Tesla’s self-driving capabilities are being exaggerated by CEO Elon Musk, who claims the company is on the verge of achieving unsupervised Full Self-Driving. However, data shows that the technology still has a long way to go.
Musk often uses his claims to sell cars and “Full Self-Driving” packages for up to $15,000. But despite this, it’s difficult to take him seriously when it comes to self-driving timelines due to his consistent past mistakes.
The main issue is data. Tesla refuses to share its progress, instead using metrics like “miles between necessary disengagement.” Musk recently claimed that a new update would allow Teslas to drive “5 to 10x more miles per intervention,” but no data was released to back it up.
In reality, the crowdsourced data suggests FSD 12.5 achieved only 183 miles between critical disengagement, which is not enough to support Musk’s claims. The latest update, v13, promised “5 to 6x improved miles between necessary interventions” but currently stands at just 493 miles, a 2.7x improvement.
Musk has acknowledged that this data represents Tesla’s FSD performance, yet he continues to misrepresent it as showing exponential growth. In reality, the data only refers to highway miles and does not account for city driving software updates, which Musk has been slow to release.
To put it into perspective, Tesla needs to achieve an average of 670,000 miles between collision to enable unsupervised self-driving, according to NHTSA. Based on v13’s performance, the company still has a long way to go, with over 500,000 miles to reach that goal.
Musk’s claims are likely driven by sales and marketing goals rather than a genuine understanding of the technology. His misrepresentation of Tesla’s progress is misleading and may damage the trust of potential customers.
Source: https://electrek.co/2025/01/13/elon-musk-misrepresents-data-that-shows-tesla-is-still-years-away-from-unsupervised-self-driving