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Musk aims to roll out full self-driving to Tesla owners this month, ignoring U.S. probe

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Christiaan Hetzner
Christiaan Hetzner
and
Christiaan Hetzner
Christiaan Hetzner
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By
Christiaan Hetzner
Christiaan Hetzner
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Christiaan Hetzner
Christiaan Hetzner
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September 2, 2021, 7:34 AM ET

Tesla could roll out its most advanced automated driving feature to all U.S. owners as early as this month, as chief executive Elon Musk ignores mounting pressure from the country’s traffic safety regulator to rein in the technology. 

The world’s most valuable carmaker has aggressively pushed the boundaries of what is possible ever since it launched last October its “autosteer on city streets” function to a small group of Full-Self Driving (FSD) early access users who are testing a beta version. 

This feature allows drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel while the car pilots itself around city streets using only its cameras to navigate a highly complex environment with pedestrians, pets, bikers, and other traffic participants. Since it is merely an assistance tool rather than a true autonomous self-driving system, liability remains at all times with the driver in the event of an accident—rather than being transferred to Tesla.

The FSD beta nonetheless triggered a flood of YouTube videos documenting the progress the carmaker achieved from one iteration of the software to the next, sparking demands from owners across the world that paid as much as $10,000 for FSD to be given access as well. 

Musk took to Twitter to say the hotly anticipated digital button, which would offer all FSD customers in the U.S. the choice to opt into the beta, should come before the end of September. Other countries will have to continue waiting for an indefinite period of time, even if consumers purchased the expensive feature.

Looks promising that Beta 10.1, about 2 weeks later, will be good enough for public opt in request button

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 2, 2021

The Tesla CEO has been notoriously overoptimistic when it comes to launch dates, however, with one owner joking that he named his Model 3 “Two Weeks” after all the missed promises made by Musk—claims that typically entail new features supposedly coming in a fortnight.

The same day the centibillionaire broke the news of the FSD beta rollout, he also postponed the launch of the next-generation Roadster sports car—unveiled in 2017, with a promised launch three years later—to 2023 at the earliest.

Musk cited global supply-chain chaos as the reason for the most recent delay of the showstopping “halo” model, which was touted as capable of driving 1,000 kilometers (621 miles). 

2021 has been the year of super crazy supply chain shortages, so it wouldn’t matter if we had 17 new products, as none would ship.

Assuming 2022 is not mega drama, new Roadster should ship in 2023.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 1, 2021

The FSD beta has not been without its fair share of critics. Musk’s willingness to expose his customers to risks usually reserved for professional test-drivers—while leaving them with the liability in the event something goes wrong—has been a hallmark of Tesla’s approach for years and is symptomatic of Silicon Valley startups that often put a premium on disruption with little regard for collateral damage. A rare exception to this rule was Uber, which shut down its autonomous driving program in 2018 after a fatal accident.

Following a spate of high-profile accidents, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) sent Tesla a catalog of demands for information, to be met by Oct. 22, about FSD and the more basic Autopilot feature that comes standard in every car.

Edward Niedermeyer, a well-known Musk critic and author of a book on Tesla, said signals were piling up that President Joe Biden is taking a more robust approach to regulating the carmaker than the more libertarian Trump administration.

I don't recall ever having seen a letter from NHTSA to an automaker quite like this one. Tesla is going to have to work very hard and get very lucky to avoid a NHTSA finding that Autopilot is defective, as laid out in its 2016 enforcement guidance. https://t.co/WQ78BRFBQM

— E.W. Niedermeyer (@Tweetermeyer) September 1, 2021

With the introduction of FSD Version 9.0 this summer, Tesla announced it had begun eliminating radar sensors on its U.S. cars as it switched to a camera-only vision system for detecting its environment. Safety advocates have pushed the need for redundant hardware systems when a vehicle is sensing its surroundings, however. Most industry experts believe that including expensive, high-resolution laser scanners such as lidar (a kind of laser-based radar) is important for preventing accidents—for example, when a car’s visual camera is temporarily blinded by sunlight.

Separately, Bloomberg reported sources as saying Tesla halted some operations at its factory in China for four days last month owing to shortages of critical components, but that production had since returned to normal.

More tech coverage from Fortune:

  • Your company could be spying on you: Surveillance software use up over 50% since pandemic started
  • What Beijing’s sweeping new data rules will mean for companies
  • Tech stocks could rise another 10% in 2021, says one analyst. Shares in these companies should benefit
  • Mattress startup Eight Sleep aims to detect cancer. Investors just valued it at nearly $500 million
  • SenseTime’s Hong Kong IPO could be a boon for China’s controversial “A.I. dragons”

Subscribe to Fortune Daily to get essential business stories straight to your inbox each morning.

About the Authors
Christiaan Hetzner
By Christiaan HetznerSenior Reporter
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Christiaan Hetzner is a former writer for Fortune, where he covered Europe’s changing business landscape.

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