Tesla released a beta version of their Full Self-Driving system on Tuesday, and it appears the U.S. government will step in if things go awry.
In a statement to Reuters, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said they have been briefed on the software update which delivered Full Self-Driving technology to a handful of customers.
While there doesn’t appear to have been any issues yet, the NHTSA said they will “monitor the new technology closely” and “not hesitate to take action to protect [the] public against unreasonable risks to safety.” In essence, the government is okay with citizens becoming beta testers as long as they don’t start getting injured by the technology.
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That decision isn’t going over well with everyone including Partners for Automated Vehicle Education whose membership includes automakers (Audi / Volkswagen, Daimler, Ford, GM and Toyota), tech firms (Argo AI, Aurora, Blackberry, Cruise, FLIR, Intel, Nvidia and Wayo) as well as groups such as AAA, the Consumer Technology Association and SAE International. In a statement, the organization slammed the move saying “Public road testing is a serious responsibility and using untrained consumers to validate beta-level software on public roads is dangerous and inconsistent with existing guidance and industry norms.”
For their part, Tesla only released the software update to a handful of people who have been described as experts that are careful. This is in contrast to previous software updates which have seen wide releases with sometimes disastrous results.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said the beta test will enable them to collect more data, which will then be used to improve the technology. If everything goes according to plan, the Full Self-Driving technology could be widely released later this year. However, Musk announced the system will cost an additional $2,000 starting on Monday.
Now that Tesla FSD beta is out in limited release, FSD price (new or upgrade) will go up by ~$2k on Monday
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 22, 2020
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