Musk met the Chinese authorities (April 2024) to receive the tentative approval for Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) software in China. Tesla may continue teaming up with Baidu (which licenses mapping data) and its lane-level navigation service for FSD. Tesla is using these services since 2020.

Tela’s FSD is the most autonomous version of the advanced driver assistance system (ADAS). Tesla vehicles have Autopilot feature (Tesla trade-marked ADAS suite). These cars are equipped with multiple cameras and vision processing software. Autopilot includes ‘Traffic-Aware Cruise Control’ (to match the speed of the vehicle to surrounding traffic). Autopilot also includes AutoSteer (to assist in steering within a clearly marked lane). FSD is an upgrade on Autopilot with minimal driver intervention. It has been released in 2020. Auto Lane Change assists in moving to an adjacent lane on the highway (when Autosteer is engaged). Autopark helps in parallel and perpendicular parking. Summon moves the vehicle in and out of a tight space (using the mobile app or key). Stop Sign Control identifies stop signs and traffic lights. The vehicle automatically slows down and stops on approach.

The software is regularly updated over the air.

Still, no driver has many issues. Between 2014 and 2024, a decade has elapsed, and still driverless cars are elusive. There are issues of red signal jumps, non-recognition of pedestrians (a cyclist disappearing behind a parked car) and so on. Google’s Waymo and GM’s Cruise too have limited success (that too in ring-fenced geotagged areas).

Tesla has been beta testing its full self-driving system since 2020.

Carmakers have yet to figure out the right technology for autonomous cars — lidar, radar, sensors, cameras. Tesla relies on cameras, whereas other carmakers depend on multiple sensors. On device computers thus require huge processing power.

AI, especially LLM’s generative AI, will be helpful in future as the computers will learn from the data aggregated by sensors or cameras.