Tesla FSD (Supervised) is close to hitting LHD countries: Elon Musk
Tesla is preparing to launch its Supervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) software in left-hand-drive (LHD) countries, according to CEO Elon Musk. The company has been promoting FSD in North America and is now expanding to other regions. LHD countries include the US, Canada, and many European countries. Tesla has been testing FSD in other countries and is working on regulatory frameworks. Additionally, Tesla China has launched subscriptions for Enhanced Autopilot, a precursor to FSD launch in the country. The FSD software has surpassed 1.3 billion cumulative miles and the company is offering free trials and price cuts for the software in North America.
Tesla has been aggressively promoting its Supervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) in North America in recent weeks, though a recent statement from CEO Elon Musk suggests that a launch of the software in other left-hand-drive (LHD) regions is imminent.
While Tesla has seemingly been moving toward launching FSD in other countries over the past few years, Musk said on Friday that Tesla thinks the supervised software could be ready to debut in LHD regions, though it isn’t quite ready to launch in RHD markets.
We believe version 12 is ready for supervised FSD in LHD countries. RHD will take a bit longer.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 26, 2024
LHD countries are those where the driver sits on the left side of the car and drives on the right side of the road, like the U.S. and Canada. The majority of countries across Europe are LHD, in addition to China, which is a key market for Tesla.
Along with the statement, Tesla executives have recently been suggesting that the company is getting close to launching FSD in other markets, with the question of when it would launch elsewhere coming up during the company’s recent Q1 2024 earnings call. Musk and others have also recently highlighted that the regulatory framework for FSD was actually not the hard part of launching in new markets.
Tesla has been independently testing FSD in other countries for a few years now, but the first sets of regulatory frameworks for semi-autonomous driving technology have been under discussion with the United Nations Economic Commission (UNECE) in recent months. On Friday, Tesla China also launched subscriptions for Enhanced Autopilot, which many think is an important precursor to the company launching FSD in the country.
Tesla’s FSD also surpassed 1.3 billion cumulative miles this week, a figure that’s expected to increase exponentially as more begin using the system. In North America, the company has begun offering one-month free trials and mandatory test drives of the software to new buyers, ahead of plans to launch a forthcoming robotaxi platform in August. The company has also cut the price of the software for both its subscription and one-time purchase options.
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