Tesla Rolls Out New Full Self-Driving Beta, Sends Invites To Owners

(RTTNews) - Luxury electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc. (TSLA) is ready to test the newest beta version of its advanced but controversial autonomous driving software, Full Self-Driving (FSD). The company has sent out invites to try the FSD Bet 10.2 to eligible customers on Monday. The new version is focusing on "autosteer on city streets," technology in which, the vehicle will be able to maneuver in the crowded streets without the driver needing to steer. But even the introduction of the new technology will not make Tesla vehicles drive without the assistance of the driver in any case. The CEO of the company, Elon Musk tweeted, "FSD Beta 10.2 rolls out Friday midnight to ~1000 owners with perfect 100/100 safety scores. Rollouts will hold for several days after that to see how it goes. If that looks good, beta will gradually begin rolling out to 99 scores & below." In the invitation, Tesla made it very clear that the FSD is not autonomous driving but driver-assisted driving. "Full Self-Driving is in limited early access Beta and must be used with additional caution. It may do the wrong thing and at the worst time, so you must always keep your hands on the wheel and pay extra attention to the road," said the letter. To be eligible for the program, the drivers must have a Tesla with newer hardware and will have to subscribe to the FSD premium package. The package costs as $10,000 upfront or $199 per month. Currently, Tesla will use its insurance calculator to give each driver a "safety score" and those who have a perfect score of 100 will be allowed to join the review as of now. But as Musk promised, those who have scores of 99 or below will also be included but later. Tesla has faced a lot of criticism for its FSD technology after it got involved in 11 crashes and one death due to the system not being able to recognize marking cones or first responder vehicles in low-light scenarios. It is currently under investigation by The National Transportation Safety Board and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for the accidents. After hoards of videos of FSD failing to complete simple tasks flooded the internet, Elon Musk and his company went as far as to make the buyers sign non-disclosure agreements to not share video footage related to the failure of the software.