Tesla has brought back its ‘Mad Max’ mode for its ‘Full Self-Driving (Supervised) that ignores speed limits amid several regulatory investigations into Tesla’s system being dangerous.
Between wrongful death lawsuits from customers and pressure from regulators, including the California DMV and NHTSA, one would think that Tesla would be more careful about its communications regarding its advanced driver assist systems.
But no.
On the contrary, Tesla is bringing back the controversially named “Mad Max” mode in its Full Self-Driving (Supervised), a level 2 advanced driver assistance system that Tesla claims will become level 4 fully autonomous in the near future – something it claimed every year for the last 7 years.
Last week, Tesla released its FSD v14 update, the first significant update in a year, and it included a new mode: Sloth Mode, which drives slower.
Now, Tesla has pushed another update, FSD v14.1.2, which adds another mode on the other end of the spectrum: Mad Max.
The automaker wrote in the release notes:
Introduced new speed profile MAD MAX, which comes with higher speeds and more frequent lane changes than HURRY.
It’s not the first time Tesla has introduced this mode, whose name is borrowed from the popular series of post-apocalyptic movies, in which people are known for driving aggressively.
The Mad Max mode was first introduced in the early days of Tesla Autopilot, the precursor to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD), back in 2018.
At the time, CEO Elon Musk presented the feature as being more aggressive in doing lane changes and navigating more challenging traffic situations. He specifically mentioned Los Angeles.
The new Mad Max mode in Tesla FSD is marketed similarly. It hasn’t been out for 24 hours, and it has already been spotted rolling stop signs and driving more than 15 mph (24 km/h) over the speed limit.
In 2022, Tesla was forced by NHTSA to recall FSD Beta due to making rolling stops.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla loves to play with fire.
NHSTA initiated four separate investigations into FSD over the past year. The company is awaiting a judge’s decision in a case against California DMV over the naming of Autopilot and Full Self-Driving.
Amid all that, Tesla decides to launch a feature called Mad Max.
Even if it were incredibly safe, it would be pretty dumb.
As usual, I like to remind readers that Tesla doesn’t take any responsibility for its ADAS system, Autopilot, and Full Self-Driving. They require drivers to pay attention at all times and be ready to take control. They can make dumb mistakes at the worst time.
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