Elon Musk wants only good drivers in Tesla's full autonomous driving beta

Elon Musk wants only good drivers in Tesla's full autonomous driving beta

Elon Musk is apparently fed up with San Francisco engineers sleeping in the backseat of his Autopilot-enabled Tesla. He really wants good, responsible drivers to test the automaker's fully automated (FSD) beta version.

This is according to a tweet from Musk himself, as reported by Inside EVs. In it, Musk responded to a Twitter inquiry asking the electric car and rocket giant when he could join the FSD beta. Musk replied that current drivers will need to activate Tesla's insurance calculator for seven days. If approved, Tesla will allow drivers to participate in the FSD beta.

To allow Tesla to monitor their telemetry data, users need only press the beta button available from version 10.1 and then drive safely for 7 days.

Unfortunately, FSD is not automatically available to all Tesla owners. There are some cost and hardware requirements.

Owners must own a car with Hardware 3, Tesla's newest computer, and pay either $10,000 or $199 per month to activate the feature. If the car is not equipped with Hardware 3, the owner can pay $1,500 to upgrade the computing system in the car.

There is a reason Tesla wants good drivers behind the wheel during the FSD beta. There are already videos circulating on the Internet that show the FSD not working properly, and the driver may swerve too quickly and hit a pedestrian. Fortunately, in the following video, the driver was able to quickly change and adjust.

At the very least, Tesla engineers are making rapid improvements to the software. Musk tweeted that the version 10.0.1 FSD beta update is rolling out.

The criteria for what makes a good driver was not elaborated. But presumably they would include obeying the speed limit, following road signs, and driving defensively. Of course, as the beta progresses, videos of major mishaps will be found online instantly.

There is no date or prediction yet as to when the FSD beta will end. However, given its complexity and potential regulatory concerns, it is likely to be several years away.

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