How to Enjoy Your One Month Free Trial of Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD), Including Current Subscribers

April 1, 2024

By Kevin Armstrong

FSD Free Trial Rolls Out

Not a Tesla App

Tesla is rolling out an exciting opportunity for its customers in the United States and Canada to experience the Full Self-Driving (Supervised) feature for one month, free of charge. Yes, it is called Supervised now and not Beta; read more about that change here.

Tesla owners in the US and Canada can enjoy a free month of FSD (Supervised), provided their vehicles are equipped with either software update version 2024.3.6 or 2024.3.10 which is now rolling out to the masses in North America. This initiative is part of Tesla's effort to introduce users to the advancements in autonomous driving technology, specifically the enhancements in the FSD v12 upgrades.

Recognizing Your Eligibility

Eligibility is straightforward. If you currently do not subscribe to FSD, Tesla will email you to notify you of the free one-month trial offer. Keep an eye on your inbox for an email from Tesla. To be in line for the update and the trial, you need to:

Reside in the US or Canada.
Have installed Tesla update 2024.3.6 or update 2024.3.10

If you’re running Tesla update 2024.2.x or older, then you’ll be eligible to download this latest FSD update. Tesla will automatically push the update to your vehicle when it's your turn. The rollout is happening in substantial batches, so patience is key. For more detailed information on the updates, head to our Tesla's software updates page, which offers comprehensive release notes.

Already a Subscriber?

According to X user David Lindsey, if you currently subscribe to FSD, then you’ll also receive a free month of FSD. In his screenshot, he shows that he has been billed for previous months, but his next charge isn’t until May 11th, completely skipping the April 11th charge.

However, if you purchased FSD for a hefty sum, Tesla isn’t being quite as generous, and there won’t be a credit in your account. While this isn’t surprising, it would be a nice gesture to reward owners who bought FSD with some referral credits, or something similar.

Legacy Model S and Model X Owners

Legacy Model S and Model X vehicles have so far been left without FSD v12 access. However, according to Tesla executive Rohan Patel, an update is on the horizon for these vehicles before the redesign in 2021. These vehicles which account for about 3% of all FSD-eligible vehicles, have distinct hardware and need further training and testing before FSD v12 becomes available. Although Patel stood clear of providing an estimate of when a build would be ready, he confirmed that Tesla's AI team is diligently working to ensure compatibility and safety.

How to Start Your Trial

Once you've received the trial notification over email, there’s no need to subscribe to FSD or activate it in any manner. FSD will instantly become available in your vehicle. Unfortunately for some owners who may be away for work or vacation, you can not postpone the trial and it begins immediately.

Although Tesla has moved away from the FSD Beta wording and it’s now officially called FSD (Supervised), always remember that this feature requires you to be constantly aware of your surroundings and to monitor the vehicle closely. While FSD will navigate, change lanes, and even take turns, it's imperative to stay attentive and cautious—the system is designed to assist, not replace, the driver.

The Full Self-Driving (Supervised) upgrade represents a significant leap forward, transitioning the city-streets driving stack to a single, end-to-end neural network. This evolution from explicit coding to neural-based learning aims to enhance your driving experience significantly.

Tesla's offer of a one-month free FSD trial marks the first time Tesla has offered FSD as a trial. Tesla has previously offered trials for Enhance Autopilot, but not for FSD. Tesla hopes that giving customers this unique opportunity to try out FSD will lead to additional FSD subscriptions, which may help boost Tesla’s expected weaker sales this quarter.

Check for updates in your vehicle or app, check your emails, and your Tesla vehicle may be next.

NHTSA to Streamline Approvals for Control-Free Vehicles Like Tesla’s Cybercab

June 16, 2025

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

In a letter to industry, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced that it is overhauling its approvals process for vehicles designed without human controls.

The change addresses a regulatory bottleneck that has slowed down American companies like Tesla from deploying purpose-built Robotaxis, rather than relying on using traditional vehicles with steering wheels and pedals. The policy shift is outlined in a letter posted to the NHTSA’s website, which you can find here.

Reducing Approvals From Years to Months

Under the existing rules today, any vehicle that is built without a steering wheel or brake pedals must receive a special exemption from federal safety standards.

Obtaining exemptions for a particular vehicle was a time-consuming process for both the companies requesting exemptions and the NHTSA. The process was often a black box—nobody knew when an exemption might be granted, and approvals could take years.

The NHTSA, under the new administration’s guidelines for autonomous vehicle development, is now committed to streamlining this process. The agency will be implementing a new, faster approach immediately for receiving exemptions for autonomous vehicles without standard controls. The NHTSA expects decisions on exemption requests to be determined within months rather than years.

Accelerating the Cybercab

This change has massive implications for Tesla, which is banking on the production of the simplified and easy-to-maintain purpose-built Cybercab. The Cybercab is developed from the ground up as an autonomous Robotaxi and will be one of the key beneficiaries of this move by the NHTSA.

Knowing that a final design won't be caught in a multi-year regulatory limbo provides a level of certainty that has been missing. It allows Tesla to confidently plan the manufacturing, development, and deployment processes without worrying whether the project will get stuck in regulatory approvals.

According to the letter, the agency will publish its improved instructions for the streamlined process "shortly." With Tesla already having begun Cybercab pre-production and the goals for its deployment as soon as late 2026, there’s still a lot to be done to make autonomy a part of Tesla’s new sustainable abundance mission statement.

You Can Now Track Tesla’s Robotaxi Deployment

June 15, 2025

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

Thanks to Tesla Yoda on X, we have found out that Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet is registered on the Texas Department of Transportation’s public-facing Automated Vehicle Deployment website. This makes the fleet’s movements publicly viewable and trackable, and marks a first for Tesla.

This isn’t just any old FSD test - this is the first officially acknowledged, government-tracked, and sanctioned deployment of a Tesla Model Y operating as a ride-share vehicle. But that’s not all - Texas DOT’s tracker notes that the Tesla does not have a safety driver.

View on the Map

Visitors to the Texas DOT website can filter for “Tesla”, and see, currently, a single active vehicle operating in the Austin Metro area. According to the state’s official data, here’s what we know:

Company: Tesla

Description: Ride-share service

Status in Texas: Testing

Safety Driver: No

The final point is definitely the most interesting here. While Tesla has been testing FSD with safety drivers for some time in Austin and LA for employee-only testing, this is the first time that a vehicle has been officially registered and deployed on public roads without a human behind the wheel for safety.

The fact that there is no safety driver officially shifts the liability from the occupant of the driver’s seat to Tesla, for the first time in a public setting. That’s already pretty significant - we previously dove into how Tesla plans to insure its own vehicles, and potentially owner vehicles in the Robotaxi fleets.

The status currently lists Tesla as “Testing,” confirming that the service isn’t available to the public, but this is expected to change in the coming weeks.

This testing phase is likely part of a short but crucial period that lets Tesla capture data on the safety levels of its current iteration of Unsupervised FSD without a driver supervising. Tesla already stated that they’d be avoiding difficult areas, so this testing can also expose additional areas Tesla may want to avoid, such as school zones or blind driveways.

Tesla will need to prove, both internally and externally, that FSD Unsupervised has the necessary performance to safely navigate the streets without any incidents.

Regulatory Milestone

For years, the concept of a Tesla Robotaxi has been a future promise. Now, it's a present-day reality, albeit in a testing capacity.

Having an official government body list a Tesla as an active, driverless vehicle shows that they’ve been able to clear regulatory hurdles, which Tesla has often pointed to as the issue. It demonstrates a level of confidence from both Tesla and Texas regulators in the system's capabilities.

While it's just a single vehicle for today, we’ll likely see this list slowly expand over time. Alongside being able to track Robotaxi incidents at the City of Austin’s website, we’ll be able to closely watch Tesla’s progress with its first Robotaxi deployments.