Hacker Claims Tesla Full Self-Driving Has Secret 'Elon Mode'
Tesla's self-driving Autopilot technology is often met with equal parts awe and skepticism, and the same can be said about its ongoing Full Self-Driving beta service. If you need a refresher, the FSD option is meant to test out evolutions to Autopilot and see if it really is possible to simply get into a car and let it drive you anywhere. Nevertheless, it still needs quite a lot of work and while it is impressive, it's not quite yet immune to hackers.
Impressions after nearly 600 miles on 11.4.3 with Elon mode (could not get a non-Tesla car to try in time).
It went much better than the prior experiment obviously.
Many contributing factors. I was not as late so I did not mind as much (still ended up 5 minutes late solely— green (@greentheonly) June 17, 2023
This is especially true if you are the anonymous person known as GreenTheOnly, who gained notoriety online by focusing on Tesla's software and its various exploits — and FSD in its infancy state was no exception. In a Twitter thread they posted on June 16, they claimed that FSD has a secret mode that eliminates the steering wheel nag designed to make sure the driver is paying attention, potentially alongside other yet-undiscovered differences. The name of this elusive setting? Elon Mode, of course.
That's probably the easiest way. You just have to know the right people.
My method is hard.— green (@greentheonly) June 17, 2023
It is unclear if Elon Mode is just a placeholder or is expected to be the setting's actual name, as GreenTheOnly does not elaborate on this. However, they do explain in a Twitter reply that it is seemingly a very difficult mode to mine the FSD data for, as they claim that prospective users "need to know the right people" to enable it.
Don't expect Elon Mode any time soon
It's important to note that the existence of Elon Mode hasn't been officially confirmed. That being said, GreenTheOnly's thread appears to be positive regarding the alleged setting. They praise the lack of nag while driving 600 miles on the road in fairly busy traffic, and also comment on the progress Tesla is seemingly making with detecting debris. However, they stress that the alleged mode is still a major work in progress, citing unexpected lane changes and a relatively slow driving speed as setbacks.
With all of this in mind, it's safe to assume that even if the Elon Mode is confirmed to be in development at Tesla, it will be a while before it's made available to FSD drivers — assuming that ever happens. It is nice to see that Tesla is possibly working to fix the nagging problem, which users have complained was too frequent and distracting in its mission to keep users focused on the road.
However, the other frequent complaint involving random and unprompted lane switches is still being worked on, and driving on public roads with incomplete code poses serious risks for drivers using an already controversial system. If Elon Mode is being worked on, we certainly hope it gets confirmed and released when it is 100% ready. Oh, and it might be a good idea to keep Elon Mode as just an internal codename.