Tesla now offers early software updates to Full Self-Driving buyers, report says
The move to bump FSD buyers to the head of the update queue is being seen as an attempt to placate angry early adopters.
Tesla has been offering an option called Full Self-Driving option on its cars for years now, despite the FSD technology not being ready for public consumption. This has made more than a few folks who shelled out the greenbacks on the expensive option a little salty, but now they are getting a perk to hold them over.
The perk, according to an Ars Technica article Wednesday, is early access to software updates, but it only applies to people who paid for Full Self-Driving before March 1 of this year. This move came after Tesla released a blog post offering Tesla owners the chance to add this feature at a reduced cost -- less than the price people paid to option it when ordering their vehicles -- and then took it down.
Tesla has had an early access program for select drivers for a while now. It's been used as a testing platform by Tesla's software engineers to help iron out bugs. The new early update program will reportedly be separate from the early access program so that the updates going out to these customers will be slightly less bug-prone.
That isn't to say that the updates being sent to the members of this new program will be fully developed and bug-free though. Part of the delay between members of the early access program getting an update and it going out to the general public comes from the need to fix bugs. That means this new opt-in for FSD adopters is a double-edged sword.
It's unclear yet if this latest effort to manage people's expectations after they paid thousands of dollars for technology that isn't yet available will be successful, or whether it will cause further backlash from customers.
Tesla didn't immediately respond to Roadshow's request for comment.
