This month, a research firm released some subscription figures from a set of Tesla owners. When it comes to Full Self-Driving (FSD) adoption, the numbers are looking grim.

Earlier this year, Tesla started offering its new car buyers a free month of FSD 12.3 software. The software includes Autosteer on city streets and Traffic Light and Stop Sign Control. Anyone who keeps an FSD subscription after the trial benefits from continual upgrading.

In the data set, close to 3,500 free FSD trials resulted in only about 50 buy-ins. That’s a 2% conversion rate. Moreover, this is after the base price of the FSD package was lowered from $12K to $8,000. Additionally, the monthly subscription fee was moved from $200 to $99 per month.

Should we be engaging with semi-functional FSD tech?

After all, the program has been shown to have some kinks while in action, despite Elon Musk’s insistence that “almost no one realizes how well (supervised) FSD works.” What’s more, FSD still comes with a huge asterisk. According to one driver’s options screen, which they posted on Reddit:

“The currently enabled features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous. The activation and use of these features are dependent on achieving reliability far in excess of human drivers as demonstrated by billions of miles of experience, as well as regulatory approval, which may take longer in some jurisdictions.”

The NHTSA has already reopened a 2023 investigation on Tesla’s Autopilot. The concerns stemmed from many records of preventable crashes in which Autopilot was engaged. In many instances, drivers were inattentive.

Now, there are doubts about Tesla’s recall methodology. To ensure the driver is paying closer attention, the remedy requires owners to manually choose to update their software. The update is also reversible.

Otherwise, the 3,500 Tesla FSD trial subscriptions are a small number compared to the company’s 1.8 million total drivers. Some Tesla owners have been requesting access to FSD 12.3, which has not been released to all models.

Time will tell, first, how well FSD will work for users in 2024 and beyond and, second, how many folks will feel comfortable paying for it.

In my opinion, we shouldn’t be focusing on handing millions of individual drivers semi-functioning self-driving technology that requires attentive humans. Beta-testing this tech on actual roads with real people will only increase traffic fatalities in the name of a private car company’s interests, no?

Source: Moomoo Technologies Inc.