Tesla seems to be progressing in its efforts to gain other automakers’ confidence in its Full Self-Driving (FSD). According to Tesla Chief Elon Musk, the electric vehicle giant is now in talks with a “major automaker” about licensing the driver assistance software.
Tesla’s FSD licensing goal
CEO Elon Musk has been aiming to share its FSD suite with other industry players as he believes it can become a new revenue stream for Tesla.
In 2021, the Tesla boss disclosed that he had talked with other automotive companies about licensing the FSD. However, the negotiations did not go through.
Two years later, CEO Musk reiterated their ambition to license both the FSD and Autopilot advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) to its competitors.
However, the American billionaire conceded that “automakers don’t believe Tesla Full Self-Driving is real” during the Q4 2023 Earnings Call earlier this year.
Plan progress
In a significant development, Tesla CEO Musk announced an update about the FSD licensing push during the Q1 2024 Earnings Call with investors.
According to the Tesla boss, the company is now “in talks with one major automaker about licensing Full Self-Driving.”
Unfortunately, CEO Musk omitted from sharing more information about the ongoing discussions. He also did not disclose which company he was referring to. Nonetheless, he teased that there is a “a good chance” Tesla and the other party will sign a deal this year.
As Tesla’s management noted, it may take about 3 years before an automaker can integrate the FSD into its vehicle, even if a deal comes to fruition this year.
Tesla aims to provide its self-driving on-board computers and cameras to other automakers apart from licensing the FSD software.
The FSD recently exited the beta phase with the launch of the software version 12.3. It now sells as “FSD (Supervised) for $8,000 or $99/month.
