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Tesla Has 285,000 Paying Beta Testers Enrolled in Full Self-Driving Program

Tesla is pushing the Full Self-Driving as the next best thing since the invention of the wheel, although the forever-beta feature doesn’t seem to progress. Nevertheless, 285,000 people have paid for the controversial feature, which is already under scrutiny.
Tesla has 285,000 paying beta testers enrolled in the Full Self-Driving program 11 photos
Photo: Chuck Cook via YouTube
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Tesla was on track to have a great 2022 until Elon Musk woke up with an itch to buy Twitter. Sales were going nuts, and people had to wait up to a year to get the company’s electric vehicles. Prices were rising, and the huge demand made a fortune for people flipping their cars on the grey market. The positive cash flow was clogging Tesla’s coffers, and Elon Musk even bragged about having the highest operating margin in the automotive industry by a lot.

But everything went weirder with every tweet Musk shared on his social media network, especially as his views were a little fringe. What’s puzzling is that Musk seems to be alienating the exact people who were his fans and the likeliest to buy Tesla’s electric vehicles while appeasing those who would never consider trying an EV. Soon, people started questioning Musk’s genius and his management abilities.

The bad-news stream started in December, as Tesla had to cut production in the face of reduced demand, with inventories ballooning to unprecedented levels. Then it offered price cuts and incentives to help move the cars from the inventory, with limited success. It also announced laying off workers, while the company’s shares got to the lowest level in years. To say the year’s end got complicated for Tesla would be an understatement.

And yet, or probably because of that, Tesla took the time to share its 2022 achievements on Twitter. It wouldn’t be fair not to mention Tesla’s strong results in 2022, so here’s a quick rundown. Even with the December slowdown, Tesla is on track to deliver a record number of vehicles in 2022. Its Supercharger network surpassed 40,000 stations worldwide, making it the largest fast-charging network in the world. The Model Y and the Model S were crowned as the safest vehicles by Euro NCAP. Last but not least, Tesla managed to deliver the Semi electric trucks to its first customers.

However, other areas are still not where we would’ve wanted them to be. I think many agree that the Cybertruck should’ve been in production a long time ago. The sorest spot in Tesla’s retrospective is the Full Self-Driving suite, though. Promised to arrive next year for at least the past four years, it’s still far from delivering on its promises. Not only that, but California banned Tesla from using the terms “Autopilot/Full Self-Driving.” This comes after NHTSA started looking into the increased number of crashes related to using Tesla’s driver-assist features.

Nevertheless, one of the bullet points specifically mentions FSD Beta. According to the Twitter thread, Tesla had enabled everyone in North America who has purchased FSD capability to request FSD Beta access. This is how Tesla reached 285,000 cars enrolled in the program, which is mind-boggling, considering that their owners paid tons of money to become beta testers for a feature that might never see the daylight. Assuming an average price of $8,000 per car (FSD capability is a $15,000 affair now), Tesla collected around $2.3 billion.

We’re not sure opening the program to more people was Tesla’s smartest move in 2022. We wonder how this is related to the increase in crashes involving Autopilot/Full Self-Driving. Tesla has stopped offering crash statistics for its safety-assist features, and the last one dates from Q4 2021. We fear the lack of data hides an ugly picture of Tesla’s FSD safety records.

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About the author: Cristian Agatie
Cristian Agatie profile photo

After his childhood dream of becoming a "tractor operator" didn't pan out, Cristian turned to journalism, first in print and later moving to online media. His top interests are electric vehicles and new energy solutions.
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