After the automaker rolled out an update to the vehicles this morning, a select number of all-electric Tesla Cybertrucks can now drive hands-free on U.S. highways. Tesla’s AI chief Ashok Elluswamy wrote in X that Cybertrucks will be the first Tesla vehicles to feature end-to-end highway driving, which the company says uses a “neural network” to navigate all stages of highway driving.
“Nice job,” said Tesla CEO (and X’s owner) Elon Musk he replied to his AI boss.
The feature appears to be in “early access,” meaning it’s only available to certain Cybertruck owners who have purchased it. It’s unclear when the automaker will make this feature more widely available. Tesla, which disbanded its public relations team in 2021, did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
Tesla’s manuals maintain that its fully autonomous driving, or “FSD (supervised)” feature should only be used when drivers are paying attention to the road. The feature reportedly turns off if it detects drivers are looking elsewhere. Critics have argued that Tesla’s marketing wrongly leads drivers to assume that the FSD can really drive itself and that the automaker has not been proactive in preventing misuse by drivers.
Customers who pre-purchased base model Cybertrucks paid $7,000 for access to the driving feature, and some waited almost a year for it to be available in their trucks. Tesla owners can now subscribe to the FSD (supervised) feature for $99 per month.
One Cybertruck driver reported on X, judging by this morning’s driving, the function “works well”.
The introduction of this feature is much-needed good news for Cybertruck, which has had to face a tough entry into Tesla’s lineup. The vehicle was delayed for years due to the Covid-19 pandemic and technical issues. (A leaked “alpha” briefing on the vehicle, first reported by WIRED, showed the truck had significant braking, handling and noise problems.)
A fully electric truck was also tested some safety remindersincluding one in which the company had to repair or replace stuck gas pedals.
As more automakers enter the electrification race and Tesla’s massive lead in electric cars has been eroded by other manufacturers, Musk and company seem to believe that AI-powered “self-driving” features will assist Tesla regain its advantage. “Tesla’s value is, first and foremost, autonomy,” Musk told investors this summer.
The U.S. highway safety regulator, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said Tesla’s Autopilot feature, an older and less advanced version of FSD, did not adequately prevent misuse by drivers – and was involved in 13 fatal crashes between 2018 and 2023 . Following a multi-year investigation into Autopilot, Tesla recalled 2 million Autopilot-equipped vehicles last year. (The carmaker said it disagrees with the government’s conclusions.)
Earlier this year, Tesla settled the lawsuit brought to you by the family of a Northern California man who died while using Autopilot in his Model X.
Tesla too is facing a class action lawsuit claiming he misled customers who bought Teslas after Musk promised the cars had everything they needed to drive autonomously. Eight years later, Tesla has made significant improvements in autonomous features and plans to make large money from this feature, but it still hasn’t created autonomous driving technology.
That may change this month. Musk has promised that Tesla will unveil an autonomous taxi, calling it the Cybercab, at an event in Southern California on October 10.