Autopilot

Autopilot is Tesla's high level driver assist system, and is not a robocar system. Nonetheless, it receives a lot of attention both because many people, in spite of Tesla's declarations to the contrary view it as some form of self-driving system. It is, at its core, a combination of ACC and Lanekeeping ADAS functions, with a few special editions.

However, Tesla has often stated that they are working on a Tesla FSD “full self drive” product, which will be developed as an evolution of Autopilot. Tesla even lets customers buy the “full self drive” package on their car, though at first it gave them nothing, and today it offers only modest extra functionality. It is sold as a promise that later, when that software is available, those customers will receive that function, presumably for less than it costs to buy as an add-on.

As such, Autopilot is often envisioned as a predecessor to the FSD product, and its performance provides clues as to Tesla's progress on that system. Autopilot is the most prominent and widely deployed system of its type, and generally reviewed as the best.

Because it is so widely used, many incidents have been reported, including at least 4 fatalities while Autopilot was in use. In these cases, blame has usually legally been applied to the driver who was supposed to be supervising Autopilot with hands on the wheel, and not to the system, but there have been NTSB investigations to all factors involved in this accidents, to learn if Autopilot is contributing. The NTSB does not make rules, it just reports on accidents and makes recommendations.

The incidents provide an indication of Tesla's progress to FSD, and provide insight into Tesla's hardware choices. Tesla has declared that FSD will work with the hardware currently shipping in Tesla cars for Autopilot, including its new custom processor, which began shipping in early 2019, along with 8 cameras, radar and ultrasonic sensors.