In a new video, we get a rare look at Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Beta software at work through what it can actually see as it navigates city streets.
You can watch the impressive video below.
Tesla is currently testing the “feature complete” version of its Full Self-Driving package in beta with a few thousand customers and employees through its early access program.
It’s not considered autonomous driving yet because the driver is still responsible for the vehicle and needs to be ready to take control at all times, but Tesla’s system performs all the other driving tasks autonomously, including driving through intersections.
Tesla hopes that they can keep improving on the system with customer feedback until they can gather enough data to show that it’s safer than human driving.
At that point, Tesla would try to get the system authorized by regulators and shift responsibility to the driving system – making it a fully self-driving car.
In the meantime, we have been tracking any progress through videos posted by those owners in the early access program.
Now, we have a fascinating one from “AI DRIVR,” which managed to overlay driving visualizations from the Full Self-Driving Beta software on a video of the vehicle driving around:
Tesla is looking to expand the FSD Beta to many more owners in the coming months, and CEO Elon Musk says that he remains confident Tesla will achieve level 5 full autonomy this year.
Electrek’s Take
The video is really well done as we can clearly see the Tesla’s system detects the lanes, driving areas, cars, and intersections as they appear from the dark.
FSD shows some solid driving behaviors, but it wasn’t exposed to the most difficult conditions with little to no traffic and clear markings on nice California roads.
I am feeling more and more confident about Tesla’s ability to deliver full self-driving this year, but it’s going to be only in places like California and other mild and continental climates.
Places where it snows a lot will be way more difficult based on my own experiences with Tesla Autopilot and how quickly the cameras can be disabled when the roads are dirty.
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