California Bans Tesla From Calling Its Software Full-Self Driving

Senate Bill 1398, sponsored by Democratic State Sen. Lena Gonzalez, prohibits dealers and automakers from “deceptively naming or marketing” a car as self-driving if it still requires human attention and intervention. The report said that the state DMV already had rules banning this kind of false advertising, but the lack of enforcement led Gonzalez and state legislators to advance the bill so that it’s now state law.

“(This bill) increases consumer safety by requiring dealers and manufacturers that sell new passenger vehicles equipped with a semiautonomous driving assistance feature… to give a clear description of the functions and limitations of those features,” Gonzalez said in a statement (PDF). Tesla has countered by saying that it already makes its customers aware of the software’s limitations.

This is something we’ve always wondered about, as Tesla vehicles have never progressed beyond Level 2 self-driving ability, as defined in 2014 by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) via document J3106. Level 2 means the car accelerates, steers, brakes, and can maintain or switch lanes and avoid a front-end collision, but still can’t drive itself from point A to point B without a human paying attention at all times, ready to take over in a sticky situation or if the car can’t read pavement markings or road signs.

In any common-sense reading, that’s not fully self-driving. Level 3 and 4 self-driving are much closer, and Level 5 would mean completely autonomous even on roads that haven’t been mapped or in heavy storms. To date, no cars are available to consumers with Level 3, 4, or 5 self-driving ability.

Tesla sells FSD as an additional over-the-air option for $15,000 or $199 per month. A statement on the automaker’s website regarding the feature reads: “The currently enabled Autopilot, Enhanced Autopilot, and Full Self-Driving features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous. Full autonomy will be dependent on achieving reliability far in excess of human drivers as demonstrated by billions of miles of experience, as well as regulatory approval, which may take longer in some jurisdictions.” The automaker also says on its website that all new vehicles already have the hardware necessary to add FSD in the future.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in 2017 that he had planned for a Tesla to drive itself across the country without the need for human assistance before 2018. As PCMag reports, last week the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched two more crash investigations into accidents where Tesla FSD is alleged to have been at least partially responsible.

Earlier this month, a filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) indicated Tesla is working on a new radar system operating in the 76-77GHz range. The filing suggests the automaker is planning to bring back a radar hardware component to at least some of its models, which raises the question of whether existing vehicles without this hardware will ever be good enough to drive themselves without human intervention.

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