Tesla: 'Full Self Driving' meaning changes, drops original promise of unsupervised autonomous driving

Tesla has changed the meaning of "Full Self-Driving" (FSD), effectively abandoning its original promise of delivering unsupervised autonomous driving.

It now means that the so-called FSD feature, promised since 2016, is only aspirational, with an indefinite delivery date.

Since 2016, Tesla claimed that all its production vehicles would be eventually capable of "unsupervised self-driving".

And since 2018, CEO Elon Musk promised this milestone would be achieved "by the end" of each year.

Tesla sold the Full Self-Driving Capability (FSD) package for up to $15,000, assuring customers that the system would evolve into full autonomy via over-the-air updates, following extending real-world training of the AI that runs it.

Nearly a decade later, Tesla has confirmed that vehicles produced between 2016 and 2023 lack the necessary hardware for true unsupervised self-driving.

In reality, FSD is now marketed as a simple advanced driver-assist system (ADAS) without any commitment to unsupervised autonomy.

Critics have labelled the decade-long usage of the FSD name as a notable case of false advertising or a "bait-and-switch."

While Musk has discussed upgrading these vehicles' computers to satisfy owners, there is no concrete plan to do so.

Tesla has updated its language and now sells "Full Self-Driving (Supervised)" packages, with disclaimers that the system is not autonomous and no autonomy is guaranteed.

Consequently, today’s FSD buyers are not purchasing the capability of unsupervised driving as earlier customers did.

Furthermore, Tesla’s board recently proposed an unprecedented CEO pay package potentially worth up to $1 trillion, contingent upon the achievement of several milestones, including reaching "10 Million Active FSD Subscriptions."

Redefinition

Initially, this milestone seemed to signal a fulfillment of Tesla's FSD promises. However, Tesla redefined FSD in the compensation plan with a vague description:

"FSD means an advanced driving system, regardless of the marketing name used, that is capable of performing transportation tasks that provide autonomous or similar functionality under specified driving conditions."

This definition effectively reduces FSD to any advanced driving system that may include supervised driver-assist features.

The current FSD, which requires constant driver supervision, fits this description well.

This redefinition means Tesla no longer promises that owners could go to sleep and wake at their destination without supervision—a promise Musk used for years to drive sales, Electrek reported.

It highlights a stark difference in how Tesla markets self-driving to customers and investors compared to the careful language in legal and compensation documents.

The vague new definition allows Tesla to lower FSD prices and push customers toward purchasing FSD without fulfilling original autonomy promises, while Musk could still earn hundreds of billions in stock compensation.

Tesla’s FSD pricing has already decreased significantly, down $7,000 from its peak in 2023, coinciding with a decline in Tesla's sales.

The company’s pattern of lowering expectations and adjusting definitions is reminiscent of past instances where Tesla technically fulfilled promises in limited ways, which fell far short of public expectations.

Given Tesla’s "Full Self-Driving" redefinition, or transitioned from a promise of full autonomy to a more modest advanced driver-assist system with driver supervision, could open the floodgates of legal challenges based on false advertising or bait-and-switch grounds.

It's currently unknown of customers who invested on FSD under different expectations would initiate a class-action suit against Tesla.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk's new $1-trillion CEO compensation plan dangled by the board is tied to this redefined, vague concept of FSD functionality.

In February, Tesla Inc. started rolling out a software update for customers in China that enables driver-assistance capabilities similar to those marketed as "FSD" in the US.

The update, pushed to vehicles in batches, allows Tesla owners to use driver-assist features on city streets, according to a notification from the company on Tuesday.

Tesla said the system can guide vehicles to exit ramps and intersections, can recognise traffic signals, make turns and handle changing lanes and speeds.

The update will initially be available in cars with HW 4.0 — the latest generation of driving hardware that Tesla has used in locally built Model Ys and Model 3s since last year.

The carmaker said it will gradually expand the driver-assistance feature to more vehicles. 

The capabilities are enabled for customers who’ve paid 64,000 yuan ($8,800) for what Tesla typically calls "FSD".

The EV maker, however, steered clear of using the term in its publicity of the software update in China.

While the company markets its features as self-driving, they require constant human supervision and frequent interventions. 

Musk has for years been seeking regulatory approval for FSD to be allowed to operate on Chinese roads and had sought to launch the system in China this year. 

Tesla said that a camera above the rear-view mirror can determine if the driver is paying attention, and the driver will be reminded to watch the road even when the intelligent driver assistance system is engaged.

Video is processed within the vehicle and can’t be accessed by Tesla, it said.

Musk travelled to Beijing in April 2024 to meet with officials including Premier Li Qiang about deploying FSD in China. The company reached a mapping and navigation deal with Chinese tech company Baidu Inc. and cleared requirements for how it handles data-security and privacy issues.

Still, Musk said during Tesla’s quarterly earnings early this year that the carmaker was facing challenges with FSD in China, citing limits that both Beijing and Washington had placed on how the company trains its system to handle local roads.

The CEO said engineers were resolving the issues by looking at videos of streets in China that are available on the internet and using that footage for training.

Driver-assistance technology is becoming increasingly common in China, with EV leader BYD Co. recently having announced a system.

The manufacturer is offering different tiers of capability and hardware as standard features on cars starting at just 69,800 yuan.

Tesla doesn’t disclose how many of its customers have paid for FSD. Take-up has been limited in China as the company has awaited regulatory approval to deploy features.