Famous Tesla hacker green (@greentheonly) has once again caused a stir in the Tesla community with his recent revelation regarding an “Elon Mode” feature hidden in the Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta software.
The hacker’s Twitter posts unveiled intriguing twists on Tesla’s approach to monitoring driver attentiveness as he used the FSD Beta on a 600-mile trip. Interestingly, the car’s forward collision warning is more often triggered in Elon Mode. However, it enabled a major decline in steering wheel nags, which many Tesla owners hate.
What is ‘Elon Mode’?
For context, Tesla originally used the “nag” feature to monitor driver attentiveness while the FSD tech was activated. This feature literally nags the drivers to remain focused on the road, requiring them to put pressure on the steering wheel to confirm their attentiveness.
In January, Tesla announced plans to finally allow FSD Beta users to disable steering wheel nags. However, it did not materialize, disappointing many customers.
Interestingly, the recently unveiled “Elon Mode” introduces a whole new system in Tesla’s way of monitoring driver attentiveness.
Elon Mode disables steering-wheel prompts and solely uses the internal camera to ensure the driver remains attentive on the road using the FSD Beta. However, it should be mentioned that the general public cannot currently use this new feature.
Green presented a picture of a trip devoid of the currently required notifications in addition to Tesla’s vision-based driver monitoring system in his firsthand experience with Elon Mode over a 600-mile drive.
In addition, he observed that even though the vehicle continued to make certain odd movements that he did not like, he did not apparently notice them as much because the car was not pleading with him to keep on to the wheel.
See Also:
- Tesla now monitors drivers for eye blinking and yawns
- Tesla to allow FSD Beta customers to disable steering wheel nags in January
- Tesla CEO expects to achieve “full autonomy” in 2023
- Tesla FSD Beta saw a 475% YoY growth, 78% since Q3 2022
- Elon Musk says the Tesla FSD Beta V11 will expand over a few weeks before public release
These new revelations about Tesla’s FSD Beta hint that the Musk-led automaker is now working toward a Lever 3 system, ultimately eliminating the need to press the steering wheel from time to time.
