Tesla FSD computer Elon Musk wants to achieve level 5 autonomy this year

Tesla FSD computer Elon Musk

Tesla Elon Musk: Our fully autonomous cars are now very close

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is convinced that the company will achieve the basic functionality for autonomous driving to level 5 this year. But to equate this with appropriately equipped vehicles on the road would be measured. So far, driving Tesla cars with support to level 2.

Training for special exceptional situations

According to Musk, there are no more fundamental challenges to overcome in Level 5 autonomy, but there are still many minor problems. The challenge is to solve all these minor problems and ultimately put the entire system together. A tail of further problems had to be solved continuously. For example, while a Level 5 system could cope with most situations, it could occasionally be confronted with special, previously unknown situations that cannot be controlled. The system must then be trained for these special exceptional situations.

Level 5 with current hardware

This requires real-world experience, since simulations could only represent a subset of the complexity of the real world, says Musk. Tesla is deeply involved in these small details of level 5 autonomy. But Musk is certain that the goal of level 5 autonomy with the hardware currently installed in Tesla vehicles can only be achieved by improving the software.

All current Tesla vehicles are equipped with the specially developed FSD computer with two FSD chips each. The performance potential of the computer has not yet been fully exploited, said Musk. A few months ago, Tesla activated the second Soc only and only to a certain extent. Musk said that until the computer could be fully exhausted, at least another year would pass.

Current vehicles correspond to level 2

Level 5 corresponds to a fully autonomous vehicle that can handle all driving situations on all road types without any manual intervention (mind off), as is planned for driverless robotaxis without steering wheels, for example. At level 4, the driver also no longer has to intervene and can devote himself to other occupations in the car ("eyes off"), but autonomous driving is restricted to certain areas such as motorways. At Level 3, the driver must be able to take the wheel after a warning message, but hands can be taken off the steering wheel permanently on predefined routes ( hands off"). All systems currently approved for the market, including those marketed by Tesla as "full potential for autonomous driving", correspond to Level 2, since only gas and brake ( feet off") can be permanently transferred on predefined routes.