Tesla's Full Self Driving (FSD) feature has been in development for some time now, with a small group of beta testers running the software and Tesla hardware in real-world scenarios.
The automaker has long promised a feature that allows drivers to request access to the beta program.
However, there's good news for beta test hopefuls, as recent tweets from Elon Musk suggest the long-awaited "beta button" will become available soon.
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Musk said Tesla would release FSD beta 10.1 on September 24, and along with it, the new beta request button will become available.
If a driver is interested in joining the program, they'll need to opt into a Tesla driver monitoring program for seven days.
During that time, the automaker will access telemetry data and its driving behavior calculator to assess how the driver performs. If their behavior is deemed "good", beta access will be granted.
Beta button will request permission to assess driving behavior using Tesla insurance calculator. If driving behavior is good for 7 days, beta access will be granted.September 17, 2021
Widening the net
The beta program and button were set to be released earlier this year, but Tesla opted to keep the test group smaller for safety reasons.
Recent beta releases have missed the mark, and Musk himself admitted that more work was needed to push the betas closer to where they should be.
With the release of beta version 10, FSD has finally reached a point of accuracy and functionality that allows Tesla to bring more drivers into the program.
The move also gives the automaker a much larger pool of data to improve future versions of the software.
Musk's tweets outline the process through which a Tesla driver can gain access to the beta program, but it's not exactly a strongly worded statement that shows a plan for revoking access if a driver misbehaves while using FSD.
While certainly a step in the right direction, this move also misses the big issue of monitoring driver behavior while FSD or Autopilot are active.
Via Inside EVs
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