Tesla To Expand FSD Beta Program Globally By Year's End

Elon Musk noted that many countries may require regulatory approval for the rollout of FSD Beta, causing delays in some markets.

Dan Mihalascu

By: Dan Mihalascu

Oct 3, 2022 at 12:26pm ET

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Tesla's AI Day 2022 event held on September 30 was mainly about the Optimus humanoid robot, but the EV maker's specialists also talked extensively about other topics such as the Full Self-Driving Beta program and the Dojo supercomputer.

During the event, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said FSD Beta should be ready to expand to more territories by the end of the year, according to his estimates. It's no secret that Tesla's FSD Beta fleet in the United States and Canada has grown significantly in recent months, with the company confirming during AI Day 2022 there are now about 160,000 customers in the program.

That's an impressive number that dwarfs any self-driving fleet at the moment; for example, Waymo is said to operate less than a thousand cars currently.

As Elon Musk suggested last month, Tesla is not going to stop at 160,000 FSD Beta testers. The executive noted during AI Day 2022 that FSD Beta should be ready for a global rollout by the end of this year. He also said a big update is coming in October.

Now, that doesn't mean Tesla will roll out its Full Self-Driving suite and all its advanced features worldwide by the end of 2022; the automaker simply will expand the ranks of FSD Beta testers with more Tesla EV owners across the world by the end of this year.

That said, Musk noted that many countries may require regulatory approval for the rollout of such a program, which could delay FSD Beta's release in those particular markets. This is especially true for Europe, where e regulatory authorities are very strict.

For FSD Beta testers that will be added to the program, things will be the same as they are now for existing members. The system will still require the driver to pay attention at all times while FSD Beta is engaged and take over immediately as they notice an impending danger.

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The software clearly has a lot of areas where it needs to improve, and real-world driving data from Tesla drivers across the world will likely help speed up its development.

As Tesla's Autopilot Software director Ashok Elluswamy leader noted during the presentation (see video above), the company has gone from 2,000 beta testers a year ago in one market to 160,000 at the moment in two markets. It's safe to expect similar growth when FSD Beta goes global and reaches multiple markets.