Tesla enforcing stricter rules for FSD Beta testers

October 22, 2021

By Nuno Cristovao

Tesla has started to enforce strict rules for FSD Beta users. Some may have thought that once they received a Safety Score of 100, the hard part was over. It looks like Tesla's going to make sure testers are paying close attention while using the FSD Beta.

Tesla to remove FSD Beta from drivers who are inattentive

Tesla has been slowly rolling out the cabin camera feature which adds a driver monitoring system to make sure the driver is paying attention to the road.

Tesla is now using this feature to make sure that FSD Beta testers are actively keeping their eyes on the road. Tesla is doing this for good reason.

Tesla's FSD Beta is really more of an alpha, a pre-release feature that holds your life in its hands. If you've watched a few FSD Beta videos then you know how amazing it can be. But you also know that it's done some extremely dangerous things as well. If you're not paying attention and ready to take over, you could be in a serious situation.

Some new FSD Beta testers are now receiving emails saying that they or someone driving their vehicle has not paid enough attention while using the FSD Beta.

Tesla is not spying with its cabin camera, but it is being alerted if the driver triggers one of these scenarios:

Receive two strikeouts while using Autopilot
Receive one or more strikes every 3 miles

The email that some users received has been shared and it states:

Hello,

You are receiving this email because telemetry from your vehicle was flagged for improper usage of the FSD Beta feature.

Specifically, while using the FSD Beta feature, you or another driver of your vehicle received:

- Two or more “strikeouts,” which resulted in the loss of Autopilot availability for that drive; or

- At least one “strike” per 5 km (about 3 miles) driven on Autopilot, which is a visual and audible warning that requires attention.

This is your only warning to please keep your hands on the wheel and remain attentive at all times when using Autopilot. The car is not autonomous, and if you aren't paying attention, a crash could happen, and you or others could get hurt, or worse, so failure to abide by this warning will result in removal of the FSD Beta feature from your vehicle.

The Tesla Team

Elon Musk has previously stated how important it is for owners and Tesla to remain vigilant while using the FSD Beta and it looks like Tesla is dead serious about this. If you're unable to keep a close eye on the road you will be booted from the beta program.

I can understand a lot of people may want to try out the FSD beta. I mean, it's amazing to see and it's a feature people paid a lot of money for, so it's completely understandable. So I can see that while there are a lot of people who want to try it, maybe not everyone wants to keep it.

Some of us may be used to using Autopilot on back roads, but this feature as we know it is essentially gone once you sign up for the FSD Beta. Any use of Autopilot on back roads is now part of the FSD Beta, meaning you need to remain attentive. You can look at it as losing a useful feature in exchange as getting a peek into the future and the ability to help test the FSD Beta.

Tesla is set to add the highway Autopilot stack in FSD Beta v11. What this means is that what used to be a helpful driver assist feature, will now be part of the beta program as well. You will no longer be able to relax while taking a longer trip, but instead need to remain hyper focused on the road.

It's important to know that you can opt-out of the FSD Beta at any time. You can email Tesla and be asked to be taken off the FSD Beta program.

Tesla is set to roll out FSD Beta 10.3 tonight and include owners with a Safety Score of 99 and higher.

If you're still working on boosting your Safety Score, try out our calculator that will let you know how many more miles you'd need to drive before reaching a score of 98 or 99.

You Can Now Track Tesla’s Robotaxi Deployment

June 15, 2025

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

Thanks to Tesla Yoda on X, we have found out that Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet is registered on the Texas Department of Transportation’s public-facing Automated Vehicle Deployment website. This makes the fleet’s movements publicly viewable and trackable, and marks a first for Tesla.

This isn’t just any old FSD test - this is the first officially acknowledged, government-tracked, and sanctioned deployment of a Tesla Model Y operating as a ride-share vehicle. But that’s not all - Texas DOT’s tracker notes that the Tesla does not have a safety driver.

View on the Map

Visitors to the Texas DOT website can filter for “Tesla”, and see, currently, a single active vehicle operating in the Austin Metro area. According to the state’s official data, here’s what we know:

Company: Tesla

Description: Ride-share service

Status in Texas: Testing

Safety Driver: No

The final point is definitely the most significant here. While Tesla has been testing FSD with safety drivers for some time in Austin and LA for employee-only testing, this is the first time that a vehicle has been officially registered and deployed on public roads without a human behind the wheel for safety.

The fact that there is no safety driver officially shifts the liability from the occupant of the driver’s seat to Tesla, for the first time in a public setting. That’s already pretty significant - we previously dove into how Tesla plans to insure its own vehicles, and potentially owner vehicles in the Robotaxi fleets.

The status currently lists Tesla as “Testing,” confirming that the service isn’t available to the public, but this is expected to change in the coming weeks.

This testing phase is likely part of a short but crucial period that lets Tesla capture data on the safety levels of its current iteration of Unsupervised FSD without a driver supervising. Tesla already stated that they’d be avoiding difficult areas, so this testing can also expose additional areas Tesla may want to avoid, such as school zones or blind driveways.

Tesla will need to prove, both internally and externally, that FSD Unsupervised has the necessary performance to safely navigate the streets without any incidents.

Regulatory Milestone

For years, the concept of a Tesla Robotaxi has been a future promise. Now, it's a present-day reality, albeit in a testing capacity.

Having an official government body list a Tesla as an active, driverless vehicle shows that they’ve been able to clear regulatory hurdles, which Tesla has often pointed to as the issue. It demonstrates a level of confidence from both Tesla and Texas regulators in the system's capabilities.

While it's just a single vehicle for today, we’ll likely see this list slowly expand over time. Alongside being able to track Robotaxi incidents at the City of Austin’s website, we’ll be able to closely watch Tesla’s progress with its first Robotaxi deployments.

Tesla FSD in Europe: June Update

June 14, 2025

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

The road to bringing FSD to Europe has been a long and complex one and filled with regulatory and bureaucratic hurdles. Elon Musk, as well as other members of Tesla’s AI team, have previously voiced their grievances with the regulatory approval process on X.

However, it appears that there is finally some progress in getting things moving with recent changes to upcoming autonomy regulations, but the process still seems slow.

Waiting on the Dutch

Elon commented on X recently, stating that Tesla is waiting for approval from Dutch authorities and then the EU to start rolling out FSD in Europe. Tesla is focusing on acquiring approvals from the Dutch transportation authority, which will provide them with the platform they need to gain broader acceptance in Europe. Outside of the Netherlands, Tesla is also conducting testing in Norway, which provides a couple of avenues for them to obtain national-level approval.

The frustration has been ongoing, with multiple committee meetings bringing up autonomy regulation but always pulling back at the last second before approving anything. The last meeting on Regulation 157, which governs Automated Lane Keeping Systems, concluded with authorities from the UK and Spain requesting additional time to analyze the data before reaching a conclusion.

Tesla, as well as Elon, have motioned several times for owners to reach out to their elected representatives to move the process forward, as it seems that Tesla’s own efforts are being stymied.

This can seem odd, especially since Tesla has previously demoed FSD working exceptionally smoothly on European roads - and just did it again in Rome when they shared the video below on X.

FSD Supervised testing in Rome, Italy

Pending regulatory approval pic.twitter.com/TXh3uQIfrx
— Tesla Europe & Middle East (@teslaeurope) June 12, 2025

DCAS Phase 3

While the approval process has been slow, Kees Roelandschap pointed out that there may be a different regulatory step that could allow FSD to gain a foothold in Europe.

According to Kees, the European Commission is now taking a new approach to approving ADAS systems under the new DCAS Phase 3 regulations. The Commission is now seeking data from systems currently operational in the United States that can perform System-Initiated Maneuvers and don’t require hands-on intervention for every request.

This is key because those are two of the core functionalities that make FSD so usable, and it also means that there may not be a need to wait years for proper regulations to be written from scratch. Now, the Commission will be looking at real-world data based on existing, deployed technology, which could speed up the process immensely.

What This Means

This new, data-driven regulatory approach could be the path for Tesla to reach its previous target of September for European FSD. While the cogs of bureaucracy are ever slow, sometimes all it takes is a little data to have them turn a bit faster in this case.

Alongside specific countries granting approval for limited field testing with employees, there is some light at the end of the tunnel for FSD in Europe, and hopes are that a release will occur by the end of 2025. With Europe now looking to North America for how FSD is performing, Tesla’s Robotaxi results could also play a role.