Elon Musk: Tesla's self-driving system "will not be approved by regulators" in 2022

According to recent statements by CEO Elon Musk, reported by Automotive News, Tesla "will not get regulatory approval" (reservation required) to release its autonomous driving system in 2022.

The automaker already sells a $15,000 driver assistance software package called "Full Self-Driving," which National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Jennifer Hommendy called "misleading and irresponsible" in 2021. The system does not allow cars to drive themselves. Musk has regularly promised since 2016 that software updates would make autonomous driving a reality.

During Tesla's quarterly earnings call this week, Musk said he plans to release a full self-driving software update later this year that will limit the need for human driver control input, but allowing the car to drive itself without anyone behind the wheel is another He stated that this is a problem.

"Cars will be able to take you from home to work, to a friend's house, to the grocery store without touching the steering wheel," he said, adding that "getting regulatory approval is another matter." At that point, I don't think we'll get regulatory approval."

Musk said Tesla will release another software update in 2023 aimed at showing regulators that the technology is safer than human drivers. He has made similar promises since 2016, when Tesla announced a hardware suite that Musk said would enable autonomous driving once complementary software is developed and added to the car via an over-the-air (OTA) update.

Musk reiterated that promise in 2019 when Tesla unveiled a new computer for driver assistance systems and said self-driving cars would be available the following year. Tesla added some features, but full self-driving still requires constant driver supervision and is firmly placed in SAE's Autonomy Level 2, where Level 5 represents fully autonomous driving.

Nor is the system entirely reliable. Earlier this year, Tesla announced a recall of approximately 54,000 vehicles due to a software update that may have caused them to fail to obey pause signs. This will not inspire confidence in the regulators who will have to approve Tesla's self-driving cars in the future.

However, Tesla has steadily increased the price of its standard Autopilot system-based full self-driving system, raising it from $10,000 to $12,000 in January and then further to the current $15,000.

On the same conference call where he discussed the regulatory status of self-driving, Musk also said that Tesla is developing a next-generation platform for EVs that is smaller and more affordable than the Model 3 and Model Y.