Greg Murphy: Kiwi motorsport driver on Tesla launching its Full Self-Driving service in New Zealand

Tesla today announced its Full Self-Driving (FSD) service has now been activated in New Zealand and Australia.

Both countries are the first right-hand drive markets to access this technology, which had previously been kept inactive until now.

Kiwi motorsport driver Greg Murphy has raised concerns about this, given Tesla's record.

"Tesla haven't got a clean record when it comes to the autonomous vehicles around the world, with a few lawsuits that have taken place in various places."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Self driving cars are no longer a thing of the future.
In New Zealand, Tesla has switched on their full serve
self driving feature for the country overnight, which means we
will now have motorists with their hands off the wheel
potentially on our oads. Greg Murphy is a key we
motorsabalet champ and a road safety advocate and with us.
Hey Greg, Hi, how are you well but a bit
nervous about this? How about you?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, I think you've sort of got to read the
fine for a little bit too. I think it's actually
quite convoluted and how Tesleer have come out with this
full self driving supervised in brackets, It does not make
the car autonomous and is intended to be used only
with a full attentive driver. So I'm a little confused
by There's been sort of systems and some cars Tesla's

(00:47):
predominantly for a little while that you know, allow people
to take their hands off the wheel and bits and pieces.
But it consumes me greatly. You've got to pay for
this though, you know, it's it's a money making scheme.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
It's not cheap.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Is no surprise, no surprise whatsoever that it's money making
scheme for Tesla, so one hundred and fifty five per
month subscription for model three and why vehicles. I'm concerned
that people are going to do this because they think
it's cool.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
And they think it's you know, it's a bit of
a bad thing. Again.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
It's like I want to be the first to have
it be able to drive around or have my car
drive around with the hands off the wheel.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
It really concerns me greatly.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
To be fair, I mean, Tesla have got a haven't
got a clean record when it comes to the autonomous
vehicles around the world, with a few lawsuits that have
taken place in various places. So the best way to
be in a car if you are behind the steering
wheel is to be in control and be paying attention.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
They are sort of saying, oh, well.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
This makes it easier, safer, less stressful, like cruise control
on steroids. To me, it sounds dangerous and very risky
and it concerns me greatly.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah, I don't love the sound of it. Okay, what
are the rules? I mean, does the road rule that
do the road leaves here in New Zealand actually allow
for you to be in control of the vehicle with
your hands off the wheel.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
That is a very good question that I don't have
the detail on it, and I'm picking based on when
I spoke to you producer earlier. No one seems to
know and no one seems to want to comment on
it from a regulatory perspective, So I don't know if
there is something written about it or not. But being
that the government hasn't seen anything in z TASN said anything,

(02:25):
MOT hasn't said anything. Do they even know this was happening?
Is it allowed to actually happen. I'm not really sure
of what the regulations and rules say about this. But
as I said, you know, we've got enough issues and
they're probably claiming that this is going to make it
safe because our cars and our cameras and the technology
is going to be take some of that risk away
from drivers that you know, are you know that do

(02:49):
make mistakes, aren't attentive, aren't focused, and are distracted, So
let's let the car do that.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
Well, I'm not convinced that that is the way to
go about it, you know. And again, and it says
you need to be attentive.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
There's a whole of rules written in the article about
what you've got to do and what the car will
tell you to do if it senses that you're not
being intentive. So a little bit of information and a
little bit of knowledge by some people could be very
very dangerous if they're expecting that this is going to
do something that it actually doesn't do. And again that's
a problem because a lot of technology and cars these days,

(03:23):
people understand a little bit about they rely on it
and they shouldn't rely on it, and that's because we
don't train, we don't prepare people for these things and
so that they understand what they've actually got.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
Yeah, Greg, thanks well, said Greg Murphy, kee motorsport champion
and road safety advocate. Yeah. So we called the police,
and we called the NZTA, we called the Ministry of Transport,
we called the AA and none of them wanted to
talk about this. And we're not clear why, but it
may be a lack of understanding about the rules as
possibly part of it.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
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Speaker 1 (03:56):
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