Tesla stepping closer to FSD public release, says Musk

Tesla could release its fully-featured Full Self-Driving to owners in the US within weeks, as the company prepares to roll out the latest major update on Friday next week.

Tesla CEO and co-founder Elon Musk took to Twitter to announce the new timeline on Friday (Australia time), saying, “FSD Beta 10 rolls out midnight Friday next week.”

He followed with, “Looks promising that Beta 10.1, about 2 weeks later, will be good enough for public opt in request button.”

Musk has in the past been very optimistic about the timeline for full-featured FSD, the company’s (currently) semi-autonomous package that in Australia costs $10,100.

To date in Australia, that includes the following features: Navigate on Autopilot, auto lane changing, auto parking, Summon in a car park, and stopping at traffic lights and stop signs.

While the upfront cost pays for the company’s hardware 3.0 to run the package, and includes all future updates, Tesla only counts a portion of that revenue towards its balance sheet as features are rolled out to the public.

The company started rolling out the Beta version of its full-featured software – which also includes the ability to turn corners and auto steer on streets – in October 2020 to a small number of drivers.

Making a car that can “see” objects, predict where they are when hidden by other objects, and navigate busy streets has not been any easy task, leading the company to hold an “AI Day” in August to explain the extent of the technology it has developed to do so, including making its own computer chip.

In July, the company introduced a subscription for the package (in the US) that was first touted by Musk in 2020. Note, cars have to have hardware 3.0, or be upgraded to it, for the FSD package to work.

The high price of FSD is one possible explanation behind a reported downturn in FSD purchase. Tesla has raised the price of FSD over time as it introduced more features.

According to @TroyTeslike, who says his figures are based on surveys, takeup rates for the FSD package have dropped since Q2 2019.

A subscription can allow drivers to test the autonomous software before taking the plunge before buying the entire package, or to subscribe for limited times, for example.

In the US, it costs $US199 a month($A268 converted) – equal to just over 4 years worth of subscription.