Tesla is putting a hold on new installations of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta software in the US and Canada until a firmware update can be issued to address a safety recall, according to a new company support page.
The automaker issued the recall this month at the request of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which determined that the advanced driver-assistance feature could pose a “crash risk.”
Tesla vehicle owners who may have just purchased the $15,000 FSD add-on — or previously bought it but have yet to opt into it — won’t be able to get access to it until after the automaker issues an over-the-air (OTA) software update.
In the meantime, people who have the FSD beta can still use it, but they presumably won’t see any new features until the company has made peace with regulators.
Tesla has not provided a timeline for the rollout of the update but says no immediate action needs to be taken by the customer.
Those who already have FSD installed and activated can continue to use the software as is but won’t see any new features until the issues identified by NHTSA are addressed. The recall affects nearly 363,000 Model S, Model 3, Model X, and Model Y vehicles equipped with FSD.
Behind this huge setback is Tesla’s recall of more than 360,000 FSD-enabled cars after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found the feature to be a significant safety issue, though it’s unclear why the company waited nearly two weeks to put this pause on new installations in the interim between the day of the recall (February 16) and now.
Tesla currently calls the FSD beta software an “SAE Level 2 driver support feature,” which means that it can steer, brake, and accelerate automatically with a driver present. The driver operating FSD must be engaged and ready to take over at any time and is also entirely responsible for any mishaps the system could make.
“Until the software version containing the fix is available, we have paused the rollout of FSD Beta to all who have opted-in but have not yet received a software version containing FSD Beta,” the company wrote on the support page.
Tesla vehicles come standard with a driver-assistance system branded Autopilot. For an additional $15,000, owners can buy “full self-driving,” or FSD — a feature that CEO Elon Musk has promised for years will one day deliver full autonomous driving capabilities.