Tesla is getting ready to release Full Self-Driving to the masses, but according to Reuters, San Francisco County Transit Authority (SFCTA) raises some concerns about the software’s safety. In addition to worries about how well it performs, the SFCTA also has an issue with the name, which it believes could mislead consumers.
“We are concerned about the safety record of this service and the name of the service as it could be confusing for consumers, and hope DMV, FTC and NHTSA continue to monitor and analyze this issue to protect consumers and the traveling public,” said Tilly Chang, executive director of the SFCTA.
Elon Musk Not Impressed by Full-Self Driving Beta
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has expressed his own concerns with how the Full Self-Driving beta test is progressing. Back on Aug. 23, he tweeted “FSD Beta 9.2 is actually not great, imo, but Autopilot/AI team is rallying to improve as fast as possible. We’re trying to have a single stack for both highway & city streets, but it requires massive NN retraining.”
Since then, the EV maker’s released an updated version, Beta v10 with 10.1 expected in early October. The updates resolved Musk’s criticisms of 9.2 to the delight of Tesla mavens.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is also monitoring the beta test and even opened an investigation into the performance of its semi-autonomous predecessor, Autopilot. That investigation is focused on crashes where Teslas reportedly with Autopilot engaged hit stationary emergency vehicles.
“Most incidents took place after dark and the crash scenes encountered included scene control measures such as first responder vehicle lights, flares, an illuminated arrow board, and road cones,” NHTSA said. “The involved subject vehicles were all confirmed to have been engaged in either Autopilot or Traffic Aware Cruise Control during the approach to the crashes.”
General Motors’s Super Cruise Beats Tesla’s Full Self-Driving
Meanwhile, General Motors received high marks from Consumer Reports for its Cadillac Super Cruise technology. This hands-free system was rated the best currently available in the magazine’s assessment of 17 different systems from multiple manufacturers. Along with GM and Tesla, the evaluation included Audi, Ford, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz and others.
Tesla came in at a distant second place. That still puts it ahead of all the other automakers evaluated but doesn’t give it the top spot the company likely hoped to nab. Since that time, Ford introduced its own semi-autonomous driving system dubbed BlueCruise. It was not rated during the testing.
