Tesla’s plans to expand the availability of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) feature, which adds somewhat-autonomous driving capabilities to the company’s vehicles, might face some opposition from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy reportedly said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that, so far as Tesla and FSD are concerned, “basic safety issues have to be addressed before they’re then expanding it to other city streets and other areas.” She was also said to have “expressed concern about how Tesla software is tested on public roadways.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in on Sept. 1 that his company was looking to release FSD to more customers with a “public opt in request button” later in the month. Electrek reported that the public beta could begin sometime around Sept. 25.
There are still concerns about FSD, however, as well as the related Autopilot feature. Autopilot has been blamed for numerous crashes, with the most recent high-profile example being a collision with a parked police car. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in August that it would investigate the feature after it was involved in 11 crashes.
At least part of the problem appears to be the features’ branding. Neither Autopilot nor FSD offer truly autonomous driving capabilities; both are merely supposed to assist whoever is actually supposed to be driving the vehicle at the time.
Homendy reportedly told the Journal that Tesla’s use of the terms is “misleading and irresponsible” and said the company has “clearly misled numerous people to misuse and abuse technology.” Tesla is aware that neither Autopilot nor FSD offer truly autonomous driving capabilities—it says as much on its website—but that hasn’t affected the features’ branding.
