Elon Musk Says Tesla's FSD Beta Begins Rollout To 1,000+ Customers Friday At Midnight

Tesla Inc TSLA is working towards fully autonomous cars. The company says every car it sells today comes with the hardware necessary for full self-driving; the software just needs to catch up to the task.

Tesla has rolled its FSDBeta program out to a small set of testers who have shown the car can make impressive moves, like dodging a deer on dirt roads.

Now, CEO Elon Musk says the beta program will be rolling out to 1,000 new testers, increasing the total testers by about 50%, Friday at midnight. The first people to receive the update will have to have a Tesla Safety Score Beta of 100 out of 100, showing the driver was able to please Tesla's insurance algorithms.

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Although FSD Beta has been controversial, there have been zero reported accidents in the approximately one year of public testing. While the car can perform right and left turns, stop at traffic lights, and handle roundabouts (unlike GM's Ultra Cruise coming in 2023), it seems the cars are capable enough, with a safe person in the driver's seat, to avoid getting into an accident.

To receive the update, owners will need to be connected to wifi and accept the download and then it will be installed automatically. It's unclear if the beta will come with an NDA, or if these 1,000 new participants will be able to freely share their experiences without approval from Tesla.

Photo: courtesy of Tesla