Elon Musk: Tesla is doubling the size of its Full Self-Driving beta program

Elon Musk says that Tesla is doubling the size of its Full Self-Driving Beta program with an upcoming new update.

Another one following it could see the size of the test fleet increase by a factor of 10.

Back in October 2020, Tesla started to push a Full Self-Driving Beta release to owners in the “Early Access” program, a group of Tesla owners who test early versions of Tesla’s new features before a wider release to the fleet.

The software update was seen as a major step toward Tesla delivering on its longtime promise of making its vehicles “full self-driving” through over-the-air software updates.

While the update doesn’t result in a truly self-driving vehicle since the responsibility still lies with the driver, which Tesla still requires to stay attentive and be ready to take control at all times, it does close the gap with Tesla’s Autopilot highway driving features and enable Tesla’s driver-assist system to control the vehicle on city streets and through intersections.

Tesla owners using the FSD beta are able to give the car a destination and the vehicle will attempt to drive them there autonomously with the driver keeping their hands on the steering wheel and ready to take over.

Since the first beta release in early access, Tesla has released several new versions of the beta software and gradually opened up the beta release to more owners, but it has yet to have a wider release and the rollout of new versions has slowed down over the last month or two.

Earlier this week, Musk linked a wider release of the FSD beta to an updated version of the software coming next month.

Now the CEO said that the number of Tesla owners testing the Full Self-Driving Beta will double with a new update:

“If you want the Tesla Full Self-Driving Beta downloaded to your car, let us know. Doubling beta program size now with 8.2 & probably 10X size with 8.3. Still be careful, but it’s getting mature.”

Last month, Musk revealed that there are over 1,000 Tesla owners currently testing the FSD beta.

Tesla uses the test fleet to provide real-world data to its neural network and improve the performance.

The CEO didn’t elaborate on the timing of these two new versions of the FSD Beta software, but they are likely coming within the next month as he mentioned earlier this week.

Over the last few months, Musk has stated several times that he feels confident Tesla will release a truly full self-driving level 5 system by the end of 2021.