Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” Beta is now available for anyone in North America. CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday took to Twitter to announce that anyone who has bought this option can request it from the car screen. The Autopilot on Tesla vehicles performs automated driving functions like steering, accelerating, and automatic braking. FSD is an extension of Autopilot that brings Tesla cars very close to autonomous driving. It delivers functions like assisted steering on highways and city streets, smart vehicle summoning, automatic parking, and recognizing and reacting to traffic lights and stop signs. Currently, “Full Self-Driving” beta software is offered for an additional $15,000 fee when buying a Tesla car.
“Tesla Full Self-Driving Beta is now available to anyone in North America who requests it from the car screen, assuming you have bought this option. Congrats to Tesla Autopilot/AI team on achieving a major milestone!” Musk tweeted.
FSD rollout across the continent comes at a time when the auto-maker is facing a criminal lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice over false claims relating to the company’s advanced driver assistance system. Just in September, a Tesla owner sued the electric car maker, alleging that the company and its CEO are “deceptively and misleadingly” marketing the Autopilot and “Full Self-Driving” software.
Following a series of fatal Tesla crashes, the company’s self-driving system has come under regulatory scrutiny. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened special investigations into 36 Tesla crashes involving Autopilot since 2016. Between mid-may to September this year, 10 people using company vehicles with automated driving systems died in crashes in the US. NHTSA released the data highlighting such incidents linked to technology.
