Tesla begins test drive of “self-driving” in Japan; video released showing car driving through city streets using “FSD”

Tesla has begun testing its advanced driver-assistance system in Japan, the company announced on Aug. 20.

The program involves its “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” technology, which allows cars to handle navigation, steering, lane changes and parking while requiring drivers to remain attentive at all times. Videos posted by Tesla Japan show a Model 3 maneuvering through city streets without the driver touching the wheel. Landmarks visible in the footage suggest the test runs are taking place in Yokohama.

The test vehicles are equipped with Tesla’s latest AI-powered hardware and a camera-based sensing system called Tesla Vision. The company says the software learns from more than 1.7 billion kilometers of driving data collected worldwide from 6 million Tesla vehicles, enabling it to handle complex road environments, including crowded urban streets and highways.

The cars also feature automated safety tools such as emergency braking, collision warnings, lane-keeping support, and monitoring systems that track steering-wheel input and driver attentiveness through interior cameras. A “smart summon” function lets drivers call the car via a smartphone app.

Tesla stressed safety in its announcement, noting that in the U.S. one crash occurs on average every 1.13 million kilometers driven in conventional vehicles, compared with one crash every 10.77 million kilometers when Tesla’s Autopilot is engaged. “No car can prevent every accident,” the company said, “but we work every day to make them as rare as possible.”