On Friday, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) said that it’s proposing self-driving vehicle tests be allowed on public roads for heavy-duty trucks and other large vehicles, as detailed in a report from Reuters. The news comes as heavy-duty vehicles about 10,001 pounds are currently unable to utilize public self-driving tests in California, as well as others such as Texas, Arizona, and Arkansas.

The proposal would restrict autonomous testing for semi-trucks and other oversized vehicles to specified, pre-selected routes that would be pre-determined to be legal for size, weight, and loading requirements. It would also ban testing these vehicles on city streets, with selected routes primarily including major highways.

The state would also prohibit testing of specific heavy-duty vehicles until further notice under the proposal, including household movers, commercial vehicles used to transport passengers, oversize loads, bulk liquids, or hazardous materials.

A look inside Tesla’s Semi factory

pic.twitter.com/nj9k1hTmr1

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) March 8, 2025

READ MORE ON SELF-DRIVING FOR HEAVY-DUTY TRUCKS:

The DMV plans to hold a public hearing on the proposal on June 10, after which point it would be allowed to move forward with the agency.

California has been preparing regulations for autonomous trucking since at least last August, when the state submitted an initial draft for such a legal framework.

The state is also evaluating whether light-duty vehicle testing requirements should be updated. Currently, the state requires a permit to test self-driving vehicles utilizing a safety driver, before applying for subsequent phases of driverless testing and deployment permits.

To apply for driverless testing permits, manufacturers are required to conduct testing for a minimum of 50,000 miles, while heavy-duty manufacturers would be required to complete at least 500,000 autonomous testing miles under the proposal. Of them, up to 40,000 of the miles are allowed to be completed outside of California.

The news also follows the Trump administration’s aims to accelerate self-driving deployment this week through the expansion of exemptions for certain reporting requirements.

Although Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) is not currently available for the company’s electric Semi, it’s expected to become available at some point in the future. Tesla has also been spotted testing its FSD on the Semi in and around Giga Nevada, ahead of the company’s plans to launch the software on the Class 8 truck.

Tesla is currently aiming to ramp up production of the Semi, and it’s constructing an expansion to its Gigafactory in Nevada to eventually scale up to volume production.

Tesla receives its first robotaxi permit in California

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We have heard for many years that Tesla will solve Full Self-Driving by the “end of this year,” and “this” means whichever year he said it in. But this time, he’s putting all his eggs in the 2025 basket, and it was further reiterated in a recent post from the Tesla CEO on X.

Musk’s Tesla has launched several versions of Full Self-Driving in recent months that are extremely impressive. I’ve tried some of these recently-released versions within the last week, and I’ve grown extremely impressed with the performance of FSD, especially in some situations that are even tricky for humans to maneuver.

However, Tesla’s FSD suite handled it flawlessly. That’s the kind of thing investors and consumers need to see before it is released, especially as we’ve all heard the “this year” speech for nearly a decade. It might be the real thing this time, especially as the company is leaning heavily on the Robotaxi fleet to take it to the next level.

Earlier today, Tesla’s official account on X indicated that your car will be able to drive itself to your house. Musk had a witty and simple reply, something that indicates and reiterates his optimistic outlook for FSD as it continues to be refined and adjusted for what will likely be a June release in Austin, Texas:

This year https://t.co/2eCadrXYfd

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 15, 2025

Of course, this is not a confirmation that Tesla will roll out Full Self-Driving that is unsupervised within the next few months. It is increasingly obvious that Musk is gaining tons of confidence in what the company is doing, as he has reiterated this end-of-year target on several occasions.

It does not appear that the release of FSD will be a widespread one. Instead, it seems as if Tesla will roll out the Robotaxi fleet in several cities at first, as it has already taken several regulatory steps in Texas and California.

Tesla receives its first robotaxi permit in California

If Tesla is able to come through on this, it would be massive for the company and its investors, especially as the FSD suite is a major point of value for the future. However, not coming through on this timeline would be a massive misstep for the company. Musk’s adamance regarding the 2025 rollout of self-driving features is truly the most committed we’ve ever seen him toward this sort of timeline.

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In a Saturday video originally posted by user 王船船 on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, a driver utilizes the Supervised FSD system while performing what’s called the “water challenge,” in which a cup of water is balanced on the driver’s side window ledge to see if driving is smooth enough to avoid spilling.

The drive spans a little more than four minutes, and the system manages to make it through without the water spilling in any substantial quantities. The driver mostly remains on city streets, but you can see a handful of quick, unexpected stops, turns, and other maneuvers that one might expect to make the cup tip completely.

The video was also reposted on X by Tesla’s main account, with the company highlighting the system’s “maximum smoothness” as demonstrated in the video. Tesla VP of AI Ashok Elluswamy also reposted the video, saying in a separate follow-up post that “FSD’s been prepared for this one.”

Maximum smoothness https://t.co/p4aM3StgRk

— Tesla (@Tesla) March 15, 2025

Although Tesla’s FSD system didn’t have access to real-world driving data from the company’s vehicles at the time of its launch in China, Elon Musk recently explained that the company used publicly available video from the internet to help pre-train FSD for Chinese streets and traffic laws.

In addition to helping with city streets, Tesla has explained in the past that its camera- and video-based FSD neural network training makes the system easily scalable to multiple countries, fringe traffic cases, and even less traditional roads.

As another example of this in China, FSD testers also took to some dirt roads last week, showing just how well the software seems to handle some seemingly-deep and super-narrow back roads. You can see excerpts from this video below, or check out the full 25-minute version from user AE68 on Douyin.

Tesla FSD testers in China do seem to be built different. That’s some REALLY rural roads!

pic.twitter.com/tux2QiSeJh

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) March 14, 2025

READ MORE ON TESLA CHINA: Cheaper Tesla Model Y may launch in China

Tesla’s FSD in China amidst local competition

Tesla officially launched a localized data privacy version of FSD Supervised in China last month, The launch came amidst a headstart from multiple competitors in the autonomous driving space, including from Chinese automakers Baidu, Huawei, and still others.

The Avatr 11 electric vehicle (EV), a jointly created project from Changan New Energy, CATL, and Huawei, was recently seen being tested by Out of Spec’s Kyle Conner. The system uses Huawei’s latest automated driving system technology, Qiankun ADS 3.2, which Conner recently said was “the best driver assistance he’s ever experienced” in a recent review on his trip to China.

You can see this video and an additional video from Conner and Out of Spec discussing the emerging autonomous vehicle industry in China below. It’s also worth noting that both of these were released just a few weeks before Tesla’s first version of FSD launched in the country.

The Best FSD System In China! 1 Hour Drive Using Huawei Qiankun ADS 3.2 Installed In Avatr 11 (2/1/25)

The EV Industry Isn’t Ready For China’s FSD Breakthrough (2/2/25)

Elon Musk clarifies the holdup with Tesla Full Self-Driving launch in Europe

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Musk was playing video games as he routinely tests the streaming feature on X and answers questions that fans and owners of Teslas have.

The Tesla CEO said that employees are already performing “trials” of Full Self-Driving‘s unsupervised version during the stream:

Q4 and FY ‘24 Earnings Call countdown should be all clips of it being used by Tesla employees.

Nothing would get the Tesla community more hyped ? ? ? ? https://t.co/nOhoJcZ1ER

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 7, 2025

It seems clear that Musk said Tesla employees are testing unsupervised versions of the Full Self-Driving platform, but the capacity at which they are being tested is unclear.

It is likely that the cars could be used on Tesla property, navigating through the massive layout that the company has in Texas and other factories. Gigafactory Texas is a massive facility that spans over 2,500 acres and 10 million square feet of factory floor.

It is totally possible that Tesla would test this kind of unsupervised FSD internally on company property. However, Musk did not go into greater detail of whether it was happening on company grounds or on public roads.

For what it is worth, Tesla is not listed on the Austin government’s list of “Known AV Operators,” which only includes ADMT, AVRide, Cruise, Motional, Waymo, and Zoox.

Tesla was already planning to launch fully autonomous rides in both Texas and California by year’s end, according to Musk’s remarks at the Robotaxi event in October. The company has been aggressive with its FSD time frames in the past, so it’s worth taking it with a grain of salt.

However, it also should be mentioned that it is totally possible the automaker could launch FSD in a controlled environment and in handpicked areas this year.

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On Saturday, Tesla reposted a video from Whole Mars Catalog on X, in which Omar uses FSD Supervised v13.2 to successfully reverse out of tight street parking blocked by a UPS truck and cautiously navigate around the truck to make its way onto the street. Omar says he didn’t expect the FSD model to successfully make it to the street with the delivery truck in the way, though the video shows that it pretty clearly was able to—and it managed to watch for an oncoming Waymo truck that’s difficult to see.

In a repost of the video, Tesla writes:

FSD Supervised 13.2 reverses to exit parking spot blocked by delivery truck, then waits for oncoming traffic to clear before proceeding

This all happens implicitly within the model, which is trained on extensive data of similar real-world scenarios

Tesla’s FSD v13.2: park-to-park

Notably, Tesla’s newest FSD Supervised update allows the software’s “end-to-end” model take drivers from “park-to-park,” as was recently highlighted by Arek Sredzki, member of the Autopilot team and head of the Actually Smart Summon (ASS) program. The release notes also point out that v13.2 includes integrated unpark, reverse, and park capabilities to allow this, along with highlighting the “hold-to-start” button to navigate from Park.

You can also see a video of Omar’s drive through 100 minutes of Los Angeles traffic below, as completed with zero interventions.

Tesla’s bet on a future of unsupervised autonomy with Cybercab, Robovan

While Tesla’s FSD currently requires driver supervision and readiness to retake control of the vehicle at all times, the company is also generating real-time driving data from which to train its vehicles’ neural network. As such, the company claims to have an advantage over other companies, like Google’s Waymo, and it’s betting big on the scalability of a future of autonomy with FSD.

When Tesla’s FSD will go unsupervised is certainly up for debate, but the company’s recent unveiling of the steering wheel-less, two-seat Cybercab shows that it expects it to come sometime. Tesla also rolled FSD Supervised out to the Cybertruck for the first time a few months ago, and recent tests run by the company seem to hint at a future release of the semi-autonomous software for the Semi.

What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.

Tesla highlights FSD safety in edge case test videos

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However, one analyst is making some bold predictions, and while he believes investors should keep their expectations tempered, there really is no limit to what Tesla could show off at the October 10 event.

Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley predicted in a recent note to investors that there should be demonstrations of Tesla’s most robust Full Self-Driving suite, and potentially rides in a fully-autonomous Robotaxi.

Based on Bloomberg‘s report from last week that Tesla will hold the event at the Warner Brothers studio in Los Angeles and new information that the company is gathering data in the area, it seems that drive demos are definitely possible.

Tesla chooses interesting location for Robotaxi unveiling event

However, these will likely be with a driver. Jonas said in the note that the company does have a permit to test autonomous vehicles with a driver. It does not have any formal permission to

But Jonas has even more expectations, and said Tesla could truly pull the rabbit out of the hat with the event:

“Could we see an electric plane? A boat? The latest gen Optimus robot flipping burgers at a Tesla Diner? We’re not really sure.”

There are really high expectations for the event, especially considering CEO Elon Musk delayed the event so engineers could perform a design change and make the presentation even more robust than previously thought.

Initially scheduled for August 8, Musk confirmed the event would be delayed to October:

Requested what I think is an important design change to the front, and extra time allows us to show off a few other things

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 15, 2024

My boldest prediction for the event is that Tesla will unveil wireless charging capabilities for some of its future vehicles. This is something the company has been developing for some time after it acquired, and then sold, Wiferion last year.

Tesla has teased wireless charging for some time, and Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen said that the company was developing inductive EV charging during an interview with Jay Leno.

Tesla confirms it is developing wireless inductive EV charging

Enough time has passed, and it is reasonable to believe that Tesla is ready to show off this technology. Whether it will be released to customers is another story.

I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

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The Full Self-Driving (Supervised) suite has seven distinct functions: Navigate on Autopilot, Auto Lane Change, Autopark, Summon, Smart Summon, Autosteer on City Streets, and Traffic and Stop Sign Control.

Each specific feature helps partially automate some of the responsibilities of driving, granted the driver still pays attention and is ready to take control of the vehicle.

While the four original Tesla vehicles, meaning the Model S, Model 3, Model X, and Model Y all have the FSD suite available to them, the company’s most recent vehicle release, the Cybertruck, has yet to have the semi-autonomous functionality available to it.

However, Tesla Autopilot and AI team member Ashok Elluswamy subtly confirmed the Cybertruck would get one of those features this weekend, perhaps in a limited release:

We are glad that you finally learnt how to park yourself. Looking forward to you showing this off this weekend.

— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) September 4, 2024

It seems that Tesla may be preparing to give the Cybertruck at least some of the features of the FSD Supervised suite.

In late August, Elluswamy said that the Cybertruck’s FSD rollout would start with parking assistance features:

Cybertruck will start with parking assistance features, given that it ain’t exactly the easiest vehicle to park. Initial release is slated for end of this week. FSD for Cybertruck expected in Sep.

— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) August 21, 2024

The full FSD Supervised suite should be available later this month, but Tesla is not always on time with its announced deadlines.

In May, CEO Elon Musk said that Cybertruck FSD was “a few months away,” so we’re getting pretty close to the tail end of that estimation.

I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

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The recent Tesla FSD 12.5.3 update received varied reviews, but all of them will likely improve the software. Starting with all the good notes, users have commented that v.12.5.3 is adept at avoiding unusual objects obstructing the road, meaning obstacle detection works smoothly. Like previous releases, Tesla FSD v 12.5.3 handles driving through complex scenarios like constriction zones and overtaking on the well. 

A few users have commented on Tesla FSD’s hesitation with lane changes, stating that it lacks assertiveness. Some users have called for a more “assertive mode.” In the past a FSD users have noticed that their vehicle switches lanes constantly when on a more assertive setting. Many experienced FSD users prefer remaining on “Chill Mode,” so their vehicle doesn’t switch lanes as much.

Tesla FSD users are experiencing a few improvements with each incremental update. However, as many Tesla FSD drivers say, sometimes Full Self-Driving takes one step forward and two steps backward. Regardless, many Tesla FSD users believe the autonomous driving software has improved dramatically over that past year.  

Tesla released FSD v.12.5.1 on July 29. Given it recent update, Tesla is applying changes and adapting to user criticism faster than ever. The Tesla Cybertruck is expected to receive FSD 12.5.x before the end of August. 

Are you a Tesla FSD user? Share your FSD experience with me at maria@teslarati.com or via X @Writer_01001101.

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“Don’t roll your eyes. Buy $TSLA,” Piper Sandler said in a portion of the title of its note released on Monday.

Tesla’s release of Full Self-Driving version 12.5 is the focal point of Piper Sandler’s note, which highlights consumer narratives over the release. The new version of FSD has received heavily positive reviews through the first few days of use.

Piper Sandler analysts are well aware of the over-promising that Tesla has been notorious for using when describing its projects, including self-driving capabilities. We have heard for years that Tesla will solve FSD “by the end of the year.” But they are convinced this time, it might be different.

Tesla Gigafactory Mexico will build the company’s next-gen vehicle

They acknowledge the failed timeframes in the past in their note:

“Investors have grown accustomed to ignoring Tesla’s hyperbole around Full Self-Driving. However, judging by reviews on X, Tesla’s update to version 12.5 is ‘revolutionary.'”

The analysts at the firm also stated that the upcoming Robotaxi event, which was delayed from August 8 to October 10, could truly be Tesla’s biggest moment as it plans to unveil a fully-self-driving car model that could be available as soon as next year:

“We think investors should consider the possibility that Tesla’s decision to host a Robotaxi event isn’t a ploy to distract from falling EV sales.”

The firm also talks about the potential rise of Full Self-Driving subscription prices as Tesla’s tech continues to advance. Current prices of $99 a month would not be upheld if Tesla could offer a fully autonomous vehicle.

Tesla Robotaxi Render (Credit: Tine Rusc)

Piper Sandler believes the price would be closer to $500 a month, bringing more value to investors, depending on the take rate and overall use of the eventual ride-sharing model that Tesla plans to bring to market.

CEO Elon Musk discussed FSD’s capabilities during the Q2 Earnings Call, and New Street Research’s Pierre Ferragu wondered if it would start on a smaller scale in a geofenced location.

Musk replied:

“I guess, I’m not conveying this correctly. The entire Tesla fleet basically becomes active. This is obviously — maybe there’s some number of people who don’t want their car to earn money. But I think most people will.”

Tesla shares are up 5 percent today.

I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

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According to China Daily sources, Tesla CEO Elon Musk proposed testing Full Self-Driving functions within vehicles deployed in the Chinese market. Tesla would deploy its vehicles as taxis in China. Musk also suggested rolling out the software to Chinese taxi services. 

Musk has described Tesla’s robotaxi service as a combination of Airbnb and Uber. The robotaxi fleet will be operated by Tesla. Some of the cars will be owned by Tesla. Others may be owned by an end user, who will be able to add or subtract their vehicle from the Tesla robotaxi service at any time. End users may also limit the number of customers who use their Tesla as a robotaxi service. For instance, they may only accept rides from five-star customers.

Chinese officials allegedly told Musk that Tesla was welcome to conduct robotaxi tests in China and hoped it would set a good example. Industry experts have noted that China has continued to welcome global companies to test their technologies for mutual gain.

Tesla’s Full Self-Driving tests in China would confirm Musk’s words during the Q1 2024 earnings call. At the time, Musk stated that with country-specific training, FSD should work anywhere in the world. 

“So, think about the end-to-end neural net-based autonomy is that just like a human, it actually works pretty well without modification in almost any market. So, we plan on — with the approval of the regulators, releasing it as a supervised autonomy system in any market that — where we can get regulatory approval for that, which we think includes China. So, yes, it’s — just like a human, you can go rent a car in a foreign country and you can drive pretty well.

“Obviously, if you live in that country, you’ll drive better. And so, we’ll make the car drive better in these other countries with country-specific training. But it can drive quite well almost everywhere,” said Musk. 

If you have any tips, contact me at maria@teslarati.com or via X @Writer_01001101. 

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