Tesla Releases Navigate on Autopilot to North American Drivers
Tesla rolls out its most advanced driver assistance feature yet, allowing cars to guide themselves from highway on-ramp to off-ramp. The system requires driver confirmation for lane changes and is only available to customers who purchased specific upgrade packages.
Tesla releases its Navigate on Autopilot feature to customers in North America, marking the debut of its most advanced driver assistance system to date. CEO Elon Musk announces the wide release of the update, which guides vehicles from a highway on-ramp to an off-ramp, including navigating interchanges and making lane changes. This active guidance feature is available to U.S. customers who purchase either the enhanced Autopilot or full self-driving capability packages.
The automaker holds back the feature during the initial rollout of its 9.0 software update earlier in October, opting to introduce it as a beta test to a select group of users first. Once a driver enters a destination into the navigation system, they can enable Navigate on Autopilot for that specific trip. Tesla includes a key limitation with this release by requiring the driver to confirm any lane change by tapping the turn signal stalk before the vehicle proceeds.
Despite the advanced capabilities of the new feature, Tesla clarifies that its vehicles are not fully self-driving and still require active driver supervision. Navigate on Autopilot represents a small but significant step toward the company's ultimate goal of achieving full autonomous driving. Tesla currently removes the option to upgrade to full self-driving capability from its website, though Musk notes that customers can still request the feature directly.