Tesla employees are already testing autonomous Full Self-Driving trials internally, CEO Elon Musk said during a stream on X yesterday.
Musk was playing video games as he routinely tests the streaming feature on X and answers questions that fans and owners of Teslas have.
The Tesla CEO said that employees are already performing “trials” of Full Self-Driving‘s unsupervised version during the stream:
Q4 and FY ‘24 Earnings Call countdown should be all clips of it being used by Tesla employees.
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It seems clear that Musk said Tesla employees are testing unsupervised versions of the Full Self-Driving platform, but the capacity at which they are being tested is unclear.
It is likely that the cars could be used on Tesla property, navigating through the massive layout that the company has in Texas and other factories. Gigafactory Texas is a massive facility that spans over 2,500 acres and 10 million square feet of factory floor.
It is totally possible that Tesla would test this kind of unsupervised FSD internally on company property. However, Musk did not go into greater detail of whether it was happening on company grounds or on public roads.
For what it is worth, Tesla is not listed on the Austin government’s list of “Known AV Operators,” which only includes ADMT, AVRide, Cruise, Motional, Waymo, and Zoox.
Tesla was already planning to launch fully autonomous rides in both Texas and California by year’s end, according to Musk’s remarks at the Robotaxi event in October. The company has been aggressive with its FSD time frames in the past, so it’s worth taking it with a grain of salt.
However, it also should be mentioned that it is totally possible the automaker could launch FSD in a controlled environment and in handpicked areas this year.
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