During Tesla’s Q3 2022 earnings call, CEO Elon Musk reiterated the company is expecting to expand its Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta to wide release this year in North America, in the fourth quarter.
“So, this quarter, we expect to go to a wide release of full self-driving Beta in North America. So, anyone who has ordered a full self-driving Beta — full self-driving, will have access to the FSD Beta program this year, probably about a month from now. So — and then obviously, any new — anyone who buys a car and purchases a full self-driving option, will immediately have that available to them,” said Musk.
He also added, “the safety that we’re seeing when the car is in FSD mode is actually significantly greater than the safety we’re seeing when it is not, which is a key threshold for going to a wide beta.”
Musk said a separate matter is whether regulators will approve FSD beta or not, but it won’t get regulatory approval in Q4. He cited how FSD beta can take you from home to work without touching the wheel. “So, it’s looking very good,” said Musk.
Another question about FSD beta was posed, asking whether it would be comparable to Level 4 or Level 5 of self-driving.
Musk responded, “Well, there’s – this debate is like what’s the — what are the interventions per mile and maybe safety interventions per mile. Like we’re not saying that that’s quite ready to have no one behind the wheel. It’s just that you will almost never have to touch the control, vehicle controllers.”
According to Musk, he believes FSD beta will be able to drive without a person in the car by the end of this year and “without question in my mind by next year”, said the CEO. “I think we’ll also have an update next year to be able to show to regulators that the car is safer much so than the average human,” said Musk.
Tesla said at the end of Q3, it now has roughly 160,000 Tesla drivers with FSD beta in North America. Again, AI Day held earlier this year “resulted in a significant spike in applications for AI-related roles.”
