How Tesla Used a San Francisco Neighborhood to Improve Its Driverless Technology
Elon Musk says his electric vehicle maker is getting closer to his long-promised vision of delivering self-driving cars, including a new ‘Cybercab.’ An effort in the Sunset District of San Francisco shows how Tesla is changing tack to reach that goal.
Last week, Elon Musk told Tesla investors they should think about the electric vehicle maker “almost entirely” in terms of a single goal: figuring out how to make its cars drive themselves, without human supervision. Whether Tesla is successful in that objective could come down to its efforts to perfect autonomous driving in places like San Francisco’s Sunset District, a vast residential neighborhood flanked by the Pacific Ocean and Golden Gate Park.
Earlier this year, Tesla’s Autopilot team noticed some issues when Tesla drivers used Full Self-Driving, an advanced driver assistance technology in its cars, in the Sunset, a former employee said. Despite the name, Tesla requires drivers to keep their hands on the wheel while using FSD so they can quickly take control of their cars if necessary. In the Sunset, the team noticed, drivers using FSD were frequently doing just that—taking control.
Teslas in the neighborhood were often hesitating when turning left on two-way streets, some of which are divided by dedicated lanes for public transportation, the person said. The company responded by flooding the Sunset with dozens of test drivers, while the engineering team turned its attention to rolling out quick software updates to the test vehicles as it sought to improve the autonomous driving experience in that neighborhood, the person said.