Elon Musk got many Tesla owners excited earlier this month by inviting anyone interested to try and join the Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta program. The only problem was he didn’t specify how to do that.
We later learned to email the Early Access Program with some specific information, and then sit back and wait to hear if you won the Tesla lottery.
Due to an overwhelming number of requests, Musk said on March 6th a “FSD beta button” would begin appearing in vehicles within about 10 days.
That deadline passed without a sign of the button appearing. In a tweet last night, Musk said that due to limited value in testing the 8.x versions of the FSD beta software, the release of the button has been delayed until at least April when he hopes to release version 9.0.
Given significant architectural changes, including fundamental improvements to pure vision, there is limited value to testing 8.x. Hoping to upload V9.0 & button next month.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 20, 2021
While the news is disappointing, it is critically important for Tesla to only release the self-driving software to the masses when they are confident in its abilities.
Given Musk’s history with accuracy for timelines of FSD beta releases (we’re still waiting here in Canada after he said “very soon” in December), it wouldn’t be surprising if the delay is even longer.
