The controversial Tesla Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta has reportedly been made available outside of North America for the first time, with vehicles in Australia, Germany and Belgium getting the latest software update.
Teslascope, a platform that tracks Tesla software updates, says it has detected two Model 3 vehicles in Australia that have the latest 2023.12.10 software with the FSD Beta version 11.3.6.
At the time of publishing there are a total of 142 Tesla vehicles globally that are on this latest software.
It’s unclear the Tesla vehicles with the latest FSD Beta outside of North America are for exactly, but it could be for internal testing before rolling it out to owners.
Model Y
The Tesla FSD Beta first launched to select US owners in October 2020 and the company has been slowly granting access to more owners.
This feature allows Tesla vehicles to be able to drive autonomously in most driving scenarios. It requires “active driver supervision and do[es] not make the vehicle autonomous” though, according to the Tesla website.
Tesla previously introduced a series of tests that assessed driving behaviour over seven days before granting access to the Beta feature. It’s now available to any US Tesla vehicle owners who have purchased the FSD Capability option which costs US$15,000 (~A$23,000) or a US$200 (~A$300) per month subscription.
Model 3
This FSD Capability option pack is available to Australian Tesla owners, and costs $10,100 here, but doesn’t include the ability to activate the FSD Beta just yet. Seeing there are potentially test vehicles here, this could change soon.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said back in 2019 that by the middle of 2020 the company would “have over a million Tesla cars on the road with full self-driving hardware” that would be so reliable the driver “could go to sleep”.
As recently as this February, however, Tesla had to roll out an over-the-air update as its FSD Beta “could potentially infringe upon local traffic laws or customs while executing certain driving manoeuvres”.
MORE: Tesla recalls over 360,000 cars for ‘Full Self-Driving’ breaking road rules
Keyword: Tesla takes first step towards Full Self-Driving Beta in Australia