Tesla Full Self-Driving tech on pause as chief engineer takes leave

The delay-plagued autonomous driving program is faced with a new obstacle.

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Tesla’s Full Self-Driving program is likely set to face new delays, with a lead engineer announcing plans to take four months off.

While the electric vehicle specialist does not currently offer complete autonomy outside of a limited beta trial, it has charged customers upwards of $10,000 over the past six years on the promise it would be retrospectively fitted through an over-the-air software update.

Andrej Karpathy (below) has served as Tesla’s head of Artificial Intelligence and Autopilot Vision since soon after the FSD package went on sale in 2017, and has been instrumental in its development and rollout plans.

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“Taking some time off to rest and travel after almost five years at Tesla,” Mr Karpathy announced on Twitter earlier this week. “Especially excited to get focused time to re-sharpen my technical edge and train some neural nets!”

Two days later Elon Musk declared: “FSD Beta should be available in Europe for [left-hand drive] this summer, [right-hand drive] a few months later … These dates depend on regulatory approval.”

However, followers and fans of the marque are concerned recent news could cause the long-delayed technology to be pushed back further – with some pointing out previous big-name employees, including former Vice President of Engineering Doug Field, have taken time off and then never come back.

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Electric vehicle news outlet Electrek said: “The timing is not great as Musk is talking about Tesla aiming for FSD to become safer than human drivers by the end of the year … It is a giant task to do and likely harder without your head of AI.”

Tesla has faced increasing scrutiny in recent years over its Full-Self Driving program, with criticism primarily focused on its safety credentials, ability to function without lidar sensors, and rollout timeline.

Analysis by Drive last year revealed the manufacturer may be holding at least $AU3.7 billion in payments for FSD packages, which would need to be refunded in full if it fails to deliver on its promise of complete autonomy.

The post Tesla Full Self-Driving tech on pause as chief engineer takes leave appeared first on Drive.