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Tesla CEO Elon Musk
Patrick Pleul – Pool/Getty Imagess
They say waiting is the hardest part.
Tesla
drivers could attest to that Saturday morning, when they learned they won’t be getting the newest version of the electric vehicle pioneer’s autonomous driving software just yet.
Tesla (ticker: TSLA) drivers with perfect Tesla-generated safety scores expected to wake up Saturday and have the newest version of Tesla’s Full Self Driving, or FSD, software ready to run on their vehicles. But the upgrade isn’t ready yet. “A few last minute concerns about this build. Release likely on Sunday or Monday,” tweeted out CEO Elon Musk early Saturday morning. “Sorry for the delay.”
A week ago, Tesla launched its FSD “beta button.” Pressing the button put drivers in a queue to get the upgraded software. To get the software, drivers had to maintain a perfect safety driving score for a week.
The perfect score is 100, achieved by avoiding hard breaking, close following, aggressive turning, and other dangerous moves.
Essentially gamifying- safety–offering reward points—is a new approach for the industry. All autonomous driving features being launched by the car business, Tesla included, still require drivers to stay engaged at all times. That might not always be the case in practice, however. Safety regulators have expressed concern about the potential for abuse of new features that do driving tasks without help from humans.
Tesla’s approach appears to recognize the potential for abuse. The company is reserving its newest software for its safest drivers. Musk expects the new software to go to about 1,000 drivers initially. If the software rollout improves road safety, then Tesla will release the update to more drivers with slightly weaker safety scores.
“Had to drive like a grandma for two weeks,” Gary Black, founder of the Future Fund Active ETF (FFND), told Barron’s. His fund holds Tesla stock and Black, of course, is a Tesla driver. Black hit 100. He has to keep driving like that for, at least, a couple more days.
Tesla stock has moved up in recent weeks, partly because of expectations about the software rollout. Stronger than expected vehicle deliveries in the third quarter also helped. Tesla delivered more than 240,000 cars in Q3. Wall Street was looking for closer to 230,000 units.
Tesla shares are up about 21% over the past three months. The
S&P 500
and
Dow Jones Industrial Average
are up 2% and 1%, respectively, over the same span.
Write to editors@barrons.com