In February 2022, I became aware of plans to create and update legislation in Australia that would allow fully Autonomous Vehicles, but believed that a 4 year time horizon was too slow. Last week, we got new information that seems to confirm I was correct.
Last week, we got an updated timeline for the international rollout plans for Tesla’s FSD software, which takes the software upgrade outside the US and to international markets in 2025. Tesla’s FSD Software package currently relies on humans to supervise, but next month on October 10th, the company will detail their dedicated robotaxi without a steering wheel or pedals.
Given Tesla has sold the FSD software upgrade into markets like Australia, many Aussies (including me) are keen to understand when it’ll roll out here. As it stands today, there’s no legislative restriction that is preventing its deploying in the FSD Supervised mode of operation, but once the software is ready to relieve people of their driving duties and responsibility changes to the manufacturer, there certainly will be.
Australia has a lot of road rules at the state level, and many of them are inconsistent, despite us living in one country. An Autonomous car would be able to freely travel between states, so it makes sense that legislation is aligned to accommodate this. The wheels of Government turn slowly, at a time where the technology of driverless cars is racing ahead.
If you’re wondering why the focus is on Tesla and not other solution makers like Waymo, Cruise, Baidu, BYD, NIO, XPENG, Ford, GM or others, it’s because exactly 1 of the them have shown an interest in delivering anything more than level 2 driver assist systems in Australia, that one being Tesla.
I reached out to the NTC, a body charged with developing legislation and making recommendations to Government, to see if their plans for the Automated Vehicle Safety Law, expected to commence by 2026 is early enough.
Last week I shared details of Tesla’s response to an NTC consultation paper in June. Tesla made it very clear, they want to discuss matters further with the NTC, so I also asked if the NTC had engaged Tesla in that request.
I also highlighted that Tesla’s AI team shared a timeline for rolling out FSD internationally, with the caveat (pending regulatory approval). Elon followed up from this, after a lot of interest from Australians, confirming they are aiming for a late Q1 2025, early Q2 2025 target for the release of a RHD model. Being a RHD country, its likely this means Australia.
Ultimately my question was this:
Today, the National Transport Commission provided me an official response.
The email version is available below. It’s unfortunately a response that lacked any important detail or urgency from the NTC at a time where Australia’s road toll continues to climb. Autonomous Vehicles will be safer than humans and our legislation should include tests or datasets that prove that. Once an automaker can meet that hurdle, we should open our doors to them because what we’ve tried to date isn’t working.
Humans are humans and no matter how many times we run a TV ad that tries to scare people into putting down their mobile phones, the temptation is too great. People get tired, are impacted by stress, alcohol, drugs and more and the only absolute answer to this is to remove humans obligation to drive the vehicle. Give them a better, more convenient, cheaper transport option and I think many would take it and consider ending their personal vehicle ownership, in favour of calling the type of car they need, when they need it – a robotaxi, without a human driver.
Good article Jason. Perhaps we should have a petition collecting signatures to add some pressure?
Thank you for this initiative. I have had the FSD software on my Australian Tesla for three years inactivated. It would be frustrating for Tesla to make it live but not have the legislation to enable its use. “Steve’s Tesla” YouTube