If you want the unvarnished status of self-driving, skip the keynote and read the risk and regulatory sections of the annual report. That is where a company has to describe, to investors and regulators, the actual legal and developmental state of its autonomy program — without the adjectives. The contrast with the marketing is often the most informative thing on the page.
Tesla's Form 10-K for 2022, filed January 31, 2023, states that there are "currently no federal U.S. regulations pertaining specifically to self-driving vehicles or self-driving equipment," while noting that NHTSA "has published recommended" practices. Its quarterly filing for the period ended September 30, 2023 (filed October 23, 2023) continues to treat Full Self-Driving access as deferred revenue. The documents are on sec.gov, surfaced through the EdgarBeast index.
Parse the regulatory sentence carefully. "No federal U.S. regulations pertaining specifically to self-driving" does not mean autonomy is unregulated — general vehicle-safety and consumer-protection laws still apply. It means there is no purpose-built federal rulebook for self-driving systems yet. NHTSA's "recommended" practices are guidance, not binding rules. That is a frontier being deployed faster than its dedicated regulation is being written.
Why does the absence of specific rules matter to a reader? Because it cuts both ways. It gives developers room to deploy, but it also means the rules can arrive later and reshape what is permitted — a standing risk the filing is disclosing precisely because it could affect the business. "Recommended" today can become "required" tomorrow, and a 10-K flags that uncertainty on purpose.
Now braid in the accounting. The same body of filings treats FSD access as deferred revenue — money collected for capability still being delivered. So the financial statements and the regulatory section tell a consistent story: a system under active development, sold ahead of full delivery, operating in a legal framework that does not yet have rules written specifically for it.
The reader's takeaway is to weight the filing over the slogan. A product name can promise anything; a 10-K must describe the regulatory and developmental reality as it stands. On self-driving in 2023, that reality was a capability in progress and a rulebook in progress — and the annual report is where both were stated plainly enough to hold the company to.