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Tesla’s FSD Under the Microscope
A series of recent stories underscore the continued—and apparently growing—scrutiny of Tesla’s automated driving system, Full Self-Driving (Supervised). A fatal crash involving a Tesla that struck a home in Texas and killed a 76-year-old woman gained national attention after the driver told police that Autopilot—the company’s basic driver-assistance system, since discontinued—was engaged at the time.
Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s vice president of AI software, offered a different account. He claimed on X that the driver manually overrode “self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100% of the accel pedal in this residential area.” Elluswamy’s comments suggest the vehicle was equipped with FSD (Supervised), not Autopilot—but without an independent investigation, we can’t be certain. We may learn more soon.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have opened investigations into the crash. In a separate development, Tesla settled a lawsuit related to a fatal 2023 crash involving a vehicle using FSD (Supervised). That crash is part of another NHTSA probe into whether FSD can “detect and respond appropriately to reduced roadway visibility conditions” such as “sun glare, fog, or airborne dust.”
This intense focus comes as Tesla positions itself as an AI and robotics company. FSD (Supervised) remains its most visible, revenue-generating product tied to that branding.
A Little Bird: Waymo’s Ojai Robotaxi
A regular tipster alerted me to a research report on Waymo and its growing fleet of Ojai robotaxis. As a refresher, Waymo entered a supplier deal with Zeekr, the brand owned by China’s Geely Holding Group, to provide an EV designed specifically for robotaxi operations.
The minivan-like robotaxi was designed in Sweden and is manufactured in China. (These vehicles lack vehicle communication modules, as current U.S. policy bans Chinese-connected vehicle technology.) Once stateside, Waymo adds its self-driving system. The Ojai features Waymo’s sixth-generation autonomous stack: 13 cameras, four lidar sensors, and six radar units.
via TechCrunch