Tesla AI Chief Confirms FSD for Travel Trailers with 2 Words
Tesla's AI chief, Ashok Elluswamy, has confirmed that the company is working on Full Self-Driving (FSD) capabilities for travel trailers. His concise two-word reply to Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan on X has sparked excitement in the RV community.
In the world of electric vehicles and autonomous driving, a simple social media interaction can sometimes reveal the future roadmap of a trillion-dollar company. This was the case recently when Ashok Elluswamy, the head of Tesla’s Autopilot and AI software, dropped a tantalizing hint about the future of towing with Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology.
The exchange began on X (formerly Twitter), where Garry Tan, the CEO of the prestigious startup accelerator Y Combinator, engaged with a post about the Tesla Cybertruck. A user had shared their enthusiasm for the electric truck, stating, “As soon as they figure out FSD for these [trailers], I’m heading for the road full time.” Tan amplified this sentiment, reposting it with a direct request: “Request for startup: FSD for RVs.”
Elluswamy’s response was brief, confident, and thrilling for the RV community: “On it.”
The Current State of Towing and FSD
For current Tesla owners, particularly those with the Cybertruck, Model X, or Model Y, towing a trailer introduces significant limitations to the vehicle's smart features. While Tesla's Autopilot is a marvel of modern engineering, engaging "Tow Mode" currently disables the most advanced driver-assist features, including Autosteer and Full Self-Driving.
This limitation is not without reason. Towing a trailer fundamentally alters the physics of driving. It changes the vehicle's weight distribution, braking distance, and turning radius. A trailer can sway in high winds, block rear-view cameras, and create massive blind spots that standard sensors might not adequately cover. Reversing with a trailer—a skill that baffles many human drivers—presents an even more complex challenge for an AI system to master.
Currently, drivers are left to handle the bulk of the highway driving manually when towing, which can be exhausting on long cross-country trips—exactly the kind of trips EVs like the Cybertruck are marketed for.
Why "FSD for RVs" is a Game Changer
Elluswamy's confirmation that Tesla is actively working on this problem signals a major leap forward. If Tesla can successfully integrate FSD with towing capabilities, it would solve one of the biggest pain points for recreational vehicle owners and commercial haulers alike.
Imagine a Cybertruck that can not only drive itself from San Francisco to Austin but can do so while safely hauling a 25-foot Airstream. The AI would need to account for the trailer's length during lane changes, predict jackknifing risks during turns, and potentially even auto-reverse the trailer into a campsite spot—a feature that would be a godsend for anyone who has ever tried to park a camper.
This development is particularly crucial for the Cybertruck, which was designed with heavy-duty utility in mind. For the truck to live up to its "cyber" futuristic promise, it needs to handle truck tasks—like towing—with the same autonomous ease as a sedan handles a morning commute.
The Technical Challenge
Enabling FSD for trailers is a massive computer vision and path-planning challenge. The system likely needs to estimate the trailer's dimensions and articulation angle in real-time using the vehicle's existing suite of cameras. It must "understand" that the vehicle is now effectively twice as long and articulated in the middle.
Tesla’s move to an end-to-end neural network approach with FSD v12 might be the key unlock here. By training the AI on thousands of hours of video footage of vehicles towing trailers, the system could learn the nuances of trailer dynamics just as it learned to navigate roundabouts and construction zones.
Broader Context: Musk's Vision
This development aligns with Elon Musk’s broader vision for Tesla as an AI and robotics company, not just a car manufacturer. Musk has recently criticized legacy automakers for dragging their feet on licensing Tesla's FSD tech, warning that they risk obsolescence. By continuously expanding the scope of what FSD can do—from city streets to towing trailers—Tesla widens its competitive moat.
For now, "On it" is all the confirmation the world has. But coming from the man directly responsible for the code driving Tesla's AI, those two words carry the weight of a promise that the future of road-tripping is about to get a lot more relaxing.
