During the Nov. 6 Tesla shareholders’ meeting, Elon Musk said that the electric vehicle company is almost ready to allow texting and driving. Musk said that this feature could be coming to full self-driving mode in just one or two months, according to Electrek.
The biggest news from the shareholders’ event concerned Musk’s pay package. At the meeting, shareholders voted to approve Musk’s $1 trillion pay package, which is set to make the world’s richest man even richer. However, the CEO’s “texting and driving” comments also deserve a closer look.
In Tesla’s Full Self-Driving mode (FSD), drivers can go hands-free, although they are required to pay attention and occasionally make contact with the wheel. If drivers attempt to use a mobile device while FSD is engaged, the Autopilot feature is designed to detect this activity and issue a warning to the driver.
A Tesla online driver’s manual states: “Do not use handheld devices while using Autopilot features. If the cabin camera detects a handheld device while Autopilot is engaged, the touchscreen displays a message reminding you to pay attention.”
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Now, Musk says the company believes FSD is advanced enough that drivers could look away from the road and fire off text messages. This follows Tesla’s introduction of a new “Mad Max” mode for FSD customers, which allows higher speeds and more aggressive lane changes. That feature, which debuted in October, almost instantly caught the attention of federal investigators.
Of course, most states (as well as many cities and counties) have laws against texting while driving. In fact, Montana is the only state without a total ban on the practice.
We should also point out that Musk has a long history of overestimating timelines for his products, particularly when it comes to self-driving.
In 2017, he predicted that drivers would be able to nap behind the wheel by 2019. Undeterred, he predicted in 2019 that robotaxis would soon be ready for the road. Tesla only launched its robotaxi service this year, and only in Austin, Texas.
