While autonomous driving is a practice that is becoming more democratic in the United States, European legislation is rather hostile towards this technology, popularized by Tesla in particular. And precisely, the manufacturer has suspended deliveries of several vehicles equipped with autonomous driving functions in order to meet the requirements of German justice.
In the United States, autonomous driving is gradually becoming more democratic and many manufacturers, Tesla in the lead of course, are beginning to integrate it into their vehicles. In Europe and in France, technology still faces hesitant legislation and strict regulations. This prevents Tesla and other manufacturers from offering the same features as in the land of Uncle Sam.
Autopilot, one of Tesla’s self-driving technologies, is at the center of several investigations in Europe. In February 2022, the KBA, the agency in charge of German transport, announced the opening of an investigation into several features offered by Autopilot, namely: the automation of motorway exits and lane changes .
The principle is simple: these options allow the vehicle to take motorway exits independently when the Autopilot is activated, or to change lanes when the situation requires it. However, even if we are still awaiting the conclusions of the KBA, Tesla obviously did not wait to get up to speed before new legislation forced it to act.
Tesla takes the lead and removes Autopilot capabilities
Indeed, several new Tesla customers claim that the delivery times for their vehicle have been extended by a few days, the time for the manufacturer to deploy a software update dedicated to Autopilot.
Every customer who has ordered a car equipped with Autopilot has seen delays extended by a few days. A buyer gave on the forum the reason behind these delays in delivery. As you can doubt, Tesla is looking to remove automation from freeway exits in anticipation of KBA findings.
Rather than having to recall cars just marketed, Tesla obviously preferred to take the lead in removing this feature from Autopilot. As a reminder, in France the adoption of autonomous driving is progressing slowly. From July 14, 2022, “hands-free” driving will be authorized on French roads, under certain conditions of course. In England, the British authorities plan to authorize watching TV during journeys in self-driving cars.
Source: DriveTeslaCanada