Earlier this week Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company would be expanding the Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta program in the coming weeks to as much as 10X its current size. He added that owners interested in joining should let him know.
Chaos ensued as owners were unsure exactly how to do that. We later learned the appropriate way to apply was to email the Early Access program.
For some lucky owners that has worked as Musk announced on Twitter this afternoon there are now about 2,000 beta testers. In a sign that the automaker is taking the testing program very seriously, some owners were also removed for not paying sufficient attention while testing.
Musk also revealed there have been zero accidents during the five months FSD beta has been in use, a remarkable achievement for the automaker.
FSD Beta has now been expanded to ~2000 owners & we’ve also revoked beta where drivers did not pay sufficient attention to the road. No accidents to date.
Next significant release will be in April. Going with pure vision — not even using radar. This is the way to real-world AI.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 12, 2021
In addition to the new testers, Musk also teased the next big update to the FSD software next month. He has previously referred to this as FSD beta v9.0, saying now that it will work entirely on vision and will not use the built-in radar which can see about 500ft ahead of the vehicle.
Based on reports from owners online, it appears a number of the new testers are from California. Canadians are still waiting for their chance to experience FSD, which should arrive north of the border “very soon” according to Musk.
