Musk Pushes 'Full Self-Driving' Software --- Tesla CEO has said drivers who enable pricey feature will get free one-month trial

"Tesla is stepping up promotion of the driver-assistance technology it calls "Full Self-Driving Capability," seeking to expand use of the controversial software feature as it confronts the prospect of lower sales growth this year.

Elon Musk, Tesla's chief executive, told employees this week that they are required to take customers on a test drive using the technology before they hand over the keys.

The system is an advanced version of the company's Autopilot technology, which is available on all new Teslas and is designed to help with driving tasks like steering and lane changes. Full Self-Driving, an upgrade available for $12,000 up front or $199 a month as a subscription service, includes features that can navigate cars through city streets.

"I know this will slow down the delivery process, but it is nonetheless a hard requirement," Musk said in an email to employees that was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

U.S. drivers whose vehicles are capable of running FSD will get a one-month free trial in the coming days, he added in a post on X late Monday.

Tesla's stock rose nearly 3% Tuesday. Shares have fallen more than 28% in 2024 as investors digested the idea that after years of breakneck growth, Tesla may not increase vehicle sales much, if at all, near-term. The stock has been the worst performer in the S&P 500 index this year.

Musk is pushing Tesla's driver-assistance technology at a time of intense regulatory and legal scrutiny of how the company develops and markets these systems. The federal auto-safety regulator has been investigating the company's Autopilot for years, leading Tesla to initiate a two-million-vehicle recall in December.

Additionally, the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission have launched separate probes examining whether Tesla misled customers and investors about how the technology performs.

Musk's latest move to promote its Full Self-Driving Capability comes as the automaker rolls out a revamped version that Musk has said relies more on artificial intelligence. The electric-car maker has said roughly 400,000 Tesla drivers in North America have downloaded the software underpinning the Full Self-Driving package.

Tesla has emphasized on its website and in users' manuals that the software doesn't allow for fully autonomous driving and requires active driver supervision.

The company didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Musk has long described autonomous driving as a linchpin to Tesla's lofty market valuation and a critical step in developing a future "robotaxi" model without a steering wheel or pedals. This model would allow owners to provide Uber-style rides to paying customers around the clock.

He has frequently talked up the development of Full Self-Driving over the past year as Tesla's profit margins started to narrow.

Late last year, Tesla recalled the software behind Autopilot, which is among the best-known driver-assistance systems on the market today, in response to an investigation by federal auto-safety regulators.

The recall covered nearly all Teslas sold in the U.S. at the time -- about two million vehicles in total -- and the automaker agreed to make changes after the regulators found that Tesla's safeguards around the technology were inadequate in certain cases, potentially leading drivers to misuse the system.

Tesla developed a software fix to further encourage drivers to remain engaged while using its automatic steering feature and provided it as an over-the-air update.

Tesla has rolled out new driver aids over time. Some of them come standard on new cars. Others, like the feature designed to help cars navigate cities, are sold as upgrades.

Tesla's efforts to revamp Full Self-Driving had made "quite a profound difference," Musk said in January, before the company had made the updated software widely available.

Musk later said in a post on X that additional improvements to the system would roll out about every two weeks and "should be really shining bright by late April or early May."

Meanwhile, Tesla is gearing up for an expected multiweek trial over a high-profile 2018 fatal crash involving Autopilot.

In March of that year, a Model X owner died after the sport-utility vehicle he was driving on Highway 101 in California collided with a barrier and was struck by two other vehicles.

Tesla said the vehicle had Autopilot activated in the moments leading up to the crash and that the hands of the driver, Walter Huang, weren't detected on the wheel for six seconds before the crash.

Huang's family later sued Tesla over the matter. A trial is expected to begin next month." [1]

1. Musk Pushes 'Full Self-Driving' Software --- Tesla CEO has said drivers who enable pricey feature will get free one-month trial . Felton, Ryan; Elliott, Rebecca.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 27 Mar 2024: B.4.