Electric vehicle giant Tesla has intensified its push to promote the Full Self-Driving (FSD) suite, such as offering a free month of trial. Despite this, only 2% of trial users ended up buying the driver assistance tech.
Tesla’s FSD promotion efforts seem ineffective
Tesla recently announced discounts in addition to a month of free trial for its Full Self-Driving (FSD) suite to further expand its user base. However, these efforts seem to have failed to deliver the expected impact.
Only 2% or about 50 of the nearly 3,500 FSD trial users converted to a paid subscription or outright purchase, InsideEVs reports, citing YipitData and Moomoo Technologies’ figures.
Tesla’s FSD suite is still classified as an SAE Level 2 driving system despite its “Full Self-Driving” moniker. This limitation might be one of the primary factors that discouraged most Tesla owners from buying the $8,000 driver assistance technology or subscribing to the $99/month fee.
“According to Yipit Data’s latest figures, nearly 3,500 Tesla owners trialed the company’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) service over the past month. However, only about 50 of these trials converted into FSD subscriptions or purchases, translating to a conversion rate of just under 2% as of May 5th. The data reveals a cautious approach among Tesla drivers towards paying for subscriptions to its autonomous driving technology.”
Moomoo Technologies report
FSD rollout
Tesla’s electric vehicle lineup undoubtedly consists of some of the world’s most popular EVs.
However, it has lagged when it comes to the Full Self-Driving rollout. The software has also received doubts about its functionality and safety in real-world driving.
After several years of beta testing, the Musk-led company finally eliminated the “beta” moniker. Tesla now uses “Supervised” to refer to the FSD suite.
In the latest 12.3 version, the FSD suite offers a wide range of driver assist features. However, it still cannot allow a Tesla car to drive without an attentive driver.
Tesla faces more challenges in its self-driving efforts
Tesla is currently facing regulatory investigation over its Autopilot system, which offers advanced adaptive cruise control features.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants the Musk-led company to disclose how it devised the remedy in a safety recall of 2 million+ electric vehicles equipped with the Autopilot software.
In addition, it aims to learn how Tesla ascertained whether its safety recall remedy worked.
As per the recall filing, the software system controls “may not be sufficient to prevent driver misuse” of the Autosteer feature, increasing the risk of a crash.
The new probe comes as the US regulator received 20 post-remedy crashes. On Tuesday, The NHTSA released a new request letter to Tesla demanding extensive information about Autopilot/FSD.
CEO Elon Musk countered the Low FSD subscription report, saying that he “don’t comment on everything, as sometimes I don’t see it and commenting on everything makes it easy to fish for information.” He even noted that the adoption rate is way higher than 2%.
