Flat Lands, No Hands

Let's start with the positive. This is a major milestone! Supervised FSD is a system that moves the technology of automated driving solidly in the direction of Level 3. A vehicle that can perform almost all driving functions on its own without driver input. Legally you as driver have to stay a full 100% focused on the supervision of the car, operationally you are replaced by the technology. That is probably also what makes it so frustrating for people like me, we are so close to being gifted all this travel time to do something else, but we can't. To gain trust the manufacturers, like Tesla, are also much more aggressive in forcing you to pay attention. Even to the point where they lock you out of the system for a number of days on repeated bad behavior. Still, the two book-ends of autonomous are taking huge strides in moving closer together. Level five full autonomy in ever more cities, level 2 and tantalizing close to 3 everywhere.

The Dutch approval, and Tesla's subsequent roll-out to its existing drivers, also show how fast our world is going into the direction of software defined vehicles. What is essentially a super smart, almost completely self-driving wonder car, becomes a dull piece of machinery upon crossing the border. Same hardware, vastly different experience. No wonder there is increasing pressure from the public towards their own regulators to get a move on and approve this. Something that can be done quickly within the European Union as the RDW approval has union-wide authority with a simple national stroke of the pen.

Why is the whole episode a bit worrying? Well, Tesla is a difficult company to trust as a rational European. The way they market their products, even the name Full Self Drive, is troubling. There is a fine line between aggressive marketing and lying. And it's not just Tesla that runs risks if some people take the dream the company is selling for reality. Especially in today's social media dominated world, you only need a couple of high profile accidents to negate millions of kilometers or hours of perfectly safe travel. Let's all hope the technology and its enforcement are idiot proof.

What is a major technical step forward for the Netherlands is also a sneaky step backwards for Tesla drivers who are fine with the standard driving support functions like lane and distance keeping. The choice is now pretty binary. You only get the legal minimum standard upon buying the car. Getting any increased driver assistance means going for the hefty €99 monthly FSD subscription. A big price to pay for a function that still requires you to stay engaged at all times. I'm curious how many people will make the shift and in what form other manufacturers will follow Tesla's lead. The German premium brands have showcased very similar capabilities, but are known for going to market in a more risk-averse fashion.