FSD Expands
Over the past fw months, we’ve been seeing a steady rise in hints that Tesla is getting ready to release their Full Self Driving beta onto the streets of their other big markets - with testing vehicles being spotted in Australia and Europe back in May, and recent efforts to get China leading to a specific team being hired by Tesla to help liaise with the local government and score some testing allowance there.
And while we haven’t heard much more about these efforts to get FSD licensed for use in markets outside of North America, recent changes to the new User’s Manuals in Teslas in Europe, Australia, and China are a big hint that FSD is about to see a big expansion.
On November 18th, Tesla observer site Teslascope pointed out that the User Manuals in these parts of the world had been quietly updated with information about the FSD program.
Some commenters have correctly pointed out that UNECE countries won’t be able to permit use of auto-steering and navigation software like Tesla’s FSD system until at least mid 2024, as regulatory bodies would need to work with the company to get the current laws changed.
But this is work that Tesla has been doing for years now, with the express purpose of growing their network onto international roadways.
As we said a little earlier, FSD was actually released to some limited amount of beta testers back in May this year and has been steadily running through testing ever since - for the left-hand-drive vehicles at least.
And it’s not like the local governments are particularly against the introduction of this tech either - China at least seems keen to get self-driving vehicles on their roads, going so far as to design a stretch of freeway specifically for class 4 self-steering cars.
It just takes more time in places other than North America, where road regulations are typically a little more stringent. But the update to the users manuals is a pretty concrete sign that at least some of these regions are getting close to expanding their circle of FSD drivers soon - maybe as soon as the new year.
Add to that the quiet improvements and updates that Tesla is rolling out to the system ahead of their massive v12 update and we have a recipe for a very successful year for the FSD program. More roads to test on is never a bad thing.