Tesla’s ‘Full Self-Driving’ beta releases next week, Musk says

FSD is one of the two autopilot options available to Tesla owners. Still, drivers are said to be fully attentive, and to place their hands on the wheel to be prepared to take over at any moment.

Tesla’s ‘Full Self-Driving’ beta releases next week. | Picture by special arrangement.

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Tesla’s long-awaited advanced autopilot option – Full Self-Driving (FSD), will be released in a limited beta on October 20, CEO Elon Musk tweeted .

“This will, at first, be limited to a small number of people who are expert & careful drivers,” Musk added.

FSD is one of the two autopilot options available to Tesla owners. Still, drivers are said to be fully attentive, and to place their hands on the wheel to be prepared to take over at any moment.

Both the autopilot options on the Tesla cars currently offer features to help drivers, however it has not reached a stage where the features make the vehicles autonomous.

FSD features include actively guiding the car from a highway’s on-ramp to off-ramp, including suggesting lane changes, automatically engaging the turn signal and taking the correct exit; automatically parallel or perpendicular park; move the car in and out of a tight space using the mobile app or key.

Recently, during the company’s Battery Day event, Musk mentioned the availability of FSD, and explained the company had to rework the entire Autopilot code base.

“It’s just taken us a while to rewrite everything. And, so, you’ll see what it’s like,” he said.

According to a finding by Consumer Reports, a US-based non-profit organisation, Tesla's FSD option falls short of its claim.