On New Year’s Eve, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, responded to a tweet from @WholeMarsBlog, following EV news. The account tagged Musk saying “users with more than 10,000 miles on FSD Beta should be given the option to turn off the steering wheel.” Musk replied, “Okay, update coming in January.”
That short answer could get him in trouble with federal regulators.
Agreed, update coming in January
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 31, 2022
The Associated Press (AP) reported On Monday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it was in touch with Tesla about the tweet.
More from the AP:
Last week, the agency said the matter is now part of a wider investigation in at least 14 Teslas crashing into emergency vehicles while using the Autopilot driver assistance system.
As of 2021, Tesla has been beta testing “Full Self-Driving” with owners who are not trained in the system, but are actively monitored by the company. Earlier this year, Tesla said 160,000, about 15% of Teslas now on US roads, participated. Wider distribution of the software would be rolled out by the end of 2022.
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) and Autopilot have features that warn drivers to keep their hands on the wheel. The software can turn off if they don’t. Some Teslas also have internal in-cab cameras to alert distracted or drowsy drivers so they can pull off the road if necessary.
It’s not clear whether Tesla will eventually allow users to disable these features, but the company can adjust or disable them remotely. Owners can expect the next FSD update sometime later this month.
