Tesla CEO Elon Musk claims ‘Full Self-Driving’ due this year, again – without ‘beta’ tag

Tesla CEO Elon Musk claims the electric-car giant's most expensive semi-autonomous driving system – marketed as ‘Full Self-Driving’ – will become more broadly available to the public in the US later this year, despite ongoing investigations into Tesla technology amid a number of deadly crashes and near-misses.

Since September 2021, Tesla’s controversial Full Self-Driving (FSD) system has been available as a ‘beta’ service, allowing the electric-car maker to gather real-time data from more than 160,000 users on public roads in the US to help improve its calibration. 

While the ‘standard’ Full Self-Driving system is limited to highway use, the beta service can also be activated on city streets, with Tesla claiming it accelerate, stop, steer and park the car without human intervention – though the driver is still required to be attentive and maintain control to respond to unforeseen dangers, or a failure of the technology.

In a reply to Whole Mars Catalog on social media platform Twitter, Elon Musk claimed the next major update to the Full Self-Driving system – known as Version 12 – “won’t be beta”.

It is unclear what other changes are planned with Version 12 of the software, however the removal of the 'beta' tag suggests Tesla is preparing firmware that is closer to complete and more reliable.

Mr Musk's latest claims come as Tesla's Full Self-Driving system remains under a regulatory cloud in the US, with road safety regulators yet to approve the system to be used without human input – a capability some believe is implied by its name.

While Tesla's semi-autonomous driving technology includes warnings and issues penalties to drivers who are found to be inattentive behind the wheel – or simply not in control at all – the electric-car giant's systems have recently been subject to a criminal probe by the US Department of Justice (DoJ).

In October 2022, the DoJ launched an investigation into Tesla's driver assistance technology, believing drivers have placed an over-reliance on the systems due to their names exaggerating their true capabilities and ignoring their limitations.

Following an initially limited trial of Full Self-Driving beta, the technology became publicly available – without approval from road safety regulators – to US owners of certain Tesla cars in November 2022, though it was later recalled in February 2023 due to a fault which could cause the system to malfunction in certain situations, and its roll-out to new users who had just purchased the software was paused.

The system was re-released and made available to all US drivers who had bought the software again in May 2023.

Its public release came amidst multiple investigations into Tesla’s semi-autonomous driving systems by road safety regulators in the US, after the company’s systems featured disproportionately in crash data.

Since June 2021, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has required car-makers in the US to report any crashes involving their advanced driver assistance system-equipped vehicles in June 2021. 

Between July 2021 and April 2023, NHTSA data shows there have been 916 crashes – involving 12 different car brands – which involved vehicles equipped with advanced driver-assistance systems. 

In that sample, 754 – or 82 per cent – incidents were attributed to Tesla vehicles.

As previously reported, at least 17 fatal crashes (including the six mentioned above) involving Tesla’s semi-autonomous driving tech in the US have been reported to the peak road safety authority since 2019.

For context, the NHTSA investigation also covers Tesla’s less-capable ‘Autopilot’ and ‘Enhanced Autopilot’ advanced driver assistance systems, which are more widely used than Full Self-Driving.

In the US, Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system (and access to the beta service) is available to purchase for $US15,000 ($AU22,600) – or almost half the price of a Tesla Model 3 once federal government rebates are included ($US32,740/$AU49,300).

Earlier this month, reports claimed Full Self-Driving is currently being tested on Australian roads, though it is unclear how far away a full-scale roll-out is for customers who have already paid up to $AU10,100 for the technology.