Tesla FSD has 'Assertive' mode that performs illegal rolling stops

Occurred: October 2021

Tesla's 'Full-Self-driving' beta test has an 'Assertive' mode that may perform rolling stops. Rolling stops are generally considered illegal under US law.

Assertive is one of three 'profiles' - 'Chill', 'Average' and 'Assertive' - that dictates how a car will behave in certain circumstances - and will 'have a smaller follow distance, perform more frequent speed lane changes, will not exit passing lanes and may perform more rolling stops'.

FSD profiles were included in Tesla's October 2021 10.3.1 update. The previous update had been pulled two days after testers complained about false crash warnings and other bugs.

Following meetings with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Tesla recalled (pdf) all 53,822 Model S, X, 3 and Y vehicles with the FSD feature, and says it will disable the rolling stop function. 

Operator: 

Developer: Tesla

Country: USA

Sector: Automotive

Purpose: Control car behaviours
Technology: Self-driving system; Computer vision

Issue: Safety; Legal - compliance; Ethics/value
Transparency: Black box

Legal, regulatory 👩🏼‍⚖️

Page info
Type: Incident
Published: January 2022