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Tesla's Autopilot To Get 'Full Self-Driving Feature' In August (reuters.com)

Earlier today, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that its Autopilot driver assistance system will get full self-driving features following a software upgrade in August. Reuters reports: Autopilot, a form of advanced cruise control, handles some driving tasks and warns those behind the wheel they are always responsible for the vehicle's safe operation. But a spate of recent crashes has brought the system under regulatory scrutiny. "To date, Autopilot resources have rightly focused entirely on safety. With V9, we will begin to enable full self-driving features," Musk tweeted here on Sunday, replying to a Twitter user.

Musk said the autopilot issue during lane-merging is better in the current software and will be fully fixed in the August update. However, it was not clear what self-driving features would be included in the August update. Tesla's documentation on its website about the "full self-driving capabilities" package says that it is not possible to know exactly when each element of the functionality will be available, as this is highly dependent on local regulatory approval.

16 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. Fake News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Can we get a better law passed to make deceptive quoting and deceptive titles illegal? "begin to enable full self-driving features" is not nearly the same as "get 'full self-driving features'". No wonder the news industry is dying. It's all just bullshit, same as gossip.

    1. Re:Fake News by dgatwood · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The headline is grossly misleading because "feature" is singular. If it had said "features", it would have been less misleading, because people would have immediately realized that there must be multiple parts to full self-driving capabilities, and they're just getting some of them. By using the singular form, the headline is saying that the car will be fully self-driving in August, which is almost certainly far from the truth.

      The fact that you can figure out that the headline is pure B.S. by reading the article doesn't change the fact that the headline is clickbait.

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  2. Suggestion for first feature: by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 4, Funny

    When approaching stopped car at high velocity, do not hit car. Hopefully they can expand that feature to cover other stationary objects as well, but I can see how that might be a "2.0” kind of thing.

    1. Re: Suggestion for first feature: by c6gunner · · Score: 3, Insightful

      As opposed to human drivers?

      "Oh we missed 5,000 stop signs today alone. We'll fix it never."

  3. Re:Tesla? LOL! by SeaFox · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Tesla has a high rate of recalls compared to other car manufacturers.

    Just because a car maker has fewer recalls than Tesla doesn't mean their cars have fewer issues. It just means they don't have as many recalls. They could simply be not taking responsibility for their problems compared to Tesla.

  4. have you ever driven in a Tesla? by slashdice · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's a nice car. It's a luxury car, nice interior. Kind of makes you feel like royalty, like a king. Or queen. More specifically, a princess. In particular, Princess Diana.

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    1. Re: have you ever driven in a Tesla? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Jokes aside, the tesla interior is much closer in quality and style to a civic than a Mercedes.

  5. Some partial feature, not full self driving by misnohmer · · Score: 3, Informative

    Since 2016, anyone who paid Tesla for FSD got absolutely nothing over those who didn't. What feature will get rolled out in August is not publicly known, could be some trick the car can do that it couldn't before (e.g. warn you if it sees a stop sign or a red light, not guaranteed it will see one of course). Then again, given that Elon said the exact same thing in the past, "features rolling out starting December 2016", then "FSD coast-to-coast demo by end of 2017", and none of them came remotely true, I would not be holding my breath. Could be just a way to distract the media from NHTSA investigation results, or other news Elon wasn't thrilled to see.

    1. Re:Some partial feature, not full self driving by misnohmer · · Score: 4, Informative

      That actually is is a much bigger problem, and Google/Waymo and other researcher have concluded there is no safe way to implement a self driving car if humans have to supervise it and be able to take over in a split second (as per Tesla's fine print) when it does something wrong, such as try to kill you by driving into a concrete median:
      Robot Cars Can’t Count on Us in an Emergency https://www.nytimes.com/2017/0...

      Elon got it wrong, self driving is a separate problem and you can't get there incrementally by increasing the level of autonomy (think wanting to go to the moon - going farther and farther by car will never get you there):
      People who paid Tesla $3,000 for full self-driving might be out of luck https://arstechnica.com/cars/2...

    2. Re:Some partial feature, not full self driving by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Actually, you can. But you need to start from the other end.

      Start with automatic breaking to avoid hitting obstacles, including pedestrians and bicycles. Get that perfect. Then automatic stopping when the driver falls asleep. Then add automatic take over and stopping if the car starts swerving out of its lane. Add automatic stopping for red light...

      I.e. let the human drive, and the computer monitor ready to take over at a millisecond notice.

      Once all the safety features are working, all you need is to add the GPS subsystem that tells the car where to go.

  6. Hey Apple, over here.... by seoras · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This, this is courage.

  7. Re:Tesla? LOL! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Stay in your lane, within the speed limit and follow the law.
    99% of motorcycle related fatalities are self inflicted.
    Get it down to half and other people might worry about you too.

  8. Re:Tesla? LOL! by Rei · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Key word is "begin to". And just so you know, the real news is that with the last update, Tesla went in the other direction. It used to be that you could have your hands off the wheel for minutes at a time when conditions were good. After the update it's more like 15-20 seconds. A number of people are complaining.

    BTW, Musk had a comment recently concerning motorcycles.

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  9. Re: Tesla? LOL! by triffid_98 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sorry but "squids" negate your entire argument. If you are zipping around people's blind spots in-between lanes of traffic wearing shorts, a t-shirt and a DOT approved helmet I have zero pity for you when you eventually "merge" with a car.

    Even if you are extremely vigilant about checking your corners and adjusting mirrors most modern cars have blind spots.

  10. Re: Tesla? LOL! by c6gunner · · Score: 3, Interesting

    For instance, if Tesla sold 130 cars in 2017 compared to 6400 by Mercedes, then even if Tesla made 5 time less recall, the recall rate would still be 10 time higher than Mercedes.

    That's ... not at all how that works. A recall is typically for an entire model year, not individual vehicles. It doesn't matter if you sell 10 vehicles of that type, or 10 million; you're recalling all of them ergo the recall rate is the same.

  11. Re:Tesla? LOL! by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It would depend on the business model of the company. Luxury/Sports car makers, will be more likely to do self imposed recalls, because their brand image is based on quality and perception. If they can fix a problem before it becomes an issue, then most likely the customer will not think poorly of the product, and when they get a new one, they will more likely go with the same company again.

    If you are getting a more budget practical car, having a hinge fall of, or a wobbly sun-visor isn't a safety issue, and chances are the customer will not be loyal to that brand as much as the luxury makers. Sure my last two cars were Toyota's however there isn't anything wrong with my next car being a Honda, or some other brand. Being that I expect a particular build quality, which isn't fine tuned, but just acceptable and reliable.

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