Tesla’s ‘Full Self-Driving’ Beta Opens to 60,000 More Testers

Elon Musk announced in a recent tweet that Tesla will expand its highly scrutinized Full Autonomous Driving (FSD) beta program to include an additional 60,000 owners in the US and Canada.

The FSD Beta program is seen as a more advanced autonomous drive system than the existing “Full Self-Driving Capability” option.

After this expansion, there will be a total of 160,000 FSD beta testers in both countries. Musk also tweeted that the latest 10.69.2.2 FSD Beta “looks good.”

To date, Tesla owners in North America with a so-called “safety score” of 90 or higher have been given access to the Beta program, but Musk tweeted last week that the company will extend this to those with a score above 80.

It is not yet clear whether this has come into force.

How previously detailedTesla introduced a series of tests that evaluate driving behavior for seven days before giving access to the beta feature.

Testers are given a score out of 100 based on their driving behavior and the score is made up of a variety of criteria including forward collision warnings, hard braking, aggressive cornering, dangerous following and forced autopilot disengagement.

Before all of this, Tesla customers must purchase the FSD Capability option, which now costs US$15,000 ($22,337).

First EV launch launched the FSD Beta program in October 2020 and the number of people who have access is gradually increasing.

This “Full Self-Drive” feature promises completely hands-free driving, but preliminary footage of FSD’s early beta testers has shown that owners still need to stay alert and be ready to take control if necessary.

Australian customers don’t have access to the FSD beta yet, but they can. purchase the FSD Capability option.

This fully autonomous option provides semi-autonomous highway driving with lane change, automatic parking with a call function, and traffic light and stop sign recognition.

Tesla also recently introduced a new Improved autopilot option which provides all of the above features except traffic light and stop light recognition at a reduced cost.

Even if you don’t opt ​​for any of these optional packages, you still get adaptive cruise control with lane keeping autopilot.

All Tesla models are equipped with the company’s so-called “Full Self-Driving” computer, which will eventually provide hands-free driving if the owner pays for such an option.

Despite this, CNBC it was recently reported that Tesla has removed one of the two electronic control units used in Chinese-made steering racks Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, which will prevent the deployment of more complex autonomous air control technology.

The second power steering control unit is used primarily as a backup, and sources told CNBC that there were no safety concerns.

The removal will also reportedly not affect autopilot or full self-driving (FSD) performance.

However, the presence of the control unit in Tesla models is intended to support the eventual deployment of Level 3 autonomous driving technology.

If the control unit is missing, Tesla owners will reportedly have to upgrade it at a service center to receive this technology update. This may also be necessary if there is a more complex FSD update.

As reported last week, the owner is suing Tesla over false advertising of its autopilot, advanced autopilot and full self-driving systems.

MORE: Tesla Full-Self Driving beta is open to more testersMORE: A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Tesla’s Autopilot, which claims autonomous driving