Tesla’s self-driving beta program has expanded to downtown Toronto following the company’s removal of a geofence that prohibited its use.
While the beta program has been live in Canada since Feb. 2022, Tesla opted to disable the features in Toronto’s downtown core because of the difficulties encountered when the cars had to consider the presence of the city’s streetcars. The geofence was initially set to go south from Bloor-Danforth.
CTV Toronto reported that the TTC reached out to Elon Musk in the spring when the program initially came out but never received a reply. The TTC then told CTV that they had not been made aware that Tesla had removed the geofencing.
“TTC operators are trained to navigate the roads of Toronto safely, being mindful of pedestrians, cyclists and other motorized vehicles, including Teslas,” said Senior Communications Advisor Stuart Green to CTV Toronto. “We would hope, and assume, Elon Musk and his programmers have the same regard for the safety of Torontonians. This would mean ensuring their FSD technology recognizes streetcars stopped with their doors open.”
Tesla’s self-driving software is not fully autonomous as it requires the driver to have a hand on the wheel and to be prepared to take full control of the vehicle at all times.
According to a report from blogTO, the update only unlocks on Tesla’s software version 10.69.3.1.
