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Musk has long touted the driver assistant software, priced at
$12,000, as a potential profit generator for the company, but
has fallen short of his promise of full autonomy for years, amid
regulatory and legal scrutiny of Tesla's safety and marketing.
"All U.S. cars that are capable of FSD will be enabled for a
one-month trial this week," Musk said in a post on social media
platform X.
He has also told Tesla staff to give demonstrations of FSD to
new buyers and owners of serviced vehicles, according to two
emails verified by a source who sought anonymity.
"Almost no one actually realizes how well (supervised) FSD
actually works," Musk said in one of the two emails, sent to
Tesla employees.
Researcher Troy Teslike said the "FSD take rate" was declining
in North America, with about 14% of Tesla customers buying the
package in the third quarter of 2022, down from a record high of
53% in the third quarter of 2019.
Tesla's margins have been hurt by a price war with rivals that
started more than a year ago. It also warned in January of
"notably lower" delivery growth this year, as it focuses on
production of its next-generation EV.
"The combination of substantial price cuts on the vehicles and
dramatically lower FSD take rates has severely hurt Tesla’s
margins," said analyst Sam Abuelsamid at Guidehouse Insights.
"The mandate to demonstrate FSD as it is today, is just the
latest in a long-running series of end-of-quarter stunts by Musk
intended to boost deliveries and revenues."
The FSD software, which Tesla says does not make its vehicles
autonomous and requires active driver supervision, has also been
offered at a subscription of $199 a month.
(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco and Jyoti Narayan in
Bengaluru; Editing by Gerry Doyle and Clarence Fernandez)
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