Musk said Tesla is “almost comfortable with letting people text while driving,” noting that the company is looking closely at safety data that show a significant improvement in the current version of the driving system. According to him, the option will be opened gradually “in the next month or two”, depending on the safety data collected from the new version, FSD 14.1.x.
FSD mode, short for Full Self-Driving, is Tesla’s most advanced autonomous driving system. It uses cameras, sensors, radar and artificial intelligence to analyze the environment in real time, and is able to maintain a lane, change lanes, stop at traffic lights and signs, detect pedestrians and park the vehicle by itself. However, even in the most advanced versions, the driver is required to remain alert and ready to take over at any moment, as this is a “supervised autonomous driving” system. In the future, Tesla plans to switch to “unsupervised” mode, where the car will drive completely by itself, but this has not yet been regulatory approved.
Musk noted that many drivers are currently forced to cancel the self-driving mode just to send a short message, then reactivate it, and that “it is precisely leaving the FSD active while sending a message that may be safer.” The meaning, according to him, is not that the driver will be able to ignore the road, but that Tesla will allow shorter periods of inattention, as long as the vehicle is in a stable condition and in a safe environment.
In the new version, a dynamic warning system was also added, which alerts the driver when he must return and focus his attention on the road. According to the reports, Tesla is testing a mechanism in which the level of attention required of the driver varies according to the degree of security of the system in the driving mode. In other words, when the system is “self-confident” it will be possible to relax a little of the supervision.
The next target that Musk has set is version 14.3, which will be launched later this year. According to him, in this version the drivers “will almost be able to fall asleep and wake up at the destination”. However, he admitted that the launch of the new versions is delayed due to bug fixes, and the wide distribution will continue until the end of the year.
The move is expected to provoke a sharp regulatory response from the American Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is already examining the safety data presented by Tesla. The ministry is expected to demand additional evidence that the FSD system is indeed safe enough for almost unsupervised use. Tesla, for its part, intends to use the new statistical data as a legal argument that the reduction of supervision will actually contribute to safety.
If the move is successful, Tesla will be the first car manufacturer in the world to allow sending messages while actively driving in an autonomous system, a step that until recently was considered unthinkable. If the option is implemented in more vehicles, a dramatic revolution is expected that may significantly reduce the rate of traffic accidents and deaths on the roads.