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True to its (latest) word, Tesla released the “Button” late Friday/early Saturday, though it went from “opting in to Full Self Driving Beta” to “requesting access to Full Self Driving”. The caveats don’t stop there.

I’m tempted to go on a riff about how Tesla always, always announces something awesome, then walks it back a ton and delivers it way late. The button is no exception here but we all know where we stand with the company at this point.

So instead of the promised “opt into Full Self Driving Beta” that we were lead to believe we were getting in June, we got the updated “Beta button will request permission to assess driving behavior using Tesla insurance calculator. If driving behavior is good for 7 days, beta access will be granted.”

So in reality it has been delayed another week and only a select number of FSD owners will get to use the beta – if their seemingly arbitrary safety scores measure up.

Keep in mind everyone who is granted/denied based on their driving has already paid, sometimes up to five years ago at a cost up to $10,000, for the privilege of being graded on their driving.

What is the Tesla insurance calculator and ‘Safety Score Beta‘?

Tesla posted a FAQ on the score but it comes down to 5 different factors:

There are five Safety Factors that impact your Safety Score. These are measured directly by your Tesla vehicle using various sensors on the vehicle and Autopilot software.

Forward Collision Warnings per 1,000 Miles
Forward Collision Warnings are audible and visual alerts provided to you, the driver, in events where a possible collision due to an object in front of the vehicle is considered likely without your intervention. Events are captured based on the ‘medium’ Forward Collision Warning sensitivity setting regardless of your user’s setting in the vehicle. Forward Collision Warnings are incorporated into the Safety Score formula at a rate per 1,000 miles.
Hard Braking
Hard braking is defined as backward acceleration, measured by your Tesla vehicle, in excess of 0.3g. This is the same as a decrease in the vehicle’s speed larger than 6.7 mph, in one second. Hard braking is introduced into the Safety Score formula as the proportion of time (expressed as a percentage) where the vehicle experiences backward acceleration greater than 0.3g relative to the proportion of time where the vehicle experiences backward acceleration greater than 0.1g (2.2 mph in one second).
Aggressive Turning
Aggressive turning is defined as left/right acceleration, measured by your Tesla vehicle, in excess of 0.4g. This is the same as an increase in the vehicles speed to the left/right larger than 8.9 mph, in one second. Aggressive turning is introduced into the Safety Score formula as the proportion of time (expressed as a percentage) where the vehicle experiences lateral acceleration greater than 0.4g, in either the left or right direction, relative to the proportion of time where the vehicle experiences acceleration greater than 0.2g (4.5 mph in one second), in either the left or right direction.
Unsafe Following
Your Tesla vehicle measures its own speed, the speed of the vehicle in front and the distance between the two vehicles. Based on these measurements, your vehicle calculates the number of seconds you would have to react and stop if the vehicle in front of you came to a sudden stop. This measurement is called headway. Unsafe following is the proportion of time where your vehicle’s headway is less than 1.0 seconds relative to the time that your vehicle’s headway is less than 3.0 seconds. Unsafe following is only measured when your vehicle is traveling at least 50 mph and is incorporated into the Safety Score formula as a percentage.
Forced Autopilot Disengagement
The Autopilot system disengages for the remainder of a trip after you, the driver, have received three audio and visual warnings. These warnings occur when your Tesla vehicle has determined that you have removed your hands from the steering wheel and have become inattentive. Forced Autopilot Disengagement is introduced into the Safety Score formula as a 1 or 0 indicator. The value is 1 if the Autopilot system is forcibly disengaged during a trip, and 0 otherwise.
No “aggressive acceleration” naturally

After installing ‘the button” software update and the Tesla app update on my iPhone, I didn’t see the “safety score (Beta)” menu item immediately. I’m told some app and phone restarts may speed up the menu item process. None of my Android friends have seen the Safety Score menu item yet.

We have two Teslas at home but only paid for FSD on one of them – the Model Y which my wife, who is a much safer and less risk averse driver than I am normally, drives. We had some errands to run and I drove it 20 miles to White Plains, a heavily populated area with tight parkways, confusing line areas and generally aggressive drivers.

Even though I didn’t see the Safety Score Beta menu item in my app, I knew I was now being graded so I took it extremely slow. Unfortunately, the Tesla already sees 2 issues before I leave my driveway. One is a rock and a tree it thinks is an oncoming car and has been happening intermittently for months. The second is leaves on the driveway which it thinks I need to take control over even if I’m driving straight down my driveway. So before I even leave my driveway, I have 2 dings on my score. A third ding was when I was in AP and a lane closure forced an AP freakout and subsequent disengage and slamming on the brakes. Also, if you don’t follow the car in front of you relatively closely around here, people cut in front of you, causing another “unsafe following” ding – a Catch-22.

All of this is to say, I don’t have a great rating after my first round of driving. I feel like where I live is a major disadvantage compared to Tesla owners in more rural settings. When the menu item finally appeared in the app hours later, I had a score of 76.

I spent the evening driving 55mph on the highway to try to get my score up which of course pissed of just about everybody EXCEPT the other Tesla I saw doing the same thing. Perhaps he was trying to get his score up as well. In fact, Facebook and Twitter are littered with people trying to get their scores up by driving slowly.

What Safety Score Beta do you need to get into the FSD program?

While not explicit, the scoring document does say:

The Safety Score Beta is intended to provide drivers transparency and feedback of their driving behaviors. The Safety Score is a value between 0 and 100, where a higher score indicates safer driving. Most drivers will have a Safety Score of 80 or above.

So I’m guessing that 80 is the baseline and something I hope to achieve (by driving up and down a rural highway at 55mph over the next week). But there’s also the likelihood that because I’m in the media, I’ve already been blacklisted.

In any case, if you are trying to get into the FSD program I think you should try to hit over 80 cumulatively over the next week. Good luck!

Electrek’s take

It doesn’t feel great to be a Tesla owner today. Particularly one that has a vested interest and investment in moving to self driving vehicles.

I know I’m unlikely to be able to get access to the FSD (beta) that I paid for and was promised years ago. Tesla has used the carrot of grading my driving which it will also use in its insurance product without any guarantee that I will (ever) get access to the FSD I paid for. Keep in mind that I already leased a Model X for 3 years with the promise of FSD that came and went without ever being delivered when I returned it last year.

But it could be worse. On of our readers Bill points out:

Tesla has excluded early FSD purchasers who have MCU1 from the FSD Beta button. Please do what you can to bring attention to this. I and others bought and paid for FSD 4-6 years ago and we’re told our cars had everything needed for FSD. Now we are being left out in the cold while other enjoy. Tesla needs to step up and either make a fork of FSD beta for MCU1 or replace everyone with FSD’s MCU1 with an MCU2 free of charge, and they need to do it quickly.

The last time we brought attention to to Tesla not being fair to early FSD hardware owners, Tesla CEO Elon Musk blocked us on Twitter. So the feedback loop clearly isn’t working.

While I am disappointed in how this is rolling out and particularly Tesla’s communication around it, I’m hoping that we do get closer to the Full Self Driving we’ve been promised for years.


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MasterChef presenter John Torode says allegation he used racist language upheld in report

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MasterChef presenter John Torode says allegation he used racist language upheld in report

MasterChef presenter John Torode says an allegation he used “racial language” was upheld in a report as part of a review into the behaviour of his former co-presenter Gregg Wallace.

The report, led by law firm Lewis Silkin, found 45 out of 83 allegations against Wallace were substantiated.

There were also two standalone allegations made against other people.

In a statement posted on his Instagram page, Torode said he was one of those people, but added that he had “no recollection of the incident” and said he “did not believe that it happened”.

He commented: “Following publication of the executive summary of the investigation into Gregg Wallace while working on MasterChef, I am aware of speculation that I am one of the two other individuals against whom an allegation has been upheld.

“For the sake of transparency, I confirm that I am the individual who is alleged to have used racial language on one occasion.

“The allegation is that I did so sometime in 2018 or 2019, in a social situation, and that the person I was speaking with did not believe that it was intended in a malicious way and that I apologised immediately afterwards.

“I have absolutely no recollection of any of this, and I do not believe that it happened.

“However, I want to be clear that I’ve always had the view that any racial language is wholly unacceptable in any environment. I’m shocked and saddened by the allegation as I would never wish to cause anyone any offence.”

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

Please refresh the page for the latest version.

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Gregg Wallace: Over half of allegations against MasterChef presenter substantiated, including one of unwanted physical contact

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Gregg Wallace: Over half of allegations against MasterChef presenter substantiated, including one of unwanted physical contact

An investigation into Gregg Wallace’s “inappropriate behaviour” on MasterChef has found that more than half of the allegations against him have been substantiated, including one of “unwanted physical contact”.

MasterChef’s production company Banijay UK shared a summary of its report into historical allegations of misconduct against the 60-year-old presenter, carried out by independent law firm Lewis Silkin over seven months.

The report also said the number of sustained allegations made Wallace’s return to MasterChef “untenable”.

The investigation heard evidence from 78 witnesses, including 41 complainants.

There were 83 allegations against Wallace, and 45 of them were substantiated. All were related to MasterChef.

While the majority of the substantiated allegations related to inappropriate sexual language and humour, a smaller number of allegations of other inappropriate language and being in a state of undress were also substantiated.

One allegation of unwanted physical contact was substantiated.

More on Bbc

Nearly all the allegations against Wallace were related to behaviour which is said to have occurred between 2005 and 2018, with just one substantiated allegation taking place post-2018.

Wallace and Anne-Marie Sterpini in 2014
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Wallace and Anne-Marie Sterpini in 2014

Ahead of the publication of the summary, Wallace had said he had been “cleared of the most serious and sensational accusations” made against him.

Additionally, the report summary found that there were also 10 standalone allegations about other people between 2012 and 2018/2019, two of which were substantiated. Those people were not named in the summary.

The investigation found that complaints had previously been raised with the production company between 2005 and 2024.

Gregg Wallace on MasterChef. Pic: BBC/ Shine TV 2024
Image:
Gregg Wallace on MasterChef. Pic: BBC/ Shine TV 2024

While the report flagged inadequate reporting procedures prior to 2016, when Endemol merged with Shine ahead of Banijay acquiring Endemol Shine in 2020, it said there were significant improvements to HR processes and training after 2016.

While the investigation said some formal action was taken by the BBC in 2017, it also noted the corporation held no information regarding concerns raised over Wallace centrally, resulting in issues being addressed as a first offence.

Sky News has tried to contact Gregg Wallace for contact today.

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Man arrested for alleged sexual assault ‘on set of EastEnders’

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Man arrested for alleged sexual assault 'on set of EastEnders'

A man has been arrested on suspicion of assault and sexual assault – which reportedly took place on the set of EastEnders.

The alleged incident happened on the set of the BBC soap at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, according to The Sun newspaper.

Hertfordshire Police confirmed a man in his 50s was arrested after the report in Eldon Avenue, Borehamwood, on 7 May.

The man is accused of sexual assault and common assault in relation to two victims, the force said.

The suspect is on bail while inquiries continue, police added.

EastEnders said in a statement: “While we would never comment on individuals, EastEnders has on-site security and well-established procedures in place to safeguard the safety and welfare of everyone who works on the show.”

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