Elon Musk is a fan of movies, or pretends to be. He claims that we’re living in a simulation like the one depicted in The Matrix, and that he is one of the chosen few who perceives its structure. He says that Tesla‘s Cybertruck is “what Bladerunner would have driven,” evidently unaware that the protagonist of Blade Runner has an actual name (Rick Deckard) and pilots a flying car. Most recently, Tesla has rolled out a “Mad Max” mode for its so-called Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system, named after a series of films in which characters race turbocharged vehicles through post-apocalyptic wastelands, killing one another in spectacular fashion. (The average American commute, in other words.)
FSD automates a number of driving tasks, including navigation, steering, acceleration, lane changes, and responses to traffic signals — but it still requires an attentive human driver at the wheel to take over in a split second in the event of error. “Mad Max” mode was originally a setting for Tesla Autopilot, a less advanced system for steering and cruise control, and has never previously been available for the more comprehensive FSD controls.
If FSD’s Mad Max mode doesn’t equip your Model Y with the kinds of explosives or grappling hooks you’d see in the Mad Max franchise, it does deliver in one respect, according to Tesla enthusiasts who have tried it out after upgrading to FSD v14.1.2 in the past week: It puts the pedal to the metal. “Mad Max mode is INSANE,” wrote one fan last week in a post on X, sharing a video that showed his car reaching a speed of 85 miles per hour on a freeway. “It drives your car like a sports car. If you are running late, this is the mode for you.”
The problem, at least from the pesky standpoint of automotive safety, is that a self-driving Tesla on the Mad Max setting will apparently reach those speeds regardless of local limits. Another Tesla influencer on X posted a video in which it piloted his car at 85 mph on a highway where the legal maximum speed — by his own admission — is 65. Across many states, speeding 20 mph over the limit is punishable by a fine of several hundred dollars and points on your driver’s license. “If you like to drive fast, you’re going to love this new mode,” this driver wrote. “Mad Max mode makes the car zoom around town like it’s on a mission lol.”
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Tesla’s FSD update described Mad Max as offering “higher speeds and more frequent lane changes” than “Hurry,” which was previously the most aggressive profile, followed by the more relaxed settings “Standard” and “Chill.” (With v14.1.2, Tesla has also added “Sloth,” which is even more conservative than “Chill.”) The release also noted: “Driver profile now has a stronger impact on behavior. The more assertive the profile, the higher the max speed.” Presumably, then, a Tesla owner who often drives well over the limit will find that Mad Max mode seeks to match this habit.
Software entrepreneur Dan O’Dowd, founder of the tech safety group the Dawn Project and a longtime critic of Tesla FSD, believes the added setting poses a danger to all motorists. “Rather than improving road safety, Tesla’s latest software update is putting more people at risk,” he tells Rolling Stone. “Driving in Mad Max mode doesn’t just put Tesla owners at risk but also other road users, who did not sign up to be Elon Musk’s crash test dummies.” He adds, “I have never seen another Fortune 500 CEO show such callous disregard for public safety or the law.”
Musk has bet big on fully autonomous driving technology, saying that Tesla will prove essentially worthless without it, though so far it has failed to realize that dream. On Wednesday, he told investors that its robotaxi pilot program would expand beyond Austin and San Francisco to as many as 10 more U.S. cities by the end of the year. As Musk continues to repeat his prediction that a Tesla FSD system with no need for human oversight is right around the corner, the company faces multiple lawsuits over deaths from road accidents involving a Tesla vehicle that had assistance features activated. In August, the company was found partially liable for a fatal 2019 crash in Florida and was ordered to pay a total of about $240 million in compensatory costs and punitive damages.
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Tesla is also under investigation by the Department of Justice over whether it misled customers regarding the self-driving capabilities of their vehicles (despite the name “Full Self-Driving,” this remains a Level 2 autonomous system, a far cry from the all-encompassing Level 5 automation Musk has promised) and has been the subject of multiple probes by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Just this month, the regulator opened a new inquiry into dozens of reports that Teslas with FSD engaged had violated traffic laws, with some of these incidents leading to collisions and injuries. In most of these cases, a self-driven Tesla allegedly ran a red light or drove on the wrong side of the road.
Reached for comment on the apparent traffic violations committed by Teslas in Mad Max mode, NHTSA said in a statement to Rolling Stone that it is “in contact with the manufacturer to gather additional information,” noting that the company’s FSD system still requires “a fully attentive driver who is engaged in the driving task at all times.”
“The human behind the wheel is fully responsible for driving the vehicle and complying with all traffic safety laws,” the agency said.
O’Dowd insists that government intervention is needed. “NHTSA must act now to ban Tesla Full Self-Driving in the interests of public safety,” he says. “Tesla has wasted critical engineering time developing this juvenile and reckless software mode instead of using that time to fix the litany of critical safety defects that remain present in its defective Full Self-Driving software.”
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Absent regulatory action, it seems Tesla drivers using the Mad Max setting on FSD will continue to travel at dangerous speeds. In an X Spaces event this week, a user narrated his experience with the new mode as he tried it out for the first time. “It’s going 65 in a 35 right now,” he announced at one point. “It sees the speed limit as 35, it’s highlighting it on the screen, because I’m going over the speed limit — because it’s going over the speed limit. It’s warning itself.”
“I’m not quite sure why it completely ignored the sign,” he said.
