In October 2021, Tesla integrated several driving profiles into FSD, its fully autonomous driving technology. According to the manufacturer, these profiles dictate the behavior of the car in certain situations on the road. Only one of them has the unfortunate tendency to push the vehicle to burn out stops.
While Tesla has just increased the prices of fully autonomous driving again, a new controversy is swelling around the manufacturer’s technology. According to our colleagues at The Verge, FSD driving profiles have made a comeback FSD beta (for Full Self Driving).
This feature, which offers different driving profiles for the FSD, was integrated in October 2021 and then withdrawn due to several bugs such as unexpected shutdowns. It is available again now, and beta testers can therefore choose between three profiles, namely Chill, Average and Assertive.
The FSD can choose not to stop at a stop
If you choose the latter, the manufacturer’s notes indicate that “your Model X will have a shorter following distance, make more frequent lane changes, will not exit passing lanes, and will be able to perform rolling stops“. The Rolling Stop is the Anglo-Saxon translation of the sliding stops. As you know if you have your driving license, this practice consists of not stopping completely at a stop sign or a stop sign. Obviously, this is a violation of the Highway Code and this maneuver is therefore illegal in addition to being extremely dangerous.
At this point, it’s unclear whether these FSD driving profiles really change the way the vehicle moves and whether they ignore certain safety principles, such as coming to a full stop at a stop sign. But if we are to believe the manufacturer’s descriptions, a Tesla in “Assertive” mode will follow the cars more closely, change lanes more frequently and perform rolling stops. So many risky behaviors that can lead to accidents.
As a reminder, Tesla improved the detection of fully autonomous driving objects in an update released in December 2021. A previous patch was responsible for fixing the phantom braking problems encountered by several FSD beta testers.