Milestones
- Autopilot hardware debutsOct 2014Complete.
- FSD Beta released to early customersOct 2020Complete.
- v12: end-to-end neural network, renamed FSD (Supervised)Mar 2024Complete.
- v14 releasedOct 2025Complete.
- Unsupervised FSD for personal carsNot yet reached.
Most important updates
- 29 Jun 2026
- 3 May 2026
- 10 Apr 2026
- 18 Mar 2026
- 20 Oct 2020
Current obstacles
- Driver complacencyWhen a system usually works, drivers stop paying attention; NHTSA has repeatedly investigated Autopilot and FSD crashes.
Physics limits
- Watching a good system is hard for peoplePeople monitoring automation that rarely errs lose vigilance within minutes, as aviation studies show. The better Level 2 gets, the less likely drivers catch its rare mistakes.
- The car must think in real timeAll driving runs on an in-car chip with a limited power and heat budget, many times a second. Bigger networks need more compute, so older hardware (HW3) can't run the newest versions.
- Cameras infer depth, they don't measure itDistance is estimated from images, not measured. Glare, fog and dirt degrade it, and there is no lidar or radar on current cars to cross-check.
How it works
Camera-only perception
Eight cameras stream video to a Tesla-designed computer (HW3 or HW4). There is no lidar, and radar was dropped from new cars in 2021–22.
Video in, controls out
Since v12, one neural network maps camera video directly to steering and speed, replacing hundreds of thousands of lines of hand-written rules.
Learning from the fleet
Clips from millions of customer cars are selected and used to train the network in Tesla's data centres; new versions ship over the air.
The driver stays responsible
A cabin camera checks the driver is watching the road; inattention triggers warnings and can lock FSD out for a while.
Update log
Mon 29 Jun
- Minor: PressSoftware
Sun 3 May
- Minor: PressSoftware
Fri 10 Apr
- Major: PressRegulatory
Wed 18 Mar
- Major: RegulatorRegulatory
Oct 2025
- Minor: PressSoftware
Thu 18 Sep 2025
- Minor: PressCommercial
Tue 25 Feb 2025
- Minor: PressSoftware
Tue 20 Oct 2020
- Major: PressSoftware
About Tesla
Tesla
EVs, FSD, Robotaxi, Cybercab, Optimus
Tesla makes electric cars and batteries and is betting on self-driving: camera-only Full Self-Driving software, a Robotaxi service with no safety monitors in several Texas and Florida cities, the two-seat Cybercab, and the Optimus humanoid robot.
- Robotaxi went from a supervised Austin pilot (June 2025) to rides with no safety monitor in six Texas and Florida cities by July 2026.
- Cybercab, with no steering wheel or pedals, began low-rate production in Texas and started rolling out in Austin on 3 Sept 2026.
- Fremont's Model S/X line ended in May 2026 and is being turned into the first Optimus production line.
- Founded
- 200323 yrs
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- United States
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- TSLA (opens google.com)NASDAQ
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- Coverage
- 4 programs · 29 updateslatest 4 Sep 2026checked 25 Sep
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- People
- Elon Musk (opens en.wikipedia.org)CEOVaibhav Taneja (opens en.wikipedia.org)CFOAshok ElluswamyVP, AI Software