Tesla Inc TSLA Director Elon Musk on Friday called on his X followers and fellow Tesla drivers to drive the guided version of the company’s Full Self-driving software.
What happened: “Try Tesla full self-driving under supervision and you will be amazed!” Musk wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Full Self-driving or FSD refers to Tesla’s driver assistance software that the company believes will eventually make autonomous driving possible. It currently requires active driver supervision, but is expected to “really shine brightly” in late April or May, Musk explained in March.
During Tesla’s first-quarter earnings call earlier this week, the CEO reiterated his optimism, saying, “Even if I were abducted by aliens tomorrow, Tesla will solve the autonomy problem, maybe a little slower, but at least it would solve the autonomy for vehicles.”
“If someone doesn’t believe Tesla is going to solve autonomy, I don’t think he or she should be an investor in the company,” he added.
Earlier this month, Tesla announced that its cars have driven one billion kilometers with FSD software, a significant increase from the end of 2023, when the number of FSD-powered kilometers was less than 800 million.
“It won’t be long before Tesla exceeds 10 billion miles FSD,” Musk had noted at the time.
Why it matters: Tesla is currently actively trying to increase the take rate for its software. In late March, Tesla began rolling out a 30-day free trial of its FSD to all US customers who had not purchased it. Musk also reportedly instructed staff to offer new car buyers a short drive, demonstrating the capabilities of Tesla’s driver assistance features in real time.
Additionally, Tesla dropped the price of its full self-driving (FSD) driver assistance software from $12,000 to $8,000, marking a price reduction of about 33% over the past weekend.
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