(Credit: Tesla)
Tesla dealerships in North America will now have to install and enable Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) feature on every new electric car the company sells as well as give buyers a demonstration of the tech before letting them take their new cars home, according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
In an internal email first reported by Bloomberg and published on Musk's social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Musk wrote: "Almost no one actually realizes how well (supervised) FSD actually works."
"Going forward, it is mandatory in North America to install and activate FSD V12.3.1 and take customers on a short test ride before handing over the car," Musk's email states. "I know this will slow down the delivery process, but it is nonetheless a hard requirement."
But Bloomberg's report implies that Tesla buyers won't get to keep the FSD feature after their test unless they pay up. According to Tesla's website, Tesla only includes the company's autopilot feature by default, which consists of an automated cruise control to match traffic speeds and an "Autosteer" feature to keep the car in its lane. Enhanced Autopilot and FSD are extra add-on features that have to be purchased in addition to the vehicle's base package, with Self-Driving costing Tesla buyers an additional $12,000.
Last week, Musk said three "significant improvements" would be coming to Tesla's FSD feature every two weeks, and claims the feature will be "shining bright" between the end of April and May this year.
Tesla's FSD is much more comprehensive compared to its basic autopilot. FSD promises automatic steering on city streets, traffic light and stop sign detection and response, lane change assistance, automatic turn signals and highway exit assistance, automatic parking, and the ability to maneuver out of more cramped parking spaces, to name a few. Overall, FSD is a software that allows for "minimal driver intervention" while en route, according to Tesla.
But Tesla has faced some controversy over its autopilot and Full-Self Driving feature in the past. A fatal 2019 crash where a Tesla Model S had autopilot turned on could have been prevented if the feature hadn't been enabled, one of the deceased victims' lawyers argued at the time. In 2022, California legislators said Tesla needed to rename FSD because its name was misleading because it implied that drivers didn't have to monitor their vehicle's movements while on the road. That year, Tesla was also hit with a class-action lawsuit in the state that alleged Tesla deceived drivers by over-representing its autopilot and FSD features' abilities.
In late 2023, Tesla recalled millions of its cars over its autopilot feature. But after the company rolled out a fix, a number of Tesla drivers complained to US transportation authorities that the autopilot software update made it worse, claiming that it still posed a "safety hazard."