at an average speed of 25mph. And so the group has kick-started an ad campaign to force Congress to ban the technology even before it launches on a wide scale.
Another negative commentary that received wide publicity includes that of Ralph Nader, a renowned consumer protection advocate. The former presidential candidate publicly urged federal regulators to recall Tesla’s “man slaughtering” car technology. He noted that the FSD feature is “one of the most dangerous and irresponsible actions by a car company in decades.”
Meanwhile, Tesla’s criticisms are not just beginning. Allegations of inadequacies in the technology backing Tesla’s FSDs have been going around since 2021. It all began with a crash incident that happened in Texas last year, leaving at least, two dead. Since then, Tesla has become the leading automaker with most accident cases involving automated driving assistance technology.
In Tesla’s defense, however, Musk tweeted that the crash was a result of the autopilot feature not being on at the moment of impact.
Although Musk claims that there is now a lot of improvement with the Full Self-Driving, concerns continue to rise about its safety.
Investigations Ongoing about Tesla’s FSD
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) claims it’s currently investigating about 830,000 Tesla cars. This includes various cars from across its four current models.
The NHTSA has also investigated no less than thirty car accidents in total that involved Teslas equipped with automated driving systems. Nineteen of those were reportedly fatal.
Summarily, the possible release of the FSDs will be dependent on the outcome of the ongoing investigations. And these investigations will also play a part in the ultimate decision of Congress.