For many Tesla owners and fans, the system deceptively called Full Self-Driving (FSD) that Tesla CEO Elon Musk promised is a very interesting and desirable thing. Of course, it’s also a $ 10,000 option and not everyone has this type of scratch just sitting around. Elon benevolently, however, has a solution for you: Yyou can pay it up to subscription starting early next year! Damn hot! Too bad it’s not really “completely self-driving.”
Here is Elon’s answer to a question on the tweet, which revealed the plan:
Okay, so Tesla tenants can pay for FSD monthly early next year, and then they won’t have to give up $ 10,000 for a system that hasn’t been launched yet, but only pay about $ 100 or more per month. for a system to be launched.
And, it’s worth mentioning that although what I’ve seen about FSD capabilities is very impressive, with interesting videos from Tesla showing it, like this one:
… is by no means a level 5 autonomous system and remains a semi-autonomous level 2 system, no matter how capable he is. Why is this? Well, I’ll leave Tesla explains in their own words (my accent):
Autopilot and The full self-driving capability is intended for use with a fully attentive driver who has his hands on the steering wheel and is ready to take over at any time. While these features are designed to become more capable over time, the features currently enabled do not make the vehicle autonomous.
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See this? It drives a lot on its own, no doubt, but, like any level 2 system, it requires the driver to be ready to take control without any notice, at any time. This means that if you want a self-driving vehicle so that you can sleep or watch movies or lie down or simply not pay attention to driving, you are not very lucky, because FSD will not do this for yourself.
Tesla is very aware of this, of course, and I say the same thing over and over again in several paragraphs about autopilot and FSD:
Currently activated functions require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous. Enabling and using these features depends on gaining reliability far beyond human drivers, demonstrated by billions of miles of experience, as well as regulatory approval, which can take longer in some jurisdictions. As these auto-driving features evolve, your car will be continuously upgraded with over-the-air software updates.
…
Before activating the autopilot, the driver must first agree to “keep his hands on the steering wheel at all times” and “always keep control and responsibility of your vehicle”. Later, each time the driver hires the autopilot, they are shown a visual reminder to “keep their hands on the wheel”.
…
As with all autopilot functions, you need to be in control of your vehicle, pay attention to the environment, and be ready to take immediate action, including braking. This feature is in beta and may not stop for all traffic controls. While Traffic and Stop Signal Control is enabled on surface streets with Autosteer active, your speed will be limited to that limit. Please refer to the user manual for additional information, instructions for use and warnings.
This it brings us to the problems inherent with level 2 systems: people do not work well with them. This is not a technological problem, it is a conceptual problem, and it’s not just me who believes that.
The additional capabilities of the FSD will make the problems we have seen with people sleep or watching movies or not paying Careful because their Tesla autopilot works the most of much worse because the car can do even more now – until it is not possible.
Without any redundancies in his dependent room (as in, Not Lidar) FSD hardware, anything from a puddle of mud to a swarm of insects, to ice or snow, to bird shit, could completely disable the car’s ability to drive, at which point it will ask the person behind the wheel to take over control, possible at highway speed, with zero awareness if the person inside is even awake.
All these efforts to find out how to improve the driving of a car under human supervision do not make sense for the goal of full autonomy, without a reasonable plan on how to manage resumes and transfers to the human driver.
Indeed, the effort in the impressive spectrum of FSD capabilities would have been better spent learning how to handle secure failovers, but I’m not surprised it didn’t work out that way, because secure failovers aren’t just not sexy, but it inherently deals with the shortcomings of these autonomous systems, and this is bad for marketing.
But until a self-driving car can safely get out of the wrong way when its abilities are compromised, we are all stuck at level 2, no matter how complete the level 2 system is.
Learning how to safely handle a car with sensors or compromised cameras is not an easy task at all. How should he navigate if he can no longer see? Will he have to report his condition to nearby vehicles, ask for information about the immediate surroundings or at least warn them to keep it clear?
May be. But this would require industry-wide standards and cooperation, and we know how car manufacturers suggest.
Tesla’s FSD is dangerous, period, because it is a level 2 system that requires human vigilance and, at the same time, does everything possible to convince people that they do not have to be vigilant. It’s inherent, conceptually flawed, and every Tesla that stands to tell me how advanced the technology is and how good it is and how I am the one who kills thousands of people because they stand in the way of Elon’s Golden Way to hell right away.
Tesla FSD, whether you pay it monthly or throw a $ 20 briefcase on the desk of a Tesla store, is a problem. The best thing I can do is put development resources into learning how to cross the level 2 barrier and create a system that is able to go through failures and secure transfers.
Once a person is not required to be always attentive and ready to take action, these systems can begin to do something good. Until then, it’s just dangerous technological nonsense that doesn’t help anyone.
So, yes, you can pay monthly in 2021 if you want. Bravo.