Elon Musk Teases 'Wide Release' for Tesla Full Self Driving by Year's End
Elon Musk is aiming for a "wide release" of Tesla's long-awaited full self-driving (FSD) beta for all Tesla owners by the end of this year—"probably a month from now," he said during a Wednesday Q3 earnings call.
He also said anyone who buys a new Tesla going forward will have access to FSD, as long as they can cough up the extra $15,000 it costs to receive it via a vehicle software update.
"The safety we're seeing when the car is in FSD mode is significantly improved over when it is not, which is a key criteria to releasing the beta," Musk said on the call.
As of July, Tesla had 100,000 "city streets" FSD beta testers. The Autopilot feature has been met with mixed reviews(Opens in a new window) and even lawsuits that claim Musk has overstated its features and not produced anything near "full self driving" to this point. Federal regulators are also investigating crashes involving Autopilot.
When pressed by an investor on the call as to which level of self-driving FSD will fall under, with five being the highest level to the point of not requiring a steering wheel at all, Musk resisted specifying either four or five.
"It’s not quite ready to have no one behind the wheel, but you will almost never have to touch the vehicle controls," he said. "When I came to the GigaTexas [factory] today from a friend’s house, I never touched any controls on the way here. We are getting there. In fact, we are almost there."
Regarding the Cybertruck, another long-awaited product, Musk confirmed the company is in the "final lap" and is currently building it at its Austin, Texas, facility.
“Yeah, that car’s gonna be sick," Musk said. "Hall of famer. Next level. Sorry it took longer than expected, but there were a few things that got in the
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