Support CleanTechnica’s work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe.
Tesla FSDS (Full Self Driving Supervised) is all over the media and Facebook in Australia. I was privileged to be part of a conversation about the similarities between FSDS and commercial flying on both Facebook and then continued by email. It is surprising that FSDS is being not just accepted but praised. You can watch a video here from a media channel that previously blasted electric vehicles. The test driver describes Tesla’s FSDS as surreal. You can watch the video here.
David Nye was the main contributor to the Facebook discussion and shared his background with me by email. “I was a flying instructor for 3 years (1977-80), then Charter and medivac pilot 1980 to 86. I was then a Qantas pilot from 1986 until 2020, flying (not in this specific order) the 747 100, 200, 300, SP, and 400; the 767-200 and 300, and the 737 300, 400 and 800.” The man has earned his wings.
David with his Tesla. Photo courtesy David Nye.
His family owns three Teslas. “Our Teslas have been fantastic, with the only problems encountered being minor trim issues in the Model 3s, each of which were fixed by Tesla mobile at our respective homes. Aside from tyres and one wheel alignment, the grand total maintenance that I have spent on our 2019 Model 3P since day one is under $100. (Just cabin filters).”
Tesla family. Photo courtesy David Nye.
He predicts that “ultimately cars will go the way of commercial airliners.” Here’s what he means: “If you try to fly one of those for any length of time on a scheduled route, as a salaried pilot, your career is over. There’s just no way a human can pay attention and exercise the nuance of control across multiple dimensions that a machine can. We’ll still be driving, but it’ll be like commercial pilots, most of the time we’ll just be monitoring the autopilot which will be doing a better job than virtually any human. Of course, A/P also doesn’t get tired, distracted, drug and alcohol affected, or suffer medical episodes.”
David shares his experience: “I have tens of thousands of hours (nearly 30k) monitoring A/P. We DID however fly a 767 back from Japan to Australia most of the way with no autopilot circa 1991. That was probably the most tiring flight I ever did! (We would do about half an hour each before swapping. I don’t think you’d do it these days?)
“It (AP) worked for climb and maybe the first 30 mins of cruise in the 767. Then it stopped working and we did trouble shooting and had to decide what to do. We even spoke to the company on HF radio to get any additional technical advice. The alternative, a diversion to some other airport was not particularly attractive, so we elected to continue on our way and hand fly. It was a long tiring night, though went without a hitch. (Almost certainly no passengers would have had any clue that we were working much harder than usual, hand flying the aeroplane instead of A/P.)”
He continued answering questions: “We would often fly the whole climb up to our cruise altitude by hand in the 1980s and early 1990s, but not anymore. It would however depend entirely on the circumstances. You’d also have to declare that you’re no longer ‘RVSM’, (ie: reduced vertical separation) to air traffic control, which means they need to give greater vertical separation from other aircraft, with 2,000’ required instead of 1,000’. (I’m genuinely shocked that there are a few older aircraft still flying and carrying paying passengers with no autopilot, such as the ‘MetroLiner’.)
“One big problem though is pilots these days losing hand flying skills, which is extremely important when things go awry, and perhaps especially so on modern fly by wire aircraft, with a very good example being Air France 447. (AF have a somewhat poor safety record for a Western Airline.)”
Will FSDS be the next FUD generator/attracter or will the public embrace it like they have embraced mobile phones? Or will it be seen as a great boon for the elderly and those finding the stress of a commute getting worse and worse? Will the car repair industry protest as their business is reduced because there are fewer accidents?
David continues: “For us, over two months of Juniper Tesla Y driving with FSD I continue to be totally astounded at how good it is. Yes, it makes occasional mistakes … mostly (but not always) predictable, and mostly (but not always) NOT safety critical, so obviously needs to be ‘watched’. I just can’t wait for version 14. We are seeing and hearing amazing stories from our American friends.
“We know people in California who say that it is literally ‘life changing’ for them, and they use it virtually 100% of the time. He’s early 80’s, (has a number of medical issues), and his wife is mid 70’s. They say ‘Our car is called James. James drives us everywhere!’ They’ve even done a number of interstate trips, all on FSD.”
My friend Rado recently rented a Tesla with FSDS and produced this video while driving around Tasmania. Rado was an early adopter, buying a Model S when first available in Australia almost a decade ago. He runs the Tesla Owners and Fans Brisbane Facebook group.
Comments on my recent article about Australia’s reception of FSDS in CleanTechnica included this gem: “USA HW3 driver here with FSDS. It’s great, not perfect, just great. I use it all the time on highways and almost all the time in city/country roads. Yes, there’s a few places where it chooses the wrong lane for a turn, but it won’t hit anything. It’s already saved me from getting t-boned by the red-light runner so it’s paid for itself in my mind.” However, a lot of the comments were negative, and most of the discussion deteriorated into an argument about Elon’s moral character. You can read all the comments here if you wish.
Will it get to the place where we no longer consider it? Imagine what it would be like if Autopilot on planes was questioned, doubted, queried, and feared as much as autopilot in cars! Everyone would be sitting in their seats at 30,000 feet quivering with fear. I raised this issue with David Nye and asked if there was a huge fuss when autopilot was first introduced to planes. He replied: “Interestingly, with some people still questioning the name ‘AutoPilot’, I find it ironic as the first aircraft autopilots did nothing other than keep the wings level. (There are still many ‘autopilots’ in smaller aircraft that do little more than fly a heading.) It was over MANY decades that their functionality gradually improved with added features like heading hold, altitude hold, flying a specified track, maintaining airspeed, climbs and descents, and eventually automated landings (though even today, only in very limited and very strictly controlled circumstances). I do genuinely feel that solving self-driving is infinitely more complex than aircraft autopilots.”
With FSD unsupervised getting closer and closer, and the battle for market supremacy intensifying, I expect we will be hearing more and more about autonomous driving. Once again, Australia’s future is bright, electric, and soon — autonomous.
Sign up for CleanTechnica’s Weekly Substack for Zach and Scott’s in-depth analyses and high level summaries, sign up for our daily newsletter, and follow us on Google News!
Advertisement
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Sign up for our daily newsletter for 15 new cleantech stories a day. Or sign up for our weekly one on top stories of the week if daily is too frequent.
[embedded content]
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.
CleanTechnica’s Comment Policy
Share this story!