Consumer Reports: Tesla's 'Full Self-Driving Capability' Doesn't Live Up to the Name

Consumer Reports has laid down the law on Elon Musk, declaring that Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving Capability” feature fails to live up to its promises.

Consumer Reports states in a recent article titled “Tesla’s ‘Full Self-Driving Capability’ Falls Short of Its Name,” that Tesla’s self-driving car feature fails to live up to its big promises. Tesla has claimed for some time now that every new vehicle it makes has the hardware necessary to be fully autonomous, but Consumer Reports states that this dream is still over the horizon for Tesla cars.

Consumer Reports states:

The features might be cutting edge, even cool, but we think buyers should be wary of shelling out $10,000 for what electric car company Tesla calls its Full Self-Driving Capability option. Tesla claims every new vehicle it builds includes all the hardware necessary to be fully autonomous, and the company says that through future over-the-air software updates, its cars should eventually be capable of driving themselves—for a price.

But for now, Full Self-Driving Capability, which includes features that can assist the driver with parking, changing lanes on the highway, and even coming to a complete halt at traffic lights and stop signs, remains a misnomer. And as federal investigations of crashes involving Tesla vehicles add up, regulators are increasingly scrutinizing Tesla’s claims.

Earlier this week, the California Department of Motor Vehicles put Tesla “under review” for public statements that may violate state regulations that prohibit automakers from advertising vehicles for sale or lease as autonomous unless the vehicle meets the statutory and regulatory definition of an autonomous vehicle and the company holds a deployment permit, the agency’s press office confirmed to CR.

Consumer Reports notes that as of May 2021, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has initiated 28 special crash investigations into accidents involving Tesla vehicles with advanced driver assistance systems. Safety experts are worried that Tesla’s bold claims about the capabilities of its vehicles have led to misuse by car owners.

Jake Fisher, the senior director of auto testing at Consumer Reports, commented:

Despite the name, the Full Self-Driving Capability suite requires significant driver attention to ensure that these developing-technology features don’t introduce new safety risks to the driver, or other vehicles out on the road.

Not only that, in our evaluations we determined that several of the features don’t provide much in the way of real benefits to customers, despite the extremely high purchase price.