Cybercab aTesla showroom in Bellevue, Washington. Tesla, under the leadership of Elon Musk, continues to innovate in the field of self-driving, but faces challenges in detecting animals on the road at night. Musk described the challenge as similar to avoiding “gray cats on gray asphalt,” highlighting the difficulty the system has in detecting low-contrast objects.
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Tesla's robo-taxi service in Austin, which launched in June 2025, has extended its operating hours from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., up from 6 a.m. to midnight. The change marks an effort by Tesla to improve the performance and reliability of its vehicles in low-light conditions.
However, the cameras used in Tesla vehicles require light and contrast to distinguish objects from the road, unlike other technologies such as lidar and radar, which do not have this limitation.
Musk has criticized lidar, calling it a “foolish endeavor” in 2019 and describing it as a “tempting local maximum” in 2022. According to Musk, the use of lidar and radar can compromise safety due to sensor collision. Despite the criticism, other companies such as Waymo have adopted lidar. Waymo’s sixth-generation vehicles are equipped with 13 cameras, four lidars and six radars, operating about 4,000 driverless cars 24/7. In contrast, Tesla eliminated radar in 2021 and ultrasonic sensors in 2022, and has never used lidar.
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The European Union is set to vote on Tesla's driver assistance software on Tuesday. The European Technical Committee for Motor Vehicles will vote on approving Tesla's FSD Supervised software on October 6. Approval requires a majority of member states representing 65% of the population. Six countries have already approved the software through mutual recognition of the Dutch approval.
FSD Supervised is classified as Level 2, meaning the driver remains in charge, and does not operate autonomously in Austin. The cameras used are the same as those in previous systems.
Safety remains a critical issue for Tesla. In October, two Model 3s were involved in fatal crashes after coming to a stop in U.S. traffic lanes, both in low-light conditions. Tesla has since redacted details about the crashes and the software versions involved, leaving it unclear which specific system was used. That lack of transparency has raised concerns about the safety and reliability of Tesla’s self-driving systems.
The Dutch regulator approved FSD Supervised in April after an extensive review process that included 1.6 million kilometers of European road data. Despite Tesla’s efforts to provide safety data, researchers found the data it provided to Swedish and Dutch regulators to be misleading. This has put additional pressure on Tesla to improve the transparency and accuracy of the data it provides to regulators.
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Tesla continues to innovate and expand the capabilities of its autonomous vehicles, but challenges remain. Animal detection at night and the safety of its systems are issues that require continued attention and improvement. The upcoming vote in the European Union and legislative developments in New Jersey will largely determine the future of Tesla's autonomous driving in Europe and the United States.
