Tesla will once again allow current owners to transfer Full Self-Driving to a new vehicle purchase, even though it previously said that this program would never return after it ended for the third time 11 days ago.
Tesla has been selling its FSD system for many years now, to the point where many early owners have been through multiple vehicles without the software actually being delivered in its full working state.
Those owners are able to use Tesla’s Supervised FSD system, but no Tesla owner has yet been able to use an actual full self-driving system that lets the car drive itself with no human intervention.
And so, there has been a constant drumbeat from many of those owners, wondering why they should have to purchase the same software again, when they get a new car, if the software was never delivered from the previous vehicle.
This is particularly tough given that the price of buying FSD now is higher than it was for many of those early owners – though it has gone back down in price recently.
And so, last year Tesla started allowing FSD transfers – but only for two months, and then it would happen never again.
It was seen at the time as a way to stoke demand, rather than an example of Tesla “doing the right thing” and letting owners retain eventual access to the software they paid for but were never delivered.
Then, after that period lapsed, Tesla eventually brought back the FSD transfer this year, allowing it for new orders until the end of Q1. And then, once again, that “one-time offer” was brought back. After which Tesla was asked whether FSD transfer could be made permanent, and the answer was a flat “No.”
Then, at Tesla’s last shareholder meeting, a questioner asked if we could have FSD transfer for “one more quarter,” rather than permanent. Musk responded after some hesitation, and said “okay, one more quarter.”
Tesla later said that this scheme would only last until August 31, rather than the actual end of the quarter, but then extended it until September 30th, which does match the end of Q3. So, the program ended 11 days ago.
But now the scheme is back, once again, after being cancelled for the last time three times already.
The specifics of the program are available over on Tesla’s website, and we’ve also seen reference to the program in the Tesla app. It technically began yesterday – meaning that if you got a car between October 1 and October 9, I guess you’re out of luck.
The scheme is supposed to remain active until December 31, the last day of the fiscal quarter and year. Just in case anybody wondered whether this is nothing but another ploy to boost end-of-quarter sales (just kidding, nobody wondered about that).
Electrek’s Take
I’ve written almost this exact same article before, and I’m going to say all the same things again, because nothing has changed.
As I’ve said before: we should not have to have this discussion every quarter.
Until FSD is able to follow through on its promise, transfers should be free for anyone who has bought the software.
Any other company that pre-sold software and then refused to deliver it would not be looked kindly upon, particularly if that software was thousands of dollars and many years late, and if customers were required to re-buy it for every piece of hardware they purchase to run it on.
Yes, people can use something that Tesla calls “FSD” right now, and the system is gradually getting better.
But it does not fully drive the car, doesn’t work without intervention, can’t be summoned across country, and can’t be used as a revenue-generating robotaxi. In fact, Tesla just announced a whole new robotaxi product, leaving some to think that past vehicles would never gain autonomous capability – but at that event, Musk reiterated that current Teslas would eventually gain “unsupervised” FSD capability. And that capability will come within about a year, as he’s been saying for roughly a decade now.
It’s time to stop stringing owners along. If the problem is difficult, and more difficult than you thought, that’s one thing. But making people buy additional licenses to software you already sold them and did not yet deliver is not acceptable.
The right thing would be to make transfers permanent until level 5 autonomy is delivered. Even “effective permanence” of continually-rolling offers like this are more about stoking demand. Tesla is acting like a rug store that is perpetually going out of business.
But if Tesla won’t do the right thing, maybe the law will finally force them to follow through on the promises they’ve made. There are currently several cases in court relating to Tesla’s FSD false advertising that could have sweeping effects on how Tesla sells this software and what rights its owners might have. Stay tuned for the results of those.
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