Tesla‘s Full Self-Driving software has reached a level where passengers cannot distinguish between human and artificial intelligence driving, according to Nvidia’s director of AI and robotics.
Jim Fan, who co-leads Nvidia’s GEAR Team focused on building foundation models for embodied agents in virtual and physical worlds, reviewed on X his FSD version 14 drive late Tuesday.
“I was very late to own a Tesla but among the earliest to try out FSD v14. It’s perhaps the first time I experience an AI that passes the Physical Turing Test: after a long day at work, you press a button, lay back, and couldn’t tell if a neural net or a human drove you home,” Fan wrote.
Fan said the experience remained striking despite his technical expertise.
“Despite knowing exactly how robot learning works, I still find it magical watching the steering wheel turn by itself. First it feels surreal, next it becomes routine,” Fan wrote.
The Nvidia executive predicted the technology would become indispensable.
“Then, like the smartphone, taking it away actively hurts. This is how humanity gets rewired and glued to god-like technologies,” Fan wrote.
Tesla‘s FSD Supervised v14.2.2 began rolling out this week and has received positive reviews from owners, with drivers praising the software’s lack of hesitation during lane changes and smoother decision-making.
Nvidia’s Tesla History
Fan’s comments follow praise for Tesla‘s autonomous driving efforts from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who appeared on the ‘Joe Rogan Experience’ podcast earlier this month.
Huang recalled that Nvidia helped build Tesla‘s first automotive computer.
“I was lucky because I had known Elon and helped him build the first computer for the Model S,” Huang said, adding that Nvidia also helped develop autonomous vehicle hardware. “We were basically the FSD computer version 1.”
Huang also recounted delivering Nvidia’s first DGX-1 system to Elon Musk in 2016, when the company had no demand for it.
“When I announced DGX-1, nobody in the world wanted it. I had no purchase orders,” Huang said. Musk told him he had a non-profit company “that could really use” the technology — which turned out to be OpenAI. “I boxed one up. I drove it up to San Francisco and I delivered to Elon in 2016.”
In mid-2024, Huang said in an interview that Tesla had established a commanding lead in self-driving technology.
“Tesla is far ahead in self-driving cars, but every single car, someday, will have to have autonomous capability,” Huang said in an interview posted with Yahoo Finance.
Legacy Automakers Pass
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said late last month that traditional automakers have shown no interest in licensing FSD.
“I’ve tried to warn them and even offered to license Tesla FSD, but they don’t want it! Crazy … When legacy auto does occasionally reach out, they tepidly discuss implementing FSD for a tiny program in 5 years with unworkable requirements for Tesla, so pointless,” Musk wrote on X.
Global Expansion
Musk said earlier this week that Tesla is targeting a January 2026 release of FSD in the United Arab Emirates.
“Hopefully, next month,” Musk wrote on X after visiting the country over the weekend.
The UAE would become the eighth market for FSD.
The software is currently available in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, New Zealand, Australia, and South Korea. Tesla has partial approval in China, with “full approval” expected in the first quarter.
