The Frank Costanza upgrade? d;^D
Posted on 05/30/2026 6:46:45 AM PDT by eastexsteve
A new Texas law allows companies with SAE Level 4 or higher autonomous vehicles to offer commercial driverless transportation.
Tesla wasted no time in self-certifying their vehicles. On the same day the law went into effect, Tesla officially self-certified their FSD software on their robotaxi vehicles as Level 4 compliant.
For years, Tesla’s Autopilot and FSD software, even in Texas, has navigated the consumer market under the constraints imposed by a Level 2 driver-assist system. And while Tesla now operates in Texas as a level-4 system, this does not change the level-2 designation for consumer vehicles. Taking Responsibility
While many of Tesla’s robotaxi rides in Austin were already driverless, there’s an important distinction in level 4 autonomy.
By certifying its software as Level 4 for commercial operations, Tesla is willfully absorbing a substantial portion of the operational liability. It’s legally stating that its vehicles can operate themselves without any human supervision or intervention under certain conditions.
These conditions are typically based on weather, region (geofense), or speed.
This willingness to take on legal accountability is a major turning point for Tesla, as it is the first time the company has been certified as a level 4 system.
SAE International defines a Level-4 autonomous vehicle as:
Entire dynamic driving task (DDT): The system does all steering, braking, accelerating, lane changes, signaling, and monitoring of the driving environment.
Dynamic driving task fallback: If something goes wrong (sensor failure, road closure, etc.), the system itself must handle the situation and achieve a safe outcome. It cannot depend on a human taking over.
Operational Design Domain (ODD): The specific conditions under which the system is designed to operate (certain roads, cities, weather conditions, speeds, etc.).
Consumer Vehicles Still Level 2
This new ruling for Tesla only covers its Robotaxi vehicles. Regular consumer cars, although they use a similar FSD version, are still considered Level 2 by law, and drivers will be fully held responsible.
Vehicles in Austin have advantages over consumer vehicles, even when they run the same FSD software. In addition to being geofenced, these areas have also received additional FSD training, which has improved FSD performance.
Tesla also offers remote assistance to help these vehicles when they encounter situations where their confidence threshold is low.
Ultimately, this is another milestone for Tesla and its Robotaxi network, but it won’t affect consumer vehicles, at least not yet.
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They already have. It's been tough on the plaintiffs because Teslas have the equivalent of a "black box" that saves all traffic data, in-car data, camera data from all cameras, etc. in the event of an accident. There's no "he-said-she-said" when a Tesla is involved in an accident.
They are working on a system for that now. It will work like a late model cell phone and contact charging.
I don't either. My point is that putting all on the car is silly. The goal is a total solution, as the redundancy greatly reduces the probability of error. After all, police put up caution tape around accident sites.
“self-certified”
What could possibly go wrong?
And upon detecting same, the software should immediately pull the car off the road, open all doors, and disable itself, displaying “OK you drive then,”
Our son bought a Tesla when they first came out. He upgrades the software. Right now he can’t totally let it drive itself but it mostly does. Very cool. Very wonderful ride.
The trolley problem is solved with some simple rules.
Minimise casualties outside the lane of travel in all cases.
Objects or people in the lane of travel are to be avoided via lane change or leaving the lane for a shoulder if possible , emergency braking if possible. Leaving the shoulder and lane only if clear of people and other obstacles and the vehicle is not in danger of roll other or impact due to loss of control on a loose surface. The impact is always in the lane of travel of the above options are not viable with maximum effort braking up till impact. Persons or objects entering the lane of travel trigger the above logic and get hit it they are the least worst option for the vehicle occupants since an intrusion into a lane is on the intruder not the vehicle who has the right of way. This applies for cross traffic at intersections running lights or stop signs their lawless behavior voids their impact avoidance hierarchy standing to the very bottom.
It’s cold hard logic and puts the casualty on the party who is not where they are supposed to be. The law will see it this way as well.
Having worked in insurance there is no such thing as an accident there are incidents and some party is always at fault for the failure chain. Always without fail. A error was made purposefully or via neglect or inattention but without fail an error was made by one or more parties leading to the failure chain and the incident.
Tesla Cybercab uses wireless tech to recharge. It just parks over the charging spot.
There are several approaches which allow charging without human intervention.
At the moment, I would not find it too terrible to get out of the car to plug it in.
Taking into account charging time, perhaps the range per day would be closer to 1200 miles. Still competitive with air travel.
I will NEVER own a vehicle that can be programed from anywhere via bluetooth....”ONSTAR” was GM’s initial entry into this Bull__t. When the time arises I will spend the money and get another older Honda/Ford/Chevy/Chrysler etc... from 2004 -1960....Honestly look at the garbage they are producing now. No right to repair without subscriptions and if software is transmitted to your vehicle for “UPDATES” then any system within (YOUR ???) vehicle can be controlled by someone other than you. I’ll pass.
“ at least a computer driven car will hit the brakes before it hits something….”
True, but will it simultaneously extend a robotic arm across your chest to keep you from flying through the windshield like mom did?
My Tesla has saved me from two accidents in the past eight months when it could see a vehicle that was behind my line of vision that was about to sideswipe me on the interstate.
They can’t possibly have addressed every possible weather and traffic-related condition. Heck, Waymo just pulled their vehicles in recent weeks because one of their self-driving vehicles drove right into a flooded area. Imagine one of their taxi vehicles doing that with people inside.
I was at a men’s luncheon a couple years ago and sat next to an 80 year old guy who owned a Tesla. He was telling me how the self-driving assist did 90% of the driving on his 40 mile trips to Santa Cruz. That’s when it dawned on me how much this tech will enable independence for seniors. I turn 75 in a couple of months and it’s become more relevant.
That’s when it dawned on me how much this tech will enable independence for seniors.
So they can go peacefully in their sleep, unlike the fellow drivers.
“ self-certifying”
How does that work? Did Tesla AI certify itself?
Can I self-certify as a Mensa genius?
FSD 14.3.3 can and will let you go hands free as long as it can see your eyes looking out the front windshield via the IR cams. It also monitors your hands if you pick up your phone it will strike you for it. To many and FSD time out for bad behavior happens. Polarized lenses block the IR specifically polycarbonate lens you will get the you must have at least one hand on the wheel prompt then. This is the life hack there are ways to trick the wheel sensors plural it’s not only servo motion but impedance or some other electrical property since gloves will make it think your hands are off it unless you shake the wheel every 30-45 seconds like little lane following directions. Used to be you could use a half full water bottle to fool the torque sensors not any more. The other hack is the scroll wheel mod that will automatically scroll the wheel randomly up and down to make the software think you are using it the old ones just moved up or down once every 45 sec or so again Tesla heard about it and the arms race continues random scroll works and so does a grounding clip to the wheel and you completing the impedance circuit to the seat most likely. With the mods and glasses yeah you most certainly can go fully hands free FSD was designed to do so only bureaucrats and lawyers keep it L2+ obviously 14.3.3 is L4 capable with the current hardware set it’s 100% lawyers in office and ambulance chasers holding up progress. F THEM
“can’t stop the signal Mal”
My Model 3 will go door to door to Austin or Shreveport a $50 mod from Alibaba and a grounding wire shut up the attention nags. If they up the attention nags the hacker’s will find a way around them again. Give us the L4 we demand and tell the lawyers to pound sand.
What do you call a 1000 dead lawyer’s? Rookie numbers and not even a good start.
Now that’s funny. My mother would always throw her right arm across the passenger side whenever she hit the brakes hard, long after all of us kids were grown.
The Frank Costanza upgrade? d;^D
Teslas have logged over one billion miles of driving. All that driving data is logged, analyzed, and used to train and interact with every Tesla, even in real time. Their reaction time is second to none. A Tesla isn't a Waymo. A Tesla isn't going to drive into a lake.
With Tesla accepting “operational liability” for these vehicles, the company is now exposed to product liability claims that aren’t covered by auto insurance. And unlike auto insurance claims, these lawsuits now include the potential for punitive damages — which are not covered by insurance.
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