Image: Tesla
Tesla asked Australia’s Senate to greenlight public-road autonomous vehicle trials in 2027 and to pull the country’s self-driving safety law forward by two years, citing more than 160 million kilometers of FSD (Supervised) driving across Australia and New Zealand since September 2025.
In a submission to the Select Committee on Productivity in Australia dated October 16, Tesla Motors Australia said Full Self-Driving (Supervised) is still an SAE Level 2 system that requires the driver to stay in control. The company nonetheless wants Canberra to grant permits for autonomous vehicle trials on public roads in 2027 until a national framework is ready, and to accelerate the proposed Autonomous Vehicle Safety Law from an expected 2029 start to 2027.
Bringing that law forward by two years would unlock more than A$10 billion in safety, productivity, environmental, and economic benefits, Tesla said, pointing to modeling by the Autonomous Vehicle Association of Australia. Federal research Tesla cited estimates autonomous vehicles could save up to 800 lives a year at full adoption, and the two-year shift alone would save hundreds of lives and prevent thousands of injuries.
Since FSD (Supervised) launched in September 2025, Tesla vehicles have logged over 160 million kilometers (about 99 million miles) with the system on across Australia and New Zealand. Compared with Tesla vehicles without it engaged, the company reported a 40% drop in collisions, a 90% drop in harsh braking, and an 86% drop in harsh acceleration.
Australia’s national autonomous vehicle framework was first proposed by the National Transport Commission in 2016, and Tesla says progress remains fragmented with uncertain timelines. The company is already touring its pedal-free Cybercab through Australian showrooms, starting in Sydney, but it cannot yet run driverless trials on public roads under current rules.
Drivers in Australia have also seen insurers start to price FSD into premiums, with Zurich becoming the first to discount Tesla FSD, while Tesla has opened an Hardware 3 FSD Lite path for older cars in the market.
Will Australia open the road for those 2027 trials, or keep driverless cars waiting until 2029?
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