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Facing a crisis due to the rapid rise of Chinese electric vehicles, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has unlocked his trump card: the Full Self-Driving (FSD) feature.
On the 26th (local time), he announced on his X account, “American customers will be able to use autonomous driving software for free for a month.”
The autonomous driving feature, or “Full Self-Driving,” can be used by paying a prepaid fee of $12,000 or a monthly fee of $199.
However, it has been made available for free for a month.
This move seems to be an attempt to compensate for the recent slowdown in the United States’s demand for electric vehicles.
On the day of the announcement, Tesla’s stock price surged by nearly 3%.
However, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has pointed out that FSD has many issues, such as causing accidents.
Even Musk admits, “Very few people know how well FSD works,” indicating that the technology remains unproven.
Expectations for FSD have been significantly lowered. Musk ambitiously pushed Tesla’s FSD project with the promise of changing the industry landscape.
While it garnered anticipation as a potential revenue source for the company, sales of FSD plummeted as authorities began investigating safety issues related to Tesla vehicles.
According to industry sources, as of the third quarter of 2022, only 14% of Tesla customers purchased the FSD package, a significant decrease from 53% three years ago in 2019.
Experts agree that Musk’s move appears to be an attempt to emphasize that Tesla is not just an electric car company but also an AI company. However, they warn that if FSD’s performance falls short of consumers’ expectations, it could backfire on Tesla.