Tesla Struggles With India’s Roads As It Confuses Tuk-Tuks For Motorcycles

While Tesla Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:TSLA) Full Self-Driving (FSD) system has been under the spotlight for the ongoing NHTSA probe into the technology — affecting 2.88 million vehicles — following reports of multiple accidents and several traffic violations, the company now faces a different challenge in its newest market, India.

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Tesla’s Autopilot Driving Visualization Fails To Recognize Tuk-Tuk

In a video posted on YouTube by the channel PowerDrift in August, the driver can be seen onboard a Tesla in the Indian city of Mumbai, commenting on the prevalence of ‘tuk-tuks’ in the city, adding that the Autopilot visualization perceived the tuk-tuk as «a motorcycle.» The driver added that Tesla needs to better calibrate its software for Indian road conditions.

Tesla did not immediately respond to Benzinga‘s request for comment.

Tesla In India

Tesla boasts the Model Y as its sole offering in the Indian market. The automaker offers the Model Y in both Standard and Long-Range guise, both of which are only available in RWD format.

The standard retails for INR 59,89,000 (approximately $67,500), while the Long-Range is priced at INR 67,89,000 (approximately $76,600). Tesla does not offer the Model Y with an all-wheel drive trim in the region.

It’s worth noting that Tesla does not currently offer FSD features in the region, but customers can choose to pay an additional INR 600,000 (approximately $6,700) to buy the FSD package, which Tesla said would help the car «drive itself almost anywhere with minimal driver intervention» via future software updates.

The company’s sales in the Indian market have fallen short of expectations, with data from September suggesting that it received over 600 orders for the Model Y in the country. It had a utilization quota of 2,500 cars for the Indian market. 

Elon Musk Touts FSD Capabilities, Tesla’s Chinese Sales Fall

Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently touted the FSD system’s capabilities in a post on the social media platform X. «Tesla autonomous driving might spread faster than any technology ever,» Musk said in the post. He also said that Tesla would be able to grant self-driving capabilities to most of its pre-existing cars with just a software update.

Meanwhile, Tesla sales in China fell nearly 10% in October. The company’s Gigafactory in Shanghai sold over 61,497 units of the Model Y and Model 3, including exports, which were down almost 33% during October.

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