Gary Zhou 
Key Points
- 🚗 Elon Musk discussed the “final piece” of solving Tesla’s Full Self-Driving suite: vehicle control.
- 🗓️ Musk has claimed Tesla will solve Full Self-Driving this year and expects the next-gen vehicle to operate in autonomous mode.
- 💡 The major barrier to solving Full Self-Driving is vehicle control, which is constantly being trained by Tesla’s neural network.
- 📈 Data is coming in rapidly to help improve driving behavior, and Dojo is online to process real-life driving situations efficiently.
- 🤝 Tesla is in early discussions with a major OEM (potentially Ford) about adopting Full Self-Driving technology.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, recently addressed the “final piece” in the puzzle of achieving the company’s Full Self-Driving suite.
For several years, Musk has been asserting that Tesla is on the verge of unveiling a comprehensive version of Full Self-Driving, and this year is no exception. In 2023, he reiterated on multiple occasions that Tesla aims to resolve FSD during this year.
During a conference with Morgan Stanley in March, Musk disclosed that the upcoming next-gen vehicle is projected to operate “almost entirely in autonomous mode,” indicating a significant step forward in the pursuit of Full Self-Driving capabilities.
In April, after the Q1 2023 Earnings Call, he said:
“There’ll be a little bit of two steps forward, one step back between releases for those trying the beta. But the trend is very clearly towards full self-driving, towards full autonomy. And I hesitate to say this, but I think we’ll do it this year. So that’s what it looks like.”
And in June, he said at the VivaTech conference in Paris, France:
“Although I’ve said this before, I think we will solve autonomy soon.”
It is understandable that many would remain skeptical, but the owners who use the Full Self-Driving Beta suite continue to talk positively about their experiences. While there are criticisms, Tesla continues to work to improve the suite.
Others are also interested in adopting the technology as a nod that it is moving in the right direction. Musk said during the most recent Earnings Call that Tesla is in early discussions with a major OEM, and many Tesla fans believe it is Ford, although this is purely speculation.
Musk is still convinced Tesla is close to solving the suite and said in a Tweet last night that “vehicle control is the final piece of the Tesla FSD AI puzzle.”
Vehicle control on a level that Tesla is looking for would be the major barrier to solving FSD. It is constantly being trained by the company’s neural network, which helps improve driving behavior. However, although data is coming in at a rapid pace that is helping write “>300k lines of C++ control code by ~2 orders of magnitude,” Musk maintains that solving FSD is not a problem related to manpower.
Instead, he said the progress is training compute-constrained.
Musk hinted that it could Dojo is now online by simply favoriting a Tweet. He also said in June that Dojo “has been online & running useful tasks for a few months.”
Dojo is going to be responsible for continuous growth and progress in the development of FSD, which is supposed to help process real-life driving situations from the company’s cars in an efficient way.
