Elon Musk announced earlier this week a one time opportunity for Tesla owners to transfer their Full Self-Driving (FSD) Capability when upgrading to a new Tesla. The announcement was made during the company’s Q2 2023 earnings call, and naturally left out a lot of the details, probably because they were still being finalized.
Now that the dust has settled, Tesla has released the terms and conditions of the FSD transfer program. You can check out the full terms and conditions here, but after receiving quite a few questions from our readers we thought it would be helpful to go over some of the details as they may make you think twice before pulling the trigger on a new Tesla.
The first is that you must take delivery before September 30, 2023. This is despite Musk’s comments during the announcement that the transfer would be allowed if delivery took place before the end of Q3, or “within a reasonable delivery timeframe.” Based on the wording of the contract, if you take delivery on October 1, 2023, you will be out of luck and stuck with a C$19,500/US$15,000 add on. This seems quite restrictive because delivery timelines are not in the customer’s control, so be sure to check on delivery estimates on the configurator before placing your order, or to avoid this altogether buy a car from existing inventory (there are some great Model 3/Y discounts available right now).
2. Take delivery of your new titled Tesla vehicle between July 20, 2023 and September 30, 2023.
That timeline becomes important when you consider the next point. The good news is that a trade-in is not required, but be aware that if you do trade-in your old car directly to Tesla, they will remove FSD up to a week before delivery. The terms go on to say that even if you cancel your order after FSD has been removed from your existing vehicle, you will not be able to get it back.
6. The forfeiture of Full Self Driving capability on your current vehicle is non-reversible after you take delivery of the new Tesla vehicle, or we remove Full Self-Driving capability from your current vehicle, whichever occurs first. This remains non-reversible even in the event that you cancel or reverse your purchase after you have taken delivery.
Another point that should be considered is that it appears as though in the future when you sell your Tesla that had FSD transferred on to it, the new owner will not get FSD. Here are the exact words from the contract.
4. The Full Self Driving capability can only be transferred once and so cannot be transferred to another vehicle or to another person even if the vehicle is privately sold. This offer cannot be combined with any other promotion, and is not redeemable for cash. (emphasis added)
The wording of this term has caused some confusion, and definitely needs to be clarified by Tesla. Some people are not interpreting it as we have here, mainly because it makes it out to be very restrictive in that you lose the resale value of FSD in the future, whatever that may be.
One final point is for those who first purchased Enhanced Autopilot (EAP), and then later upgraded to Full Self-Driving (FSD). Unfortunately you may not be able to take advantage of this offer as we have heard from a couple of our readers who have been told this by their Tesla Advisor. This may not actually be the case however and could simply be confusion on the part of the Advisor, as a clause in the contract that states the vehicle must have had FSD “at the time of delivery of the new Tesla vehicle.” The key words there are “of the new Tesla vehicle,” referring to the one that FSD will be transferred to, and not the original car when it was first delivered.
1. Be the legal and registered owner of Tesla vehicle that currently has Full Self Driving capability included at the time of delivery of the new Tesla vehicle.
After hearing all of this, will you still be ordering a new Tesla to transfer FSD? Let us know in the comments below, and also if there is something else we should be including in this article.
