Each of us has missed out on a great opportunity at one time or another. Finding out a day too late about a great deal at your favorite deli is one thing. Finding out that Elon Musk and Tesla offered a wonderful opportunity to try out a highly sought after feature hurts.

A missed opportunity

The thing that has made Tesla so famous is the famous Full Self-Driving Capability. It’s the feature that everyone constantly talks about Elon Musk recently took to Twitter to announce that his company had decided to provide Tesla drivers with an opportunity to test out the special feature, free, for three months. It was a great opportunity. The only problem was that it wasn’t available for long. Your chance to take advantage of the offer ended on December 31, 2020.

Isn’t the Full Self-Driving Capability feature the same as Tesla’s Enhanced Autopilot?

It’s important to note that the Full Self-Driving Capability feature is not just a fancy name for Tesla’s Autopilot abilities, though the two features currently bear a striking resemblance to one another. Many Tesla vehicles already come equipped with Enhanced Autopilot which helps drivers with a variety of things including Lane Assist, Collision Avoidance Assist, Traffic-Aware Cruise Control, and Auto High Beam.

The Full Self-Driving Capability feature adds auto lane changes and auto parking. One of the coolest things the Full Self-Driving Capability feature adds to the vehicle is the Summon feature. According to AutoPilot Review, the smart Summon feature provides the vehicle with the tools needed to safely navigate tight parking spaces and bring the car to you without you being in the car.

Does Full Self-Driving Capability mean you can just sit back and enjoy the ride?

The name of the feature implies that cars equipped with the Full Self-Driving Capability will handle your morning commute without you. At this point, that won’t happen. The new feature will not be able to completely automate your vehicle. The feature will step in when you want it to assist with lane changes, stopping completely at stop signs and lights, and working into tricky parking spaces. 

While the current version doesn’t fully automate Tesla vehicles, the company feels that once they feel the timing is right, they can send an over-the-air update to all vehicles that are equipped with the Full Self-Driving Capability feature that will provide the information needed for the vehicle to start driving itself.

While Tesla is excited about the future of the Full Self-Driving Capability feature, not everyone is as optimistic.

“Despite the name, the Full Self-Driving Capability suite requires significant driver attention to ensure that these developing-technology features don’t introduce new safety risks to the driver, or other vehicles out on the road,” says Jake Fisher, senior director of auto testing at Consumer Reports. “Not only that, in our evaluations we determined that several of the features don’t provide much in the way of real benefits to customers, despite the extremely high purchase price.” 

One of the reasons Elon Musk and Tesla decided to provide interested drivers with an opportunity to enjoy the Full Self-Driving Capability system for free for three-months is because the program is still very much in the beta testing stage of development. The hope is that the more drivers who use the feature in real driving situations will provide the company with the data they need to tweak the program until they feel that the system is ready to be fully automated.

According to MotorTrend the cost of the Full Self-Driving Capability system is approximately $10,000.

If you missed out on this interesting opportunity, don’t feel bad. Considering that the announcement was made on December 29, it’s likely the world is full of people who wish they’d had a chance to gain first-hand experience of the Full Self-Driving Capability feature, so you’re not alone!