I believe this interpretation is not correct. SAE has since clarified that L2 “steering” simply means “lanekeeping”
Yeah, no, they have not. You really need to actually read J3016. Specifically where they explain what lateral vehicle motion control is- which is what they list on the chart as steering.
J3016 said:
LATERAL VEHICLE MOTION CONTROL
The DDT subtask comprising the activities necessary for the real-time, sustained regulation of the y-axis component of
vehicle motion
A right turn at an intersection would ALSO be lateral vehicle motion control. AKA steering.
At no point, ever, did they define it simply as "lanekeeping"-- though they do give that as one example of a task
among the things that are included in lateral vehicle motion control-- and in the doc they note such control includes detection of the vehicles position relatively to lane boundaries. Including a specific thing inside the definition is not the whole definition.
Likewise brake/acceleration support on the simplified chart is more explicitly defined as:
J3016 said:
3.15 LONGITUDINAL VEHICLE MOTION CONTROL
The DDT subtask comprising the activities necessary for the real-time, sustained regulation of the x-axis component of
vehicle motion
L1 does one of those, and always requires a human to be present and engaged in the DDT. L2 does both, and always requires a human to be present and engaged in the DDT.
A system that does both REALLY well in REALLY complex situations, but still always requires a human to be present and engaged in the DDT is L2, period full stop.
Agreed that the SAE system implies lockstep progress in different categories that doesn’t reflect real-world development. Tesla’s system is what it is, and doesn’t exactly fit any of the SAE vertical slices, which is why Tesla is giving it its own label and terminology.
it does though.
It fits in exactly L2, because it
always requires a human driving the car. 100% of the time.
You seem to be trying to slice up the chart and remix it, which isn't how the levels work at all. Perhaps instead of just looking at the chart you should read the detailed descriptions in J3016 to understand why the levels are how they are, and why Teslas system is
categorically not "somewhere between L3 and L4 " as you claimed.
There is
no such thing as "between" levels.
Either you meet
all the criteria for a level, or your system is at a lower level where it DOES meet
all the criteria.
For Teslas current FSD, that's L2.