Other people, most importantly your local driving laws, use driving as a technical term to refer to tasks done by the entity that's ultimately responsible for the safety of the entire system. The human remains the driver in this definition, even if they've engaged FSD. They are not in a Waymo. If you're interested in specific technical verbiage, you should look at SAE J3016 (the infamous "levels" standard), which many vehicle codes incorporate.
One of the critical differences between your informal definition is whether you can stop paying attention to the road and remain safe. With your definition, it's possible have a system where you're not "driving", but you still have a responsibility to react instantaneously to dangerous road events after hours of of inaction. Very few humans can reliably do that. It's not a great way to communicate the responsibilities people have in a safety-critical task they do every day.
I don't understand why that is. They literally do nothing. The car drives itself. Parks itself. Does everything itself. The fact you have to engage with the wheel every now and then is because of regulation not because the tech isn't there imo. Really to me there is zero difference between the waymo and tesla experience save for regulatory decisions that prevent the tesla from being truly hands free eyes shut.
Tesla has chosen to not (yet) assume that liability, and leave that liability to the driver and requires a driver in the drivers seat. But someone in the drivers seat can override the steering wheel accidentally and cause a collision, so they likely will require the drivers seat to be empty to assume liability (or disable all controls, which is only possible on a steer by wire vehicle, and the only such vehicle in the world is Cybertruck).
Tesla has not asked for regulatory approval for level 4 or 5. When they do, it'll be interesting to see how governments react.
Still, my point is all this has nothing to do with the tech. It is all regulatory/legal checkers.
Because being a passenger in a driverless vehicle is a much better user experience than being a driver. You can be on a zoom call, sleep, watch a movie or TV show or scroll TikTok, get some work done on your computer, wear a VR headset and be in a different world, etc etc. Tesla would make a lot more money, and could charge a lot more for FSD.
They aren't doing that yet because they aren't ready yet. It's why they still have humans in the robotaxi service.
There are no doubts in my mind that they will do it probably next year. The latest version of FSD on the new cars is very, very impressive.
you still have a responsibility to react instantaneously to dangerous road events after hours of inaction.
There are no regulatory barriers impeding Tesla outside a small handful of states (i.e. California). The fact that you still have to supervise it is an intentional aspect of the system design to shift responsibility away from Tesla.In 2016 Tesla claimed every Tesla car being produced had "the hardware needed for full self-driving capability at a safety level substantially greater than that of a human driver": https://web.archive.org/web/20161020091022/https://tesla.com...
It was a lie then and remains a lie now.
Sure. Does Tesla take responsibility and accept liability for the vehicle's driving?