An unidentified teenager, who we’ll call Mary, passed her driving test, but ended up failing after the DMV deemed the Tesla she was driving “too advanced.” Following the end of the test, the budding young motorist was under the impression she would be getting her driver’s license but was told to return to the DMV the following day to finalize things. It was when she went back that she was told that she had failed because the examiner believed she had been relying on the car’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) feature and had not been using the brake pedal enough. A Tesla with FSD can automatically brake in certain situations, including at traffic lights and stop signs. “If we don’t know she can brake with the brake pedal, then how do we know she can drive a non-Tesla?” said an official with the Arizona Department of Transportation. Despite the family’s explanation that the FSD was not engaged during the test, the DMW refused to revise the test result, with one DMV employee suggesting that Teslas could be banned from future testing because of their “excessive safety features.” After some persistence, the DMV finally relented and reversed its decision, giving Mary a driver’s license. The teen’s father pointed out that drivers of automatic transmissions aren’t required to demonstrate that they can operate a manual transmission during their tests, yet they still get licensed. Some suggested a simple fix would be to have the DMV examiner require the driver to turn off assistive features during their driving test.
Teenager Who Aced Driving Test Is Denied a License for Using a Tesla
An unidentified teenager, who we’ll call Mary, passed her driving test, but ended up failing after the DMV deemed the Tesla she was driving “too advanced.” Following the end of the test, the budding young motorist was under the impression she would be getting her driver’s license but was told to return to the DMV the following day to finalize things. It was when she went back that she was told that she had failed because the examiner believed she had been relying on the car’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) feature and had not been using the brake pedal enough. A Tesla with FSD can automatically brake in certain situations, including at traffic lights and stop signs. “If we don’t know she can brake with the brake pedal, then how do we know she can drive a non-Tesla?” said an official with the Arizona Department of Transportation. Despite the family’s explanation that the FSD was not engaged during the test, the DMW refused to revise the test result, with one DMV employee suggesting that Teslas could be banned from future testing because of their “excessive safety features.” After some persistence, the DMV finally relented and reversed its decision, giving Mary a driver’s license. The teen’s father pointed out that drivers of automatic transmissions aren’t required to demonstrate that they can operate a manual transmission during their tests, yet they still get licensed. Some suggested a simple fix would be to have the DMV examiner require the driver to turn off assistive features during their driving test.