Tesla's Full Self-Driving Technology: Global Expansion and Regulatory Challenges

Tesla's AI roadmap gives glimpse into company's future

Tesla's artificial intelligence team on Thursday released its roadmap for the next several months, reaffirming its goal to launch the company's self-driving technology in two new markets early next year. Tesla's driver assistance software, Full Self-Driving (FSD) originally launched in the U.S. in October 2020 as a beta feature. Since then, the technology has become more and more advanced, with it being upgraded from "Beta" to "Supervised" in April. The primarily cosmetic change came with the removal of some of Tesla's cautionary language, including a statement warning drivers that FSD "may do the wrong thing at the worst time" and reminding them to "always keep your hands on the wheel." Tesla will need to secure regulatory approval for its technology from local regulators before it can start selling its packages. In the U.K., only Ford Motor Co.'s self-driving tech is currently allowed on the road, while the European Union has approved both Ford's and BMW's systems. Tesla CEO Elon Musk visited Beijing earlier this year as the company prepared to register its software with authorities. "Pretty soon, we will ask for regulatory approval of the Tesla supervised FSD in Europe, China and other countries," Musk said during the company's second-quarter earnings call in July. "And I think we're likely to receive that before the end of the year, which will be a helpful demand driver in those regions obviously." Musk on Thursday wrote on X that right-hand driving markets should "hopefully" get FSD later in the first quarter of 2025 or early in the second quarter, pending regulatory approval. The CEO has made expanding FSD adoption a key point of Tesla's long-term push toward fully driverless vehicles and a fleet of self-driving robotaxis. In order to make progress in developing the software -- and win over regulators -- Tesla needs to keep collecting data. As of its second quarter, Tesla customers have driven some 1.6 billion miles with FSD enabled. After a lack of success in boosting adoption, Musk in March mandated that all new customers were required to be given a test ride using FSD, with the company later offering customers a free one-month trial that had extremely limited success. Tesla has also repeatedly slashed the price of FSD, which now costs $99 per month for U.S. drivers. During Tesla's second-quarter earnings call, CFO Vaibhav Taneja said he expects FSD to drive sales, mainly thanks to its lowered price. Tesla's AI roadmap also includes the launch of its Actually Smart Summon feature, which was released earlier this week, and finally making FSD available for Cybertruck owners. In October, Tesla said it aims to launch FSD version 13, with six times as many miles between necessary interventions -- when human drivers need to take control -- and allowing FSD to park, unpark, and reverse.

Could Telsa's self-driving car hit Europe's roads next year?

Tesla is also expected to reveal its robotaxi "Cybercab" in October in the US. Tesla, Elon Musk's electric vehicle (EV) company, announced plans on Thursday to launch its "Full Self Driving" (FSD) product in Europe and China in early 2025, pending regulatory approval in the regions. Tesla's official AI account posted on X, Musk's social media platform, that the FSD assistance product would arrive in the first quarter of 2025. FSD launched in beta in the United States in 2020 but has yet to launch in Europe or China. The European Commission announced last year it was fast-tracking the European autonomous driving regulations, called UNECE Regulation on Driver Control Assistance Systems (DCAS)". For the moment, only Phase 1, which only allows hands-on driving, has been approved. Tesla is expected to unveil its robotaxi "Cybercab" in a month, which a Tesla video purported to show had no steering wheel. According to reporting by Bloomberg, Tesla is planning to use the Warner Bros movie studio in Los Angeles to reveal the product on October 10. Musk said in July that Tesla was likely to get regulatory approval for FSD in both Europe and China by the end of the year. However, Musk has been promising since 2016 that Tesla will have driverless technology but hasn't yet succeeded in delivering on the commitment.