Elon Musk revealed that messing around while using Tesla’s FSD Beta has its consequences. The CEO said that Tesla removed owners that they believed were not paying the appropriate amount of attention to the road. The CEO also said that Tesla has expanded the beta to a total of about 2000 Tesla owners.
Musk announced earlier this month that Tesla was doubling the size of its Full Self-Driving beta program. Tesla pushed its Full Self-Driving beta to a group of “Early Access” owners last October. These owners are a part of a program that test early versions of Tesla’s new features before they are released to the entire fleet.
The push was a huge step towards true autonomous driving, at least the biggest we’ve seen from Tesla. It was also a huge step towards Musk’s ultimate goal of delivering “full self-driving” through over-the-air software updates, which he recently said he hopes to achieve this year.
As we have heard many times before, the new update does not result in true autonomous drive as drivers are told to remain focused on the road and the vehicle, and be prepared to take over at any time. While Tesla drivers are required to stay attentive at all times, it’s technology is leaps and bounds ahead of Tesla’s Autopilot highway driving, as it allows Tesla’s driver-assist system to navigate through city streets and intersections.
Using Tesla’s FSD betta, owners can input a destination into their vehicle, and it will attempt to drive them there autonomously, so long as the driver remains with their hands on the steering wheel.
The company initially reported, between Tesla employees and other lucky owners, around 1,000 people were participating in the beta program.
However, CEO Elon Musk confirmed via Twitter that that number has double as the program has been expanded to about 2,000 owners. The CEO also revealed that some irresponsible “Early Access” owners had their privileges revoked:
We’re assuming the EV giant determined who’s access would be revoked by reviewing footage of the driver facing camera, as they are able to see the drivers attentiveness. The fact that owners paid for the feature, however, could get a little sticky when it comes to trying to revoke access. Another fight for another day I suppose.
Musk was full of announcements this past week as he also reveled that his company will widen its beta release to more people via a new “download beta” button in the vehicle’s user interface. According to Musk, vehicles of owners who have purchased the Full Self-Driving package and have the Build 8.3 update, will download the latest QA-tested FSD Beta build as soon as the car connects to a WiFi network.
The button is expected to be added to Tesla vehicle interfaces later this month.