That's the thing, no they haven't. People paid, what, $3000 extra for FSD, $5,000 if you didn't pre-order. The only FSD feature turned on is the lane demarcation line turning red when someone is in your blind spot. While I did pre-pay for FSD, had I been told that a red line was it, I would have put that money against principal balance of the loan.I suspect it will be, aside from the V3 MPU, actions on speed limit signs, yield signs, stop signs, traffic signals, auto park auto summons from parking lot to curb. And, what they've announced, get in the car and do nothing while at home, it will drive to work (likely time window dependent). Get in car and do nothing, not from home, it will drive home. Note: in both cases a driver is in the driver seat and is the, in aviation terms, "Pilot In Command".
And here's the challenge there. Right now the software is focused on visible lane markers. We just had a sleet/snow/freezing rain even. On the main road out of our development, the salt obscures the yellow center line on the left. Without seeing that the steering wheel icon is not present. This is roughly the same situation with left exits on interstates. For FSD to work in all conditions (obviously not with obscured sensors) it needs to mature to see the road as a GIS sees it, latitude longitude, width, speed limit (already done) and lane configuration. This stuff is encoded in the GIS. But transitioning to computing where the lane is and is about to be, many of these issues disappear. I drive in RI a lot and their GIS is abysmally coded, in places saying it's 50 when speed limit signs say 30 and 30 when speed limit signs say 50. Those fixes are done, as the code in testing by Tesla employees, it does read speed limit signs and traffic signs. I don't know where computed lane info stands. But the bottom line is there is information available from multiple sources. The way to think about this is not how would one hard code responses in software as that isn't what is running. It's taking any situation, particularly those where current EAP collapses, and think like an adolescent in driver training, given what I see and what I know, what should I do right now as this is what the car is doing. The one difference is the car as access to physically where the lane is and physically where the car is. If it were a white-out or, for those down south, a grey-out (torrential downpour) a driver would not see the road any better than the car would. The car has digital data on where the road is. For those aviators on here, think IFR, FMS, and virtual cockpit. I really think this is doable in the near term.
10 years away as even Elon says. I feel sorry for those who bought into the FSD fantasy trip!
We get the V3 chip for free. You recall the two existing vids of FSD? That'll be out this year under FSD. Don't feel sorry for us, it is us that feel sorry for you. They have the use of our money but you'll pay more to access it.
Wait...you aren't saying Tesla has confused aspiration with facts again, are you?
That will be a sad day for me. It is interesting... some people buy this car for the path to autonomous. I bought all 3 Tesla I own for their amazing driving characteristics. I like and use the driver assist features in EAP. But didn’t buy FSD... no interest. So don’t feel sorry for me!
Well, that was tongue-in-cheek. But, to your point, I think there are multiple constituencies within the Tesla community. We have a very low carbon footprint, we've owned Priuses since 2005, have GeoThermal climate control, and now a Model 3. When I was becoming proficient with geothermal technology the instructor had a saying, "lots of ways to make electricity, only one way to make oil". So sure, that was part of it, but the main driver was future-proofing my mobility and independence as well as AWD. We have a 260' driveway at a 30 degree incline. Bringing up the rear was the awesome driving characteristics. I first test drove an S, an absolutely awesome vehicle. Model 3s were still only on paper. The 3, when I got to test drive it, was perfect for our needs and wants. They are wide audience alpha testing FSD now. If I can get in the car and say drive to Stop and Shop (or barber) and the car drives there then, 'drive home' and the car does that. If I have to be in the driver seat and have some tension on the steering wheel. I'd still call it self driving. I do not advocate people driving when poop-faced drunk but it does happen. If they could slur out 'drive home' or the car, with no contrary verbal instructions, targets home, how many lives/yr would be saved? I'd call that FSD. I am confident we'll see that this year. As for what rolls out of Elon's mouth. He just got his ass handed to him for being loose with the media. Companies can't and shouldn't be too loose with 'the next release' features. It telegraphs to the competition what they need to best. So, to be sure, what I say implicitly is based on known facts on the ground and my knowledge of software and competitive advantage.
You've seen, no doubt, the two videos from Tesla on the car driving itself? That was based on the 'then' technology. I suspect the V3 chip is, at least in part, for IP and royalties, which they have been paying to for their existing technology. Remember, the S and X population is minuscule compared to the S, X, and 3 population. It would stand to reason they don't want to pay license fees for every V2+ car. If you bought FSD or buy FSD the chip is free.
That's a good question. The technology of V1 AP, that bought from, what was, Google could drive their fleet of Priuses from Amphitheater Drive in Mountain View to Reno NV 'driverless'. I think they actually got approval for no physical driver. In all their testing leading up to that they were required to have a driver present. That was on a single tank of gas. Driving cross country would require robotic SC that would automatically connect/disconnect the charge cable. That is a future. Remember too, the long haul fleets, UPS, FedEx, etc are itching for self driving fleets. It's coming!
