Full Self-Driving

Full Self-Driving means a car can figure out how to get from start to finish entirely on its own, with no one gripping the wheel or pressing the pedals. It's a bit like a longtime chauffeur who can find the route and hit the brakes even with no one else in the car. But whether this ability is truly "full" depends on the company and the situation.

Tesla also uses this term as the actual name of its self-driving software. Most Tesla vehicles on the road today still require the driver to stay ready to take over even when this software is turned on. Vehicles like the Cybercab, which have no steering wheel or pedals at all, are different — there's no way for a person to step in, so the software has to handle everything perfectly on its own. Elon Musk has said he plans to push this software out as an update so that ordinary owners could turn their own cars into robotaxis.

But having the name "Full Self-Driving" doesn't automatically mean safety is guaranteed. Tesla relies on cameras alone to sense its surroundings, a different approach from competitors that add sensors to measure distance precisely. How many people will actually trust this technology enough to ride in it remains a separate question.

In articles, this term comes up in plans to "push Full Self-Driving software out as an update to hundreds of thousands of Tesla vehicles." One thing to note: having this name doesn't mean every vehicle immediately runs fully driverless like the steering-wheel-free Cybercab. In fact, only about 200 vehicles currently operate without a safety driver.