Photo: @Chazman via Twitter
Tesla Full Self-Driving software started two years ago as a Beta program for selected owners, even though the FSD capability has been sold to many people. During the Q3 2022 earnings call, Elon Musk said that the FSD Beta wide release is slated for the end of the year.
Of course, coming from Musk, this should be taken with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, since Musk spoke to investors about that, we expect to have more weight than the previous “hopefully next year” vague timeline that Tesla CEO offered in the past. Musk was pretty specific this time, saying that the FSD’s wide release is scheduled “about a month from now.” That or “by the end of the year” is good enough for investors.
According to Tesla Shareholder Deck, there are 160,000 participants in the FSD Beta program. The cumulative miles driven with FSD Beta has skyrocketed in the past year to nearly 60 million miles since the program launched in October 2020. This is almost double the amount driven when Tesla released a similar report in July. The wide release to anyone who purchased the FSD capability would only make this grow exponentially during 2023.
Make no mistake, the wide rollout of the FSD Beta program does not equal FSD getting out of Beta and becoming the autonomous driving feature that Musk has promised for many years. Tesla still needs to prove to the regulators what the FSD software can do and get them on board. Until then, it will remain a beta program, and the drivers are fully-responsible for supervising FSD actions.
Nevertheless, Musk reiterated during the conference that he still believes Tesla can achieve full self-driving. The FSD software should be able to provide customers with a generally hands-free solution for driving, with very few, if any, interventions from the drivers. That is if they bought the Full Self-Driving capability when they ordered their Tesla. This costs now $15,000 in the U.S., although Musk has indicated that he is willing to raise the price once the FSD becomes production-ready.
According to Tesla Shareholder Deck, there are 160,000 participants in the FSD Beta program. The cumulative miles driven with FSD Beta has skyrocketed in the past year to nearly 60 million miles since the program launched in October 2020. This is almost double the amount driven when Tesla released a similar report in July. The wide release to anyone who purchased the FSD capability would only make this grow exponentially during 2023.
Make no mistake, the wide rollout of the FSD Beta program does not equal FSD getting out of Beta and becoming the autonomous driving feature that Musk has promised for many years. Tesla still needs to prove to the regulators what the FSD software can do and get them on board. Until then, it will remain a beta program, and the drivers are fully-responsible for supervising FSD actions.
Nevertheless, Musk reiterated during the conference that he still believes Tesla can achieve full self-driving. The FSD software should be able to provide customers with a generally hands-free solution for driving, with very few, if any, interventions from the drivers. That is if they bought the Full Self-Driving capability when they ordered their Tesla. This costs now $15,000 in the U.S., although Musk has indicated that he is willing to raise the price once the FSD becomes production-ready.
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