Tesla offers US clients tech trial

Electric carmaker Tesla will offer US customers a onemonth free trial of its driverassist technology, Full Self-Driving (FSD), CEO Elon Musk says, as softening demand and price competition put pressure on the company’s sales and margins.

Musk has long touted the driver assistant software, priced at $12,000, as a potential profit generator for the company, but has fallen short of his promise of full autonomy for years, amid regulatory and legal scrutiny of Tesla’s safety and marketing.

“All US cars that are capable of FSD will be enabled for a onemonth trial this week,” Musk said in a post on X. He has told Tesla staff to give demonstrations of FSD to new buyers and owners of serviced vehicles. “Almost no-one realises how well (supervised) FSD actually works,” Musk said in one of two emails sent to Tesla employees.

Researcher Troy Teslike said the “FSD take rate” was declining in North America, with about 14% of Tesla customers buying the package in the third quarter of 2022, down from a high of 53% in the third quarter of 2019.

Tesla’s margins have been hurt by a price war with rivals. It also warned in January of “notably lower” delivery growth this year, as it focuses on production of its next-generation electric vehicle.

“The combination of substantial price cuts and dramatically lower FSD take rates has severely hurt Tesla’s margins,” analyst Sam Abuelsamid at Guidehouse Insights said. “The mandate to demonstrate FSD is just the latest in a long-running series of end-of-quarter stunts by Musk intended to boost deliveries and revenues.”

The FSD software, which Tesla says does not make its cars autonomous and requires active driver supervision, has also been offered at a subscription of $199 a month.