My FSD Journey: From Beta Tester to Supervised FSD

I was one of the first 1000 public beta testers of Tesla Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology back in the day. I remember the excitement when I received early access to FSD on my 2018 Model 3, and later upgraded to the Enhanced function in 2019.

Fast-forward to 2021, I was thrilled to receive the public beta version of FSD on my trusty Model 3, joining an elite group of testers. Over a year, I spent countless hours honing my driving skills and testing the limits of FSD, constantly feeding back valuable data to Tesla’s servers.

As a beta tester, I had a unique perspective on FSD – it was more like a driving school instructor, where I’d frequently intervene to prevent potential hazards or poor turns. While FSD v11 Beta showed promise, especially for highway driving, it still required significant human oversight and input.

Yesterday, my new Model Y surprised me with a brief reboot during local driving. To my delight, a Tesla email arrived in my inbox, offering a 1-month Supervised FSD trial – and to my amazement, FSD was already activated on my vehicle via remote or cloud! Kudos to Tesla for this generous gesture.

Looking back, I recall the FSD price tag of $7,000 in 2019. Today, it’s an even steeper $12,000. For new Tesla owners, I say: enjoy the ride!

However, as a beta tester, I learned that paying customers (like me) were actually helping train the AI to drive safely and efficiently. This meant uploading my driving data to Tesla servers for months on end. What’s more, after selling my Model 3 with FSD, it took around 6 months for me to retrain my normal driving habits – a revelation that few beta testers grasped at the time.

In contrast, Tesla’s new Supervised FSD approach in 2024 is music to my ears. By offering paying owners a free 1-month trial, they’re essentially asking us to train and test their AI technology once more. And guess what? FSD v12 has seen significant improvements! While still an almost-100% safe driving experience, it’s now even more impressive.

To Tesla’s credit, this new strategy acknowledges the value of human input in perfecting their AI technology. I’m hopeful that they’ll continue to build upon this logic and keep refining their Full Self-Driving capabilities.

Here’s to a safer, more intelligent future on the roads!