Behind Tesla’s Full-Court Press for FSD

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Welcome to the Ride AI Newsletter, your weekly digest of important events and new developments at the intersection of technology and transportation. 

What You Need to Know Today

Tesla announced it is giving every U.S. customer a free one-month trial of its $12,000 driver-assistance system, Full Self-Driving Beta. Not only that, but at Elon Musk’s directive, the company is requiring prospective buyers to demo the software before they purchase a new vehicle, even if it slows down deliveries. If you’re wondering why Tesla is suddenly doing a full court press to promote its FSD Beta, the likely answer is upcoming Q1 earning reports. “Tempting customers with a new incentive could be one way to help boost sales, although it could backfire if prospective customers are turned off by Tesla adding extra steps to its usually streamlined buying process.”

NVIDIA’s GTC summit last week was chock full of announcements for automakers, including the news that several AI developers, including Cerence, and Wayve, are using NVDIA’s cloud-to-edge technology to create apps that bring generative AI experiences (such as LLM-powered voice assistants) into the car.

Right now only 2% of NVIDIA’s annual revenue comes from the automotive sector. But as new-mobility expert Augustin Friedel points out, the chipmaker has grand ambitions to revolutionize cars’ digital cockpit and become the go-to player for ADAS.

Elsewhere in chip land: Qualcomm has ended its $350M bid to buy Autotalks, an Israeli company that makes communication chips to help prevent car crashes, following anti-trust concerns from regulators.

Cavnue, an infrastructure startup that spun out of Alphabet’s Sidewalk project, is building a sensor-equipped “autonomous freight corridor” near Austin that will allow driverless cars and trucks to communicate with the road.

With its red-light camera program scheduled to expire later this year, the New York City Department of Transportation has endorsed a proposal to expand the system from one percent of the city’s intersections to 10%.

Florida is the latest state to approve an AI-driven traffic management system from NoTraffic, a Tel Aviv-based developer currently operating in more than 24 states and parts of Canada.

Meanwhile a pair of U.K. counties are going to trial AI technology to automate decision-making in traffic control rooms.

Also in the U.K.: A spin-out from the University of Liverpool's School of Engineering is developing fully autonomous street crawlers that can detect and repair potholes and cracks in roads.

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AV firm Mobileye is shuttering its aftermarket unit, which provides retrofitted advanced driver assistance technology, and will instead focus on integrated solutions.

Tempe, Arizona, is piloting a GPS-based traffic signal technology to give green lights to emergency vehicles.

DoorDash is bringing drone delivery pilot to the U.S. Select users in Christianburg, Virginia will soon enjoy the privilege of being able to have their Wendy’s order brought them aerially by one of Alphabet’s Wing drones.

Former Waymo CEO John Krafcik on why highways have been an unexpected obstacle to AV adoption: “The assumption that highway Level 4 is easier than urban Level 4 is common, but we’ve learned that’s mistaken. Higher speeds bring unique challenges.”

Maybe that’s why Waymo is still not operating on freeways in Los Angeles or San Francisco, despite having earned approval to do so by California regulators earlier this month.

A potent reminder of what’s at stake when it comes to developing safer self-driving tech: AVs could have saved up to 1,300 lives and prevented up to 5,000 major injuries in California over the last three years, if they had been widely deployed, according to a new Chamber of Progress study.