EVwire brief: Tesla’s Unsupervised Full Self-Driving may one day let unlicensed drivers take to the roads legally, but that future is not here yet, especially not in a Swedish courtroom.
A man in his 40s without a driver’s license tried exactly that defense in the Uppsala District Court after being caught driving his Tesla on three separate occasions.
His argument? He wasn’t driving at all. His car was. He had merely typed in the destination, after which “the car drove him, not the other way around.”
For good measure, he added that he could just as easily have been chilling in the back seat, but opted for the driver’s seat only because it offered better access to the infotainment system.
The court didn’t buy it. The Uppsala District Court ruled that the man had “set the car in motion” and “interacted with the car’s control system,” therefore qualifying as the driver under Swedish traffic law.
Even FSD (Supervised) is well, supervised and not fully autonomous yet
Amusingly enough, Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) Supervised system wasn’t even active in Sweden when the man was caught. The man was most likely relying on basic Autopilot or Enhanced Autopilot.
Basic AP and EAP are still very much driver-assistance systems requiring constant, (very) active human supervision. They use a completely different software stack than FSD, too.
Tesla has since received approval from the RDW for FSD (Supervised) in the Netherlands, but Sweden has not yet followed.
Even where approved, FSD (Supervised) demands the driver remains attentive and fully responsible. That’s why Tesla made it a point to place the word “Supervised” right after its Full Self-Driving.
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The man was sentenced to 100 day-fines totaling 5,000 kronor (about $540) for three counts of aggravated driving without a license. His Tesla was seized and will be confiscated.
Moral of the story: Dreaming of unsupervised FSD is one thing. Claiming your current Autopilot-equipped Tesla is already fully self-driving in a court of law is several major software updates and one $540 reality check too early.
Those who really want to experience an unsupervised autonomous Tesla can check out the unmanned Robotaxi units currently testing in Austin instead. It’s also a good idea to check out our Robotaxi Report, because we follow this nascent market very closely.
Source: Allt Om Elbil
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