On August 19, two senators of the United States Senate asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate Tesla’s commitment to its electric vehicles for the advanced driver assistance system Autopilot and the Fully Autonomous Driving (FSD) package function. They worry that Tesla has been charging customers thousands of dollars in fees for fully autonomous driving (FSD) functions, but buying this package does not mean that users’ cars can be fully autonomous.
Earlier this week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced an investigation into multiple accidents involving Tesla crashing into emergency vehicles while the Autopilot system was activated. On Wednesday, local time, Senators Richard Blumenthal and Edward Markey sent a letter to the new FTC Chairman Lina Khan, requesting that Tesla be informed about the Autopilot system.
The publicity of the FSD kit is investigated. Tesla has repeatedly exaggerated the performance of its cars, and these statements are increasingly threatening drivers and other public travel on the road. The senators wrote in a letter published on Wednesday. Therefore, we urge you to investigate possible fraud and unfair practices in the advertising and marketing of Tesla’s self-driving system and take appropriate measures to ensure the safety of all drivers on the road.
When this letter was issued, the Biden administration had been gradually strengthening its scrutiny of technology companies. But so far, most of the focus has been on the anti-monopoly policies that the FTC will introduce.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has over the years claimed that Tesla electric car coming true autopilot without human intervention, but so far not implemented this feature. Musk said in 2015 that it would only take two years for a fully autonomous Tesla to get on the road. In 2016, Tesla announced that all new cars are equipped with the hardware required to achieve fully autonomous driving, and the company just needs a little more time to upgrade the software. Facts have proved that this also failed to become a reality because Tesla later only upgraded the onboard computer.
At the same time, Tesla began to provide consumers with the option of fully autonomous driving when buying a car, essentially allowing users to pay for fully autonomous driving that has not yet been realized. And these car owners will get more advanced features than Tesla’s advanced driving assistance system Autopilot.
At the end of 2018, Tesla removed the Fully Autonomous Driving Function option from its official website. Musk admitted that this option caused too much confusion for users. But just a few months later, this option was on the shelves again, and Musk once again promised to realize the fully autonomous driving of the car by the end of 2019.
Since then, Tesla has continued to charge users for optional fully autonomous driving features. If the user chooses to purchase this feature when booking a car, the current price is $10,000. Tesla also recently launched a subscription service of fully autonomous driving features for subsequent intended users. The company made it clear on its official website that this optional feature will not allow users’ cars to achieve fully autonomous driving, but Tesla still promises to launch a fully autonomous driving function by the end of this year.
Musk now says that Tesla’s full-featured FSD kit can take people from home to the workplace without intervention. But this is not the exact definition of a fully self-driving car. For several months, Tesla has been testing this full-featured FSD suite.
Thousands of users are currently running the software while driving, and many users have taken photos of their experiences using the software. The software is updated every few weeks or months, and judging from the videos taken by users, the results have been mixed. Cars that activate the FSD kit sometimes drive smoothly, but sometimes refuse to turn left or rush to oncoming cars.
The senators quoted many of Musk’s statements in the open letter, as well as a video released by Tesla in 2019 about a test version of the FSD kit controlling cars on the roads of the San Francisco Bay Area. The senators stated that Tesla’s advertisements about the Autopilot system and FSD kits were misleading.
We are concerned that Tesla’s Autopilot and FSD system functions are not as mature and reliable as the company advertises to the public, the senators wrote. Tesla users have heard these statements and believe that their cars can achieve autonomous driving. This may have fatal consequences.
Safety advocates and other regulatory agencies have long called for a review of Tesla’s treatment of advanced driver assistance systems. In early 2020, the National Transportation Board (NTB) found that the design flaws of the Autopilot system and overconfidence in its function were the main causes of a fatal car accident in Mountain View, California. Musk even admitted that drivers may be too complacent when using the Tesla Autopilot system. But for many years, he only allowed the vehicle to passively monitor the driver when the Autopilot system was activated.
There is no doubt that charging thousands of dollars for a non-existent feature, testing it in the real world at the same time, and repeatedly changing the established promises about autopilot in cars will definitely cause chaos. In an open letter on Wednesday, Markey and Blumenthal falsely stated that all Tesla owners can obtain FSD testing software through subscription. In fact, like many promises made by Musk, this promise has not yet been fulfilled.
