Tesla's Full Self-Driving Still Doesn't Even Work in a Single Lane Tunnel

The company is hoping to start "using a driver assistance tool by the end of this year."

Three Steps Back

Forget open roads. Tesla still hasn't figured out how to get its vehicles to autonomously drive through Elon Musk's tunneling venture The Boring Company's single-lane tunnel.

That's despite the mercurial CEO making vast promises about his EV maker's progress on solving what it calls "Full Self-Driving."

Musk made a big deal out of unveiling a "robotaxi" later this year, but whether such a vehicle could even ferry visitors from one part of the Las Vegas Convention Center to the other remains to be seen.

As the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports, the tunneling venture is only starting to consider helping out the underground fleet's human drivers by assisting — not replacing — them.

There's still no timeline for when full autonomy will be implemented — which isn't exactly confidence-inducing, considering all the cars have to do is drive down an unoccupied, single-lane tunnel.

"Hopefully this will get started just lightly, using a driver assistance tool by the end of this year," Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority president and CEO Steve Hill told the Review-Journal.

Tunnel Vision

The existing tunnel connecting the various parts of Las Vegas' sprawling Convention Center raised plenty of eyebrows when it opened to the public in 2021. Instead of efficient passenger trains, Tesla opted for a fleet of modified Tesla Model 3 and X vehicles to drive through a pair of white-walled, 1.5-mile tunnels.

Over the years, the operation has suffered from traffic jams and even skin-burning chemical sludge.

Meanwhile, despite Tesla's focus on solving self-driving and constantly working on new iterations of its controversial "Full Self-Driving" software, the fleet of vehicles still has to be driven by human employees.

That doesn't exactly bode well for the company's efforts. As Electrek points out, if Tesla can't figure out how to have a vehicle autonomously drive down a single-lane tunnel, how could it ever effectively cope with a much busier reality above ground?

As of right now, the Boring Company's Convention Center Loop is still a far cry from solving Las Vegas' severe traffic woes, connecting four parts of the center with the Resorts World casino across the street. The company is hoping to bring the total number of stations from five to a whopping 93 stations across 68 miles of tunnel.

But when those tunnels will open to the public remains to be seen. As of late last year, the company has only completed a pitiful 2.4 miles of operational tunnels in its eight-year existence.

In short, the Boring Company has successfully built an underground transportation system that not only is far less efficient than a subway, it still requires human drivers to be behind the wheel — something that modern mass transit networks solved over four decades ago.

More on the Boring Company: Elon Musk’s Tunnel Reportedly Oozing With Skin-Burning Chemical Sludge