{"id":79926,"date":"2025-01-25T17:19:30","date_gmt":"2025-01-25T22:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=79926"},"modified":"2025-01-25T17:19:30","modified_gmt":"2025-01-25T22:19:30","slug":"tesla-refuses-to-do-the-right-thing-about-full-self-driving-transfers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=79926","title":{"rendered":"Tesla refuses to do the right thing about ‘Full Self-Driving’ transfers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\"Tesla<\/figure>\n

Tesla is refusing to do the right thing about \u2018Full Self-Driving\u2019 package transfers and instead holds its own incapacity to deliver the package over the head of its owners.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I just had a conversation with Tesla about doing the right thing about FSD transfer. I got an answer: a \u201ccategoric no\u201d.<\/p>\n

Tesla is literally using its own incapacity to deliver a feature it promised and sold to people, unsupervised self-driving, as a demand trigger to get people to order new cars.<\/p>\n

The Context<\/h2>\n

For those who are not aware, Tesla has been selling since 2016 something called \u201cFull Self-Driving package\u201d, FSD for short, that includes advanced driver assist features, and the automaker has been promising that it will eventually result in unsupervised self-driving capability through over-the-air software updates.<\/p>\n

At first, Tesla claimed that all cars produced since 2016 would be able to achieve that. However, Tesla quickly found out that it was wrong and introduced a new computer called HW3 in 2019 and retrofited vehicles with it.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Tesla introduced again a new computer, HW4, but the automaker claimed that it would just add more computing power to improve capacity in the future, and it was still confident that it could deliver on its self-driving promises with HW3 cars.<\/p>\n

In fact, Tesla CEO Elon Musk even claimed that software updates on HW4 cars would lag 6 months behind updates on HW3 cars as Tesla focuses on delivering on its self-driving promises on the older vehicles.<\/p>\n

That lasted less than a year. Since last year, Tesla has been focusing updates on HW4 as it is reaching the compute limits of HW3. As we previously reported, Tesla is now using both nodes on the HW3 computer <\/a>\u2013 meaning that it doesn\u2019t even have any compute redundancy, which is required for level 4-5 autonomy.<\/p>\n

Late last year, Tesla finally signaled that it might be reaching the limits of HW3<\/a> and said that it would provide computer retrofits if needed, but there\u2019s no retrofit in sight despite HW3 falling now months behind HW4 cars.<\/p>\n

With the questionable hardware situation and the even more questionable data pointing to Tesla being way behind schedule on its self-driving ambition, Tesla FSD owners are asking for a simple thing from the automaker, and it can\u2019t even do that.<\/p>\n

The Problem<\/h2>\n

With the situation looking dire for HW3, Tesla owners have been asking the automaker for years to link the FSD software package to the owner rather than the car \u2013 meaning that if you upgrade your car to a new Tesla, you can transfer your FSD software package, which you paid up to $15,000 for and Tesla never fully delivered, to the new car.<\/p>\n

Doesn\u2019t this sound fair? Tesla sold you a product they never delivered, and you are only giving them another shot on the newer hardware with a new car, which has a higher chance of success.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t cost Tesla anything since it\u2019s just a software package that it transfers to hardware that is standard on all cars.<\/p>\n

Yet, Tesla has refused to do the right thing here. Musk was asked several times by Tesla owners about doing that and refused. Instead, he devised a plan to use Tesla\u2019s own inability to deliver self-driving capability as a demand trigger.<\/p>\n

In the summer of 2023, Musk finally agreed to allow FSD transfers, but not because it was the right thing to do. Instead, he said it would be a \u201cone-time amnesty\u201d for a single quarter.<\/a> Tesla used this to boost sales in the quarter.<\/p>\n

Tesla ended up bringing back the incentive four more times when it needed to boost orders, making Musk a liar for saying it would only be for a quarter. By claiming it\u2019s only for this one time, Tesla is creating urgency in trying to get people to upgrade \u2013 instead of doing the right thing and offering everyone who bought FSD the ability to transfer until Tesla actually delivers on its promise.<\/p>\n

Currently, Tesla is not offering it because it doesn\u2019t need to. There are plenty of other factors boosting demand right now including the new Model Y, the fear of losing the tax credit in the US, and in Canada, Tesla just announced a price increase coming next month<\/a> \u2013 pushing people to take delivery this month.<\/p>\n

I reached out to Tesla about transferring my FSD on a new car this week, and I was told \u201cthe FSD transfer window is closed right now\u201d. After explaining all this above to the salesperson and highlighting that it\u2019s the right thing to do not to charge me $11,000 for a software package that I already bought and they never delivered, they agreed to run it up the chain.<\/p>\n

The next day, I was told that upper management responded: \u201ca categoric no.\u201d<\/p>\n

Electrek\u2019s Take<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s such a simple thing to do. It\u2019s not only the right thing to do, but it\u2019s also smart for Tesla as it reduces the obvious liability of having HW3 cars that paid for FSD.<\/p>\n

At this point, it\u2019s clear that Tesla will never be able to deliver on its promised unsupervised Full Self-Driving capabilities on HW3 cars. Should we really be surprised? Tesla was wrong before and had to upgrade cars from HW2.5 to HW3, which is now 6 years old.<\/p>\n

Tesla didn\u2019t know what hardware it needed to deliver self-driving then, and there\u2019s a good chance it doesn\u2019t know now. But even then, would anyone seriously believe that Tesla would deliver unsupervised self-driving capability on 6-year-old hardware? I think not.<\/p>\n

Therefore, every HW3 vehicle Tesla sold with a FSD package is a liability. It makes for them to remove the packages from those cars and move them to more recent vehicles with a higher chance of ever delivering on their promise \u2013 even though there\u2019s plenty of room for doubt with those cars too.<\/p>\n

Regardless, It\u2019s about doing the right thing for your customers instead of using your own inability to deliver a product you promised as a demand lever for more orders. It\u2019s worse than the tactics used by car dealerships that Tesla despises so much.<\/p>\n

As usual, I want to highlight that I think FSD is an incredible product, and if it was developed without Elon Musk claiming that it would achieve unsupervised self-driving by the end of every year for the last 5 years and Tesla selling the product to customers before it is ready, I think it would be much more celebrated.<\/p>\n

But instead, Tesla and Musk are doing those things, and many people see it as a fraudulent and dangerous product. It doesn\u2019t help when the CEO grossly misrepresents data about the program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.<\/em> More.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tesla is refusing to do the right thing about \u2018Full Self-Driving\u2019 package transfers and instead holds its own incapacity to deliver the package over the head of its owners. I just had a conversation with Tesla about doing the right thing about FSD transfer. I got an answer: a \u201ccategoric no\u201d. Tesla is literally using […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-cars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}