Tesla tests its fully autonomous driving system in Madrid: zero incidents

Tesla continues testing its Full Self-Driving (FSD) system in Europe, under supervision for now, ahead of its upcoming launch. The American brand has already put it through its paces in cities like Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, and Berlin , and has now done the same in Madrid. For now, this type of feature is not permitted in Spain.

The test begins on Calle Serrano, passes Puerta de Alcalá and Cibeles before continuing its journey to the Prado Museum and Retiro Park, before entering the neighboring neighborhood. During the journey, the car (with a driver on board in case she needs to take control) faces all kinds of situations: multi-lane or one-way streets, traffic lights, roundabouts, pedestrian crossings, 90-degree turns where it has to yield to a cyclist, etc. The car handles them without any problems and with confidence, eventually parking near the famous Pirulí (Spanish radio station). You can see it in this (sped-up) video.

The test was conducted using a production Model 3, equipped with the same hardware as the vehicles delivered to customers. The only difference is the software, which is a test version in development. Currently, all Teslas come with Autopilot as standard, and in the future, they will feature unattended FSD.

He is guided by sight

The device is based on a purely visual architecture, combined with powerful processing, which reduces costs for the client and facilitates the continuous evolution of the system. In other words, it acts like a human, except it's not distracted. To train it, billions of kilometers of real-life video data from Tesla's global fleet of more than seven million vehicles are used . The difference is that these vehicles take (together) just 3.5 minutes to travel 800,000 kilometers, which is what a single driver would travel in... 50 years.

Overall, the Tesla fleet has traveled more than 5.79 billion kilometers with FSD—first in Beta, now in Supervised mode. In 2024 alone, the total number of kilometers traveled was 3.48 billion.

Tesla is working with regulators to secure approval for Supervised Driving (FSD) in Europe, with the goal of implementing it in existing and new vehicles as soon as possible. The feature is already available in the US, Canada, Mexico, and China. It has not been without controversy, both due to the failures it has experienced and the laxity of some drivers who refrain from supervising their journeys. Some of these incidents have resulted in fatal accidents.