What is Tesla’s Full Self-Driving technology about?

A week after postponing his much anticipated India visit, Tesla CEO Elon Musk made a seemingly impromptu trip to China on the 28th of April, reportedly to seek approval for Tesla’s patented Fully Self-Driving or FSD technology. According to a report by Reuters, Musk made an unannounced visit to Beijing to discuss the rollout of Full Self Driving (FSD) software in China and seek permission to transfer the data overseas.

Tesla’s existing Advanced Driver Assistance System, Autopilot has been subject to intense legal scrutiny in the US, where the carmaker had to recall over 2 million vehicles following a series of crashes. The recall, which was initiated to install new safeguards to the Autopilot software was followed by 20 more incidents of crashes, putting the future of Tesla’s autonomous driving software into question at a time when Musk is pushing for the deployment of Tesla’s patented self-driving technology, with a robotaxi scheduled for launch on August 8. At a time when sales are dwindling both in the US and in China, Musk aims to allure buyers by halving the subscription price from its previous $15,000 to as low as $8,000 in the US. Musk has also gone as far as offering a free one-month trial for US-based consumers.

For this reason, it’s imperative for Tesla to crack the China market, where it has already been surpassed by BYD in terms of sales. Tesla’s Autopilot, which its Chinese customers are clamouring for has faced even more regulatory hurdles in China which has cited data security issues as the key reason for restricting FSD rollout.

Big win for Tesla

Although FSD has been available in China, its second-largest market, for four years, its features were always restricted much to the chagrin of Tesla customers. Furthermore, all the data collected by Tesla’s Chinese fleet was thus far, not transferred back to the United States, where Tesla could train its algorithms to further improve the efficacy of its autopilot system over time. In the US, Tesla’s cars using Autopilot can feed terabytes of data via “Gateway Log" files which include data like seatbelt usage, cruise control settings and whether the driver had their hands on the steering wheel while driving, both to mitigate liability in the event of a crash, and to make improvements on the path to being truly and fully autonomous.

According to Reuters, the US EV giant has finally cleared the hurdles China had put in its way. Set to partner with tech giant Baidu on mapping and navigation, Tesla will now be allowed to transfer the data collected in China to its overseas bases. This clears what is the final hurdle in the deployment of FSD and all that it has to offer at the moment. When executed, the rollout would allow Tesla to compete with the likes of BYD more effectively, since the former has a serious price advantage owing to its control over the battery manufacturing process. Tesla, however, has always had the upper hand when it comes to battery and software integration and of course, its patented Autopilot system which has allowed the brand its hallowed status both in markets like China and India.

What is FSD?

Full Self Driving Technology or FSD is a Tesla ADAS programme aimed at achieving full autonomy. However, the acronym is considered to be a misnomer given that it still requires human supervision and intervention. This has been the subject of another lawsuit for Tesla, this one filed by the California Department of Motor Vehicles back in 2023, exactly seven years after the launch of FSD. According to the DMV, Tesla engaged in false advertising by claiming that under FSD, its vehicles could do long and short-distance trips without requiring any human intervention.

At present, however, FSD offers only Level 2 autonomy which includes adaptive cruise control and lane departure warnings. Under Level 2, a car, using adaptive cruise control can make acceleration and steering inputs but requires constant human intervention and hands on the steering wheel. Level 2 ADAS is quite common these days with cars like the Honda City, MG Hector etc also being equipped with the system. Tesla’s Autopilot suite, which is included in the FSD package, is essentially this. FSD is essentially the most developed and autonomous version of Autopilot and includes self-parking, automatic lane change and traffic navigation.

At present Tesla doesn’t even offer the most advanced autonomous driver software in the US. That distinction goes to Mercedes-Benz which is the only carmaker in the US to have received certification for running Level 3 ADAS. Level 3 ADAS offers significantly higher levels of automation and can perform more complex driving tasks such as lane change and overtake without needing driver intervention. While the level of driver intervention required for Level 3 is much lesser than Level 2, it still isn’t fully autonomous – a claim Musk had promised to deliver on, at the launch of Autopilot but has consistently failed to provide as regulatory hurdles and scrutiny over its marketing continue to mount.