Tag: full self-driving

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Tesla Full Self-Driving update now live in Toronto

Just before winter (the worst driving season) Tesla has unlocked Toronto’s downtown core as a full self-driving beta location (FSD).

At the end of  February 2022, Telsa started testing its full self-driving beta software in Canada after testing it in the U.S. throughout 2021. However, certain areas like downtown Toronto were excluded since the vehicles experienced trouble dealing with the streetcars that make up the downtown core of Toronto transit.

Twitter users pointed out that the software had a difficult time anticipating the street cars stopping in the left lane, and that there is a chance of continuing through the right lane, even though passengers would start to disembark. Since the geofence is lifted, it’s expected that this problem has been fixed. That said, make sure to look right before getting off a street car, as always.

To get the Full Self Driving beta that works in downtown Toronto, you need to be on ‘update 10.69.3.1,’ according to a report from blogTO. 

Via: blogTO

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Critic claims Twitter rejected his anti-Tesla ad for ‘political’ reasons

A Tesla critic who previously shared controversial videos claiming that Tesla vehicles failed to avoid running over child-sized mannequins now claims that Twitter rejected an anti-Tesla ad from his safety advocacy group.

As reported by The Verge, Dan O’Dowd and the Dawn Project claimed Twitter rejected attempts to promote a tweet about a full-page ad the group ran in the New York Times. The ad criticized Elon Musk’s Tesla over its Full Self-Driving (FSD) feature. Screenshots shared by the group show Twitter’s response to the promoted tweet, noting that it rejected the tweet for violating Twitter’s policy about political ads.

Notably, the tweet remains on Twitter — the Dawn Project isn’t able to promote it, which could limit engagement.

For reference, Twitter’s advertising policies define political content as follows:

“We define political content as content that references a candidate, political party, elected or appointed government official, election, referendum, ballot measure, legislation, regulation, directive, or judicial outcome.

“Ads that contain references to political content, including appeals for votes, solicitations of financial support, and advocacy for or against any of the above-listed types of political content, are prohibited under this policy.

“We also do not allow ads of any type by candidates, political parties, or elected or appointed government officials.”

“The move to prohibit the advertising of content criticizing Musk’s Tesla Full Self-Driving software raises serious questions over his commitment to free speech,” O’Dowd said in a statement. Musk’s free-speech commitment has come under fire from others as well, notably following Musk’s declaration that Twitter would permanently ban any accounts engaged in impersonation after several accounts impersonated Musk and made fun of him.

Twitter didn’t respond to The Verge’s request for comment, although it’s worth noting that much of the company’s PR department was let go in Musk’s mass layoffs.

O’Dowd and Musk have traded blows before

O’Dowd and Musk have butted heads in recent months over Tesla FSD. O’Dowd has publicly antagonized Musk, including taking out a full-page ad in the New York Times to criticize the safety and reliability of Tesla vehicles and FSD. O’Dowd’s Dawn Project became the face of anti-Tesla advertising, including a campaign centred around videos of Tesla vehicles striking child-sized mannequins. (As an aside, those videos elicited an interesting response from Musk stans, who fervently believed the vehicles failed to stop because the tests used mannequins. The stans actively sought real children to stand in front of Tesla vehicles in hopes of proving that the vehicles would stop for real children.)

Part of the anti-Tesla campaign was tied into O’Dowd’s failed Senate campaign earlier this year. The Verge notes that O’Dowd came in just shy of 75,000 votes in the June primary, landing 10th overall.

Meanwhile, Tesla sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Dawn Project in August over the videos of Tesla vehicles striking child-sized mannequins. Those videos are no longer on the group’s YouTube page. Moreover, Tesla supporters pointed out that O’Dowd has a vested interest in shaming Tesla publicly since O’Dowd runs Green Hills Software, which does business with some Tesla competitors, including General Motors, BMW, and Ford. Additionally, Musk previously called Green Hills Software a “pile of trash.”

It’s worth noting the U.S. Justice Department is investigating Tesla’s FSD claims after the automated driver system was involved in over a dozen crashes last year.

Source: The Verge

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U.S. Justice Department investigating Tesla self-driving claims

The U.S. Department of Justice reportedly launched a criminal probe into Tesla’s self-driving vehicle claim.

According to Reuters, three people familiar with the matter told the publication about the probe. The previously undisclosed investigation started last year following over a dozen crashes, some fatal, involving Tesla’s Autopilot automated driving technology. The people told Reuters that Autopilot was activated during the accidents.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly and publicly promised that self-driving cars were coming but hasn’t yet delivered. As noted by The Verge, Musk went from saying Tesla would have 1 million robotaxis on the road by the end of the year to 1 million people in the Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta. However, those are very different things.

Tesla vehicles come with a driver assistant feature called Autopilot, but for an extra $19,500 in Canada, customers can upgrade it to FSD. But despite what Musk has said and the arguably misleading name, FSD still requires driver supervision. Tesla’s website notes as much when you select the FSD add-on, which Reuters says could complicate the Justice Department’s case.

FSD has been a tricky feature for Tesla. Fans love it (so much so that some have sought to put children in harm’s way to prove it works), and critics have repeatedly pointed out safety concerns with Tesla using regular people to beta test FSD. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating 16 crashes where Tesla vehicles using Autopilot crashed into stationary emergency vehicles, leading to 15 injuries and one fatality.

Moreover, regulators have accused Tesla of false advertising, and customers have sued the company for allegedly misleading them about the capabilities of FSD.

So far, most of this seems to have had little effect on Tesla or Musk, but a Justice Department investigation carries the risk that Tesla or its executives will be charged criminally. Reuters reports that federal prosecutors in Washington and San Francisco are investigating whether Tesla’s claims about Autopilot and FSD misled customers.

Source: Reuters, The Verge

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Safety tests show Tesla vehicles ‘repeatedly’ fail to detect children

Studies show Tesla’s ‘Full Self-Driving’ (FSD) Beta technology fails to recognize children, further building on concerns about its safety as the company makes it available to more users.

First, a safety test conducted by the ‘Dawn Project‘ (via The Guardian) found that a Tesla Model 3 with FSD “repeatedly struck [a] child mannequin in a manner that would be fatal to an actual child.” Dawn Project seeks to improve the safety and reliability of software by stopping the use of commercial-grade software in safety-critical systems.

Further, investor Taylor Ogan shared a short video on Twitter showing a comparison between a Tesla and a vehicle equipped with LiDAR tech from Luminar — in the video, the Tesla hits the child mannequin while the LiDAR-equipped car manages to stop. In follow-up tweets, Ogan criticizes Tesla for not adopting LiDAR technology for its autonomous vehicle software.

LiDAR, for those unfamiliar with the term, refers to light detection and ranging or laser imaging, detection, and ranging. The tech allows for determining the range between two things by bouncing a laser off one object and measuring the time it takes for the laser to return.

The Dawn Project test will form part of an advertising campaign intended to encourage U.S. Congress to ban Tesla’s FSD.

Tesla and CEO Elon Musk have so far disputed concerns over the safety of FSD. At the same time, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has launched investigations and requested information from the company about FSD. It’s worth noting that Tesla has also recently made FSD available in Canada.

A common line of defence appears to be claiming that FSD still requires driver assistance and is not fully autonomous. And while Tesla does state this on its website, the name — Full Self-Driving — suggests otherwise. Moreover, Tesla made the software available to thousands of Tesla owners to use on public roads, many of whom have misused FSD. Tesla has also delayed or pulled FSD updates over bugs and other issues several times and even fired an employee who shared a video of flaws with the FSD system.

There are clear safety concerns at play here, and critics have highlighted these concerns in an attempt to get governments to regulate the use of autonomous driving systems on public roads until the systems are safer and more reliable. Tesla fans have responded by attacking these critics online, with one Twitter user going so far as to request a child volunteer to run in front of their FSD-equipped Tesla to prove it will stop.

“I promise I won’t run them over,” the person wrote. Yea, sure bud.

Source: Dawn Project, Taylor Ogan (Twitter) Via: The Guardian

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Elon Musk tweets Tesla FSD price will increase to $12,000 but only in U.S.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is back on Twitter again, this time to announce that the company will raise the price of its ‘Full Self-Driving’ (FSD) software to $12,000 on January 17th.

Thankfully, the price hike will not impact Canadians — Musk followed up his original tweet noting the change was “Just in the US.” It’s somewhat surprising, given the similarity in the package’s pricing between the countries — U.S. customers currently pay $10,000 USD for FSD while Canadians pay $10,600 CAD ($10,000 USD is worth about $12,645 CAD).

Regardless, it’s good news for any prospective Tesla customers in Canada (and bad news for any U.S.-based Tesla customers). Still, Musk does have a tendency to change pricing on a whim. In October, Tesla hiked the price of its supposedly more affordable Model 3 by almost $3,400 over two weeks, bringing that car to just $10 shy of the federal EV rebate limit of $55,000 (once you factor out fees for delivery, air conditioning and other items).

Tesla also upped the price of its Model Y in October 2021 and in 2020, dropped the price of the Model S in Canada after Musk changed the price to $69,420 in the U.S. (The Model S price has changed since thanks in part to the release of the ‘Plaid‘ version.)

Musk followed up his FSD price increase tweet by noting that the FSD price would continue to rise as the company gets closer to the “production code release.” That likely means Canadians will see the FSD price increase in the future, even if the price isn’t changing at the moment.

It’s worth noting that the FSD software is still in beta despite Musk’s various promises over the years that it would be available by now (The Verge notes that Musk said FSD would exit beta in 2018 and in 2019 said it’d be on “over a million cars” in 2020).

We’re in 2022 now and over the last few months, the FSD beta has drawn increased scrutiny and criticism from regulators and reporters. Concerns stem from the decision to let regular people beta-test the FSD software — reasonable, considering people keep posting videos of them misusing the software. There are also concerns with how Tesla represents FSD, with some calling the full self-driving name misleading.

Source: Elon Musk (Twitter) Via: The Verge

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Musk delays Tesla Full Self-Driving beta release over ‘last minute concerns’

Earlier this week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter that the company’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta would release to about 1,000 people. Musk has now backtracked, citing “last minute concerns about this build.”

Instead of releasing on Friday as expected, Musk tweeted Saturday morning that the FSD beta would roll out “likely on Sunday or Monday” instead.

Tesla’s FSD software was set to roll out to roughly 1,000 people who met the company’s safety requirements. The company determines drivers’ ‘safety score’ via data collected by sensors built into Tesla vehicles. Initially, the FSD beta would roll out to those with a perfect safety score (100 points out of 100 total), followed by a gradual rollout to those with scores of 99/100 and below.

Tesla launched the safety score system alongside the ability for vehicle owners to request FSD beta access. The idea appears to be that safe drivers — as determined by Tesla — will be able to better handle testing FSD, which requires driver supervision.

It’s worth noting that FSD does not make Tesla vehicles fully autonomous. Musk previously said that the feature-complete version will “likely” be able to drive someone from their home to work without intervention, and will still require supervision.

Musk did not elaborate on what the “concerns” were with the FSD beta build that delayed the rollout. Ultimately, I’m not surprised to see a delay.

Source: Elon Musk (Twitter) Via: The Verge

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Tesla begins beta testing Full Self-Driving in Canada

Tesla has rolled out beta version 10 of its full self-driving software ahead of a possible wider U.S. release, and it seems like more Canadians are included in this release.

To be clear, this isn’t actually full self-driving software since drivers still need to pay attention to the road and keep their hands on the wheel while it’s activated. Still, it can drive your car through regular city streets and obey traffic laws.

At the moment, only Tesla early access drivers can access this feature, but by looking at some YouTube videos posted by Joshua C, you can see that the car navigates corners and is able to stop and pull around a car parked in the right-hand lane too. Another interesting thing to notice is that you can see the estimated path of the car changing on the display in the car.

You can also see another video where the driver takes a few left turns, and at one busy intersection, you can even see the car nudge forward and claim the lane much like a frustrated human might. Overall, both clips are quite interesting.

U.S. drivers have been able to access the Ful Self-Driving beta throughout the last year or more, but it’s nice to see that Tesla has expanded it to Canada.

Source: Joshua C Via: Electrek