Tesla could allow rivals to adopt its semi-autonomous driving tech

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced the electric-car giant could make its semi-autonomous driving technology available to other car-makers under licence – amid road safety regulators in the US investigating deadly crashes and near-misses attributed to the advanced driver assistance systems.

In a post on social media platform Twitter – which is also owned by Mr Musk – the Tesla boss said the electric-car company “aspires to be as helpful as possible to other car companies”, citing its recent decision to allow non-Tesla vehicles to use its ‘Supercharger’ network.

Mr Musk also claimed he would be “happy to licence Autopilot/FSD (Full Self-Driving) or other Tesla technology” to rival companies.

By selling its semi-autonomous driving technology under licence, Tesla could gather more real-world data to continue development of its software from a broader range of motorists.

Additionally, car-makers who buy the technology could save millions of dollars in development costs compared to designing their own software from scratch.

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In the US, Tesla offers three levels of advanced driver assistance systems to its customers – marketed as Autopilot, Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving.

Launched in 2015, ‘Autopilot’ is similar to a number of other semi-autonomous systems offered by car makers, providing ‘Level 2’ autonomous capabilities such as adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping assistance.

‘Enhanced Autopilot’ claims to add functions such as automatic navigation, lane change and parking, while also allowing the car to be summoned by its owner.

In addition to Autopilot, ‘Full Self-Driving’ claims to add the ability to detect and stop for traffic signs and lights – meaning it can accelerate, stop, steer and park the car without human intervention.

The controversial Full Self-Driving system was released as a ‘beta’ service in September 2021, utilising real-time data gathered by Tesla’s customers on public roads to improve the system.

Full-Self Driving became publicly available – without approval from road safety regulators – to US owners of certain Tesla cars in November 2022 , though it was later recalled in February 2023 due to a fault which could cause the system to malfunction in certain situations.

Tesla’s semi-autonomous driving systems require the driver to be attentive and keep their hands on the steering wheel in case they are required to respond to unforeseen scenarios or a failure of the technology.

However, all three levels of Tesla’s semi-autonomous driving technology have been placed in the spotlight by road safety regulators in the US, after the company’s systems featured disproportionately in crash data.

Since June 2021, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has required car-makers in the US to report any crashes involving their advanced driver assistance system-equipped vehicles in June 2021. 

Between July 2021 to June 2022, NHTSA data noted 392 crashes – involving 12 different car brands – which involved vehicles equipped with advanced driver assistance systems. 

In that sample, Tesla vehicles accounted for 273 – or 70 per cent – of the incidents.

Of the six fatalities where advanced driver assistance systems were considered a factor, Tesla cars accounted for five of the deaths.

As previously reported, at least 17 fatal crashes (including the six mentioned above) involving Tesla’s semi-autonomous driving tech in the US have been reported to the peak road safety authority since mid-2021.

An increase in reported fatal crashes involving Tesla’s semi-autonomous driving technology coincided with the electric-car giant replacing radar sensors – which were used for the car-maker’s advanced driver assistance systems – with camera-based technology from May 2021.

While Autopilot and Enhanced Autopilot are available in Australia, Tesla’s Full Self-Driving does not comply with Australian road rules and is not currently available locally to Tesla owners.

Earlier this week, Teslascope – a service that tracks Tesla software updates and vehicle changes – reported Full Self-Driving is currently being tested on Australian roads by the electric-car company’s staff, suggesting it could soon become available to local owners who have already paid $10,100 to unlock the feature.

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