Tesla’s so-called Full Self Driving (Supervised) system is now available in Australia, after the company conducted initial demonstrations in Brisbane last month.
From today (September 17), Tesla owners who have purchased Full Self-Driving Capability can apply the update to activate the feature.
Tesla says it wants as many of its customers as possible to be able to update their cars and drive to work with the feature activated.
Customers who haven’t already purchased the package – which costs $10,100 – can also now upgrade their vehicles.
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If that price sounds too steep, Tesla says it’s introducing subscriptions for eligible vehicles “soon”. To get FSD (Supervised) under a subscription, you’ll pay $149 per month. It has yet to provide more specific timeframes.
The caveat here is FSD (Supervised) is only available on Model 3 or Model Y vehicles with Hardware 4 (HW4) cameras.
Tesla will also “soon” make test drives of vehicles with FSD (Supervised) available across Australia.
New Zealand is also receiving FSD (Supervised) functionality, which makes the two countries the first right-hand drive markets in the world in which the technology is being made publicly available.
Tesla has been busily testing the feature in Australia, ensuring it can handle unique driving scenarios such as Melbourne’s infamous hook turns.
FSD (Supervised) can negotiate curves, intersections and roundabouts, among other road infrastructure, while detecting and reacting to pedestrians, cyclists, motorcycles and other vehicles on the road.
The feature is powered by Tesla Vision. That means vehicles are using only cameras to detect their surroundings, unlike rival brands’ advanced driver assistance systems that may additionally use sensors, radar and LiDAR.
Tesla is making clear that, despite what its name suggests, FSD (Supervised) is a Level 2 driver assistance system that still requires full driver control and supervision at all times.
There are myriad safety warnings and agreements you need to accept on screen before the vehicle will enter this driving mode.
Use of FSD (Supervised) will also be suspended once the driver of the vehicle receives five “strikeouts” – ie when the system disengages for the remainder of a trip after issuing several audio and visual warnings for inattentiveness.
A camera inside the cabin monitors the driver while the feature is engaged, and can’t be disabled.
Tesla says it doesn’t require full visibility of the driver’s eyes in order to monitor attentiveness, but will sound warnings if it doesn’t have clear visibility of the driver’s hands and arms.
If you ignore all of the system’s warnings, the car will eventually sound a continuous chime, turn on the hazard lights, and slow to a complete stop.
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