Have trouble obtaining Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta, despite a high Safety Score? You may not be alone, as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has also been dealing with some issues in the past well.
In a letter dated January 27, 2022 (via @WholeMarsBlog), Gregory Magno, Supervisory Safety Defects Engineer for the NHTSA, writes to Tesla about how the government agency can download FSD beta.
The letter writes, “Tesla team, As you know, NHTSA owns a Tesla vehicle with the FSD option. The VIN is 5YJSA1E21GF__ vehicle is running firmware version 2021.44.30.8. With over 700 miles of driving this year and a Safety Score of 99 (including a score of 100 for the most recent 107 miles on Jan 21), we have not received the [over the air] update to fully enable FSD in our vehicle.”
🤣 ok we’ll turn it on
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 16, 2022
“We request some of your time and expertise to assess our situation and help us understand what additional steps we might need to take. Copied here are Garrick Forkenbrock (our VRTC engineer responsible for this work) and Andrew DiMarsico (from our General Law division). Thanks,” writes Magno.
After the letter was shared, Tesla CEO Elon Musk replied, “ok we’ll turn it on” with a laughing emoji.
Tesla limits the download of FSD beta by having only the safest drivers access the software, based on their driving habits behind the wheel. Tesla vehicles will generate a “Safety Score” and only those owners that achieve a high score get access to FSD beta.
It’s unclear if the NHTSA is still struggling to download FSD beta for their own testing. The NHTSA earlier this month launched a probe into a Tesla vehicle crash that killed two motorcyclists and in the past has also shared concerns about FSD.
Last week, Ralph Nader urged the NHTSA to remove the FSD feature from Tesla vehicles, claiming the feature is “one of the most dangerous and irresponsible actions by a car company in decades.”
Later this week, Tesla is set to release its next version of FSD beta, build 10.69, according to Musk.
