Gary Zhou 
Tesla CEO Elon Musk finally revealed how the company would choose its expanded population of Full Self-Driving Beta testers: Be a good driver for seven days.
After revealing last week that Tesla would expand the FSD Beta testing group, a Twitter follower of Musk’s asked how owners could join the exclusive group of drivers that have access to the most robust version of Tesla’s semi-autonomous driving software.
“Beta button will request permission to assess driving behavior using Tesla insurance calculator. If driving behavior is good for seven days, Tesla will grant beta access,” Musk said. The CEO also indicated in another Tweet that Version 10.1 of the FSD Beta would roll out in a week on September 24th. “10.1 rolls out a week from Friday with beta request option,” Musk added.
Similar to programs that some insurance groups operate, like Allstate, Tesla will judge whether a driver is suitable for the Beta program through their driving performance. Drive safely for a week, and the company will grant access to the Beta program, an exclusive membership to Tesla’s impressively functioning semi-autonomous driving suite.
The Beta Button has been in development for some time. It was set to be released earlier this year, but Tesla chose to keep the Beta test group small to improve safety. Now that the suite is becoming more robust, confident, and accurate in its maneuvers, it is time to broaden the user population, ultimately resulting in more data for Tesla to work with for future updates.
Tesla FSD Beta 10.1 will be a slightly improved version of the V10 update that was released last week. Musk said that the new version would reverse maneuvers if it senses danger is nearby, just as a human would if dangerous road conditions are nearby. Tesla’s FSD Beta seemingly improves with nearly every update thanks to software advancements and developments to the company’s Neural Network, which improves with every mile driven.
Tesla releases new versions of FSD Beta every other Friday, so if the company remains on time with its developments, another update will come two weeks after V10.1.
