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Tesla’s Full Self-Driving beta includes an ‘assertive’ mode that’s more aggressive on the road

If you would want your self-driving Tesla to be more aggressive than the default, it seems that there’s an option letting you do just that on the beta.

Tesla cars’ potential for autonomous self-driving is one of the many things that have attracted customers to the brand in their droves. However, the Full Self-Driving beta software has revealed a potentially worrying option for those sharing the road with a Tesla; an Assertive mode that will see the vehicle have “a smaller follow distance, perform more frequent speed lane changes, will not exit passing lanes and may perform rolling stops.”

A ‘rolling stop’ is when the vehicle does not come to a full halt before a red traffic light, which is particularly controversial since it seems to be illegal in some US states. As David Zipper put it in the above tweet, it seems like this option could accurately be renamed “Road Rage Mode” due to the unnecessary aggression it seems to comprise of.

Related: Someone tricked a Tesla into driving completely unmanned

Self-driving cars are heralded by their defenders as being potentially more safe than those driven by humans, but in the early stages of this technology there do remain some causes for concern. While Tesla’s software is intentionally programmed to be “assertive”, and is still in the beta stage, there have been previous issues raised with the Autopilot that has been tricked to drive completely unmanned.

Currently both Autopilot and Full Self-Driving do require active driver supervision, though it’s hoped by fans that Tesla cars will achieve the ability of full autonomy in the near future.

 

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