Elon Musk's penchant for putting his foot in his mouth continues unabated. This time, the unfiltered Tesla CEO is drawing ire from law enforcement for off-the-cuff remarks about what drivers can do while their cars use Supervised Full Self-Driving technology.
What's happening?
Business Insider has the scoop on some problematic comments by Musk on the social media platform X. There, he indicated that drivers employing FSD would be able to text on their phones "depending on context of surrounding traffic."
That sparked immediate red flags from observers. After all, Tesla's FSD is not classified as a fully autonomous system, and drivers must remain attentive.
Law enforcement in several states polled by Business Insider affirmed that texting and driving remain illegal, even when using advanced driver-assistance systems. Exceptions apply only to emergencies, such as calling 911.
"In all other cases, texting and driving/talking (while holding a phone) is still illegal," a spokesperson for the Arizona Department of Public Safety shared, per Business Insider.
Although it's inconvenient for Musk and drivers seeking truly autonomous driving, Tesla's system includes "Supervised" before the feature for a reason. The tech is facing legal challenges and investigations by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration because of rampant traffic lane violations like running red lights.
Why are Musk's misleading comments about FSD important?
Elon's inaccurate comments continue a pattern of overstating the progress of Tesla's FSD tech. If drivers take his words at face value, it might lead to heightened risks for other drivers and pedestrians.
Business Insider noted that drivers like Ring CEO Jamie Simonoff are already taking liberties with FSD and finding ways to rig its system to not bug them about not paying attention. Those alerts are there to protect drivers, but it's clear many of them view them as a nuisance, not a safety feature.
Autonomous driving holds a lot of potential. Theoretically, if the tech reaches a certain point, it could mean safer roads freer from human error and phenomena like road rage. Still, despite some positive stories, there are enough mishaps with FSD to suggest it's not there yet.
Beyond the individual accidents that could result, such controversies could do irreversible harm to autonomous driving. Given Tesla's prominent position, negative perceptions could also influence the wider autonomous driving market, including Waymo.
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Absolutely! 👍 What's being done about Musk's irresponsible claims?
Law enforcement has the final word on what's legal and what's not — not Musk. If drivers opt to text and drive, they'll have to rely on the charity of cops not to make them pay for it with traffic tickets. Simonoff indicated he's had mixed success at that.
Meanwhile, if more accidents occur as a result of inattentive drivers, Tesla's FSD will draw even more scrutiny from the NHTSA. Bad publicity is costly in a literal sense when there's a major accident, like one that cost Tesla $243 million.
It could be even more costly if the negative headlines dominate the autonomous driving narrative and hurt its long-term viability.
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