Musk is trying to drum up some sales, and is pushing FSD hard to get customers signing up for it
In an effort to get more drivers interested in its advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), Tesla will offer all U.S. owners (whose vehicles are capable of running it) a free one-month trial of FSD, its CEO, Elon Musk said on X.
The announcement comes as Tesla is involved in a price war with it competitors in the electric vehicle segment. The software, which normally costs $12,000, also recently received a significant update.
The automaker recently started rolling out FSD version 12.3.1, which CEO Elon Musk says features “mind blowing” updates. The technology now takes advantage of “end-to-end neural nets,” reports Electrek. That allows it to make decisions based on Tesla’s bank of driving data, rather than requiring programmers to code logic.
As a result, of the update, Telsa is trying to entice new customers to buy the technology. According to a reportedly leaked email from Musk, the company will now also require that its employees install FSD on every vehicle it sells, and that they demonstrate the technology to every new customer in North America.
Read: Elon Musk Allegedly Mandates FSD Installation And Demo At New Tesla Deliveries
In the email, Musk wrote that “almost no one actually realizes how well (supervised) FSD actually works.” And that’s a problem for the automaker. Reuters reports that the take rate for the expensive technology had fallen to 14 percent in the third quarter of 2022. That was down from a rate of 53 percent in the third quarter of 2019.
Getting more customers to buy FSD may be important for the brand, which has lowered the price of its vehicles several times in recent months. Tesla is facing more challenging market conditions in several international markets, and has sacrificed its profits to keep sales up.
“The combination of substantial price cuts on the vehicles and dramatically lower FSD take rates has severely hurt Tesla’s margins,” Sam Abuelsamid, an analyst at Guidehouse Insights, told Reuters. “The mandate to demonstrate FSD as it is today, is just the latest in a long-running series of end-of-quarter stunts by Musk intended to boost deliveries and revenues.”
All US cars that are capable of FSD will be enabled for a one month trial this week
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 26, 2024
