Elon Musk Says Tesla's FSD Beta Will Soon Be Available To All: How To Enable Your Tesla To Drive Itself

Tesla Inc TSLA is working towards fully autonomous cars. The company says every car it sells today comes with the hardware necessary for full self-driving; the software just needs to catch up to the task.

Tesla has rolled its FSDBeta program out to a small set of testers who have shown the car can make impressive moves, like dodging a deer on dirt roads.

What Happened: Now Tesla CEO Elon Musk is saying this closed beta will be expanding to a larger group of people.

Musk said a "download beta button" will be added to the in-car software, under the service menu, that will allow people to opt into the beta, which will let their car attempt to fully drive them from point A to point B, while the driver sits back and monitors the car, ready to take over in case of a mistake.

Unfortunately users weren't sure if this was a button asking for the beta, or if it would instantly add the ability to their vehicles. 

Assuming user approves warning & agrees to drive carefully, it will download latest QA-tested FSD “Beta” build as soon as car connects to wifi

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 9, 2021

How You Can Get FSD Beta: If you are a Tesla owner looking to get into the beta testing, Musk clarified that the button will allow owners to download the beta directly to their car.

After agreeing to some warnings, anyone who has purchased FSD — $10,000 on Tesla's site, although the cost was lower in the past — will be able to download the beta and use it.

Benzinga's Take: Tesla's FSD Beta is a work in progress, defined as a Level 2 system, meaning the driver is fully responsible at all times.

While the vehicle is more capable than anything else on the road, anyone using this system needs to use caution while it is active. As of writing, there have been no reported accidents involving this small set of testers. Hopefully in a wider rollout, new drivers will be just as cautious and ready to take over at any time. 

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Photo courtesy of Tesla.