Tesla's Autopilot Logs Over 10 Billion Miles, Still No "Release" of Control to Vehicles
Tesla has surpassed another milestone set by Elon Musk for "safe, unsupervised driving." According to the company's updated safety page, the Tesla fleet equipped with the "Full Self-Driving (Supervised)" function has cumulatively traveled over 10 billion miles. This means the company has reached the data threshold Musk set earlier this year for "safe, unsupervised self-driving."
However, Tesla owners did not wake up today to find their Full Self-Driving (Supervised) function upgraded overnight to an "unsupervised" version. Currently, FSD remains a Level 2 driving assistance system that requires the driver to remain fully attentive, constantly monitor road conditions, and be ready to immediately take control of the steering wheel when necessary.
In January of this year, Musk stated on social platform X that approximately "10 billion miles of training data" would be needed to achieve safe, unsupervised autonomous driving. At the time, his statement was seen by outsiders as highly suggestive: once the fleet accumulated this amount of data, Tesla would "flip the switch" and instantly grant all users unsupervised autonomous driving capabilities.
But the reality is that this "instant switch" has not happened. If Tesla were to directly release unsupervised capabilities at this point, it would be an extremely risky operation. There are still many questions about whether the company is willing, and to what extent it is willing, to assume legal responsibility for the over a million vehicles equipped with FSD.
Under the model of another autonomous driving company, Waymo, if its self-driving vehicles cause an accident, Waymo will take responsibility because it controls both the vehicle and the technology. Tesla, however, defines FSD as a "Level 2 supervised system" in its user agreement, placing the vast majority of responsibility on the vehicle owner. This also raises a core question: once FSD transitions from "supervised" to "unsupervised," how will responsibility be divided? And who should bear the consequences in the event of an accident?
Currently, Tesla does not seem to have provided a clear answer.