Tesla release FSD (Supervised) RHD video in Melbourne, Australia !

Tesla AI has just released a new video showcase FSD (Supervised) running on a RHD, HW4 Tesla Model 3, in Melbourne, Australia.

This is incredibly exciting to see, as Australians have been waiting, watching the US, Canada, Mexico and China all have their turn and it’s great to finally see it coming here.

Tesla released FSD (Beta) to the first customer cars back in October 2020, and those of us who’ve watched the progress through YouTube videos, it’s felt like a very, very long 4.5 years.

There’s been many (including me) who purchased the FSD Software Upgrade and while that has offered some benefits, the big one, navigating city streets has remained illusive, until now.

Back in February this year, Tesla posted an Australian job for test drivers that was a big hint that they cooking something here.

At the bottom of the video, we see a disclaimer

In the video, we see the driver (aka rider) initiate the drive with a tap-to-drive on the touchscreen. The care indicates and navigates on the the street.

Just 20 seconds in we see FSD tackle one of the most difficult challenges, a hook turn in Melbourne. It’s fantastic to see Tesla not shy away from this and tackle it straight up.

There’s also been a lot of discussion around the complexities of accommodating for a RHD market, given all previous FSD markets have been LHD. While we don’t know if the Tesla AI team have created a separate RHD model, or have a single model that knows how to switch context, the net result is the system is working incredibly well here, based on the video.

Naturally I’m VERY keen to get this on my own vehicle to try it out.

The video continues to show the car navigating the streets of Melbourne, successfully navigating around other cars, bikes, pedestrians and more.

At the end of the drive, the car pulls up to Crown Casino, not in the street, but actually pulls up to the front door (as if it was ready for a robotaxi passenger).

Delivering FSD (Supervised) is an important step to delivering autonomous vehicles and as it stands, Tesla are the only company that are creating a solution for vehicles that consumers can purchase.

Solutions from other automakers like Waymo, GM Super Cruise, Ford’s Blue Cruise have no plans to ship to Australia, chiefly due to the investment require to create HD maps of locations before their technical approach can work.

Tesla is unique in it’s vision-only approach and expanding to RHD markets is a further recognition of the strength in selecting an end-to-end computer vision approach.

I’ve recorded a detail breakdown of the 1min 50 second video which you can watch below.

As it stands today, Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Capability costs A$10,100 to purchase. Typically when Tesla delivers FSD into a market, we see monthly subscription become an option, which enables more Tesla owners to participate. There has also been free trials of the software which we may expect to see in the future.

The timeframe between this video and when we see it on the first customer cars will be interesting, hopefully soon and I’m also hoping Tesla opens the door to the Early Access Program here locally.

Let us know in the comments if this increases your chances of buying a Tesla, or FSD in Australia.