Tesla's New FSD Transfer Window is Now Active: What You Need to Know

By Karan Singh
u/sb61g2

Earlier this month during the 2024 Shareholder Meeting, Elon Musk was convinced to agree to bring back FSD Transfers for “one last quarter”. It seems that a 3-month period will be starting today, according to Sawyer Merritt. User sb61g2 on Reddit has already started the transfer process. He already had an existing order, but was asked to place a new order so that it fell within the allowed transfer window. After placing the order, he requested the FSD transfer from his existing vehicle to his new one.

Transfer Window Availability

The transfer period is only available for orders placed between June 24, 2024, to August 31, 2024, for people taking delivery of a new Model S, Model 3, Model X, or Model Y. The Foundation-series Cybertruck comes with FSD, and non-Foundation hasn’t arrived just yet, so the transfer offer doesn’t apply to the Cybertruck.

Update: Tesla has now announced that it has extended its FSD Transfer window another month.

What You Get

Tesla has previously brought this incentive forward as a demand lever, incentivizing prior owners who have purchased FSD to transfer it to new vehicles.

This incentive allows buyers who have purchased FSD, whether it be at the original $5,000, updated $15,000, or the new $8,000 price (FSD price history) to transfer it directly to a new Tesla purchase. The vehicle does not have to be traded in for this to occur – but you can simply transfer the FSD option from an existing vehicle to your new car. The old vehicle will no longer have access to FSD, but you can still subscribe to FSD on the older vehicle or purchase it later if you change your mind.

The offer is also stackable with any other incentives, whether it be inventory price adjustments, demo models, or EV rebates in North America, including the $7,500 federal rebate that’s available on select vehicles.

You Don’t Need to Trade In Your Tesla

To activate your FSD transfer, you’ll need to reach out to your local Tesla delivery center by text message and let them know you want to transfer FSD, as it’s currently not an option on Tesla’s site.

Final FSD Transfer Offer?

This could be the final FSD transfer period, as Elon Musk was very reticent to bring it back, citing shrinking margins on new vehicle sales. However, Musk did say Tesla will offer additional free FSD trials again in the future. The FSD transfer offer is an excellent opportunity for owners with HW3 vehicles to upgrade to HW4, in anticipation of the expected divergence of Hardware 4 or Tesla’s upcoming Hardware 5.0, which Tesla is calling AI 5.

Tesla Vehicles Spotted With LiDAR: What Do They Use It For?

By Karan Singh
Not a Tesla App

Tesla recently hit the news for purchasing approximately $2M in LiDAR sensors from Luminar, one of Tesla’s long-term suppliers. You’ve probably seen photos of Tesla’s Semi and various Tesla models, including the Model 3 and Model Y sporting LIDAR equipment on the roof. These cars drive around with manufacturer plates scanning streets and highways.

However, many people confuse Tesla’s purpose in purchasing LiDAR equipment with using it for FSD versus testing. So, let’s look at what LiDAR is, and why Tesla uses it on its Fleet Validation Vehicles.

What is LiDAR?

LiDAR stands for Light Detecting and Ranging – essentially using lasers to measure distances. A laser pulse is sent out, and the time it takes to return is measured – providing extremely accurate distance measurements.

Some companies working on self-driving vehicles, including Waymo and BYD, use LiDAR as part of their self-driving suites, but Tesla is one of the few stand-outs that does not. Even Rimac’s “Verne” Robotaxi – which uses self-driving technology from Mobileye, also uses LiDAR.

While LiDAR can produce extremely accurate and high-quality 3D environments, it comes with its downsides as well. Not only is LiDAR costly and requires large gear strapped to a vehicle, but it also can not be used in bad weather and can have interference issues if there are other strong light sources present.

Why Does Tesla Use LiDAR?

A LiDAR rig mounted on a Tesla Semi for testing FSD.
A LiDAR rig mounted on a Tesla Semi for testing FSD.
Not a Tesla App

At Autonomy Day in 2019, Elon Musk mentioned that LiDAR isn’t the solution for self-driving cars – it's just a crutch. Thus, Tesla hasn’t used LiDAR for any production self-driving software.

Instead, Tesla uses it exactly how it's described – they use it to gather ground-truth data. This data is then used to feed Tesla’s Full Self Driving system – which helps validate its vision-only system's accuracy. LiDAR provides very accurate measurements to help ensure that FSD’s perception of space is accurate – and is only used by Tesla to ensure that its AI technology which is the brains of FSD is capable of accurately interpreting depth from just visual data.

Tesla’s vision-only system has been seen to be extremely accurate, with Vision-only Autopark being able to park in even narrower and tighter spaces faster than the previous version that relied on ultrasonic sensors.

We’ll likely continue to see Tesla purchase LiDAR systems, as well as use them for validation well into the future.

Tesla's Upcoming Robotaxi Event in August Delayed, According to Bloomberg

By Karan Singh
Sugar Design

In a report from Bloomberg, it is claimed that Tesla will be delaying its much-anticipated 8/8 Robotaxi event by two months to October 2024.

While sources other than Bloomberg haven't confirmed this report, Bloomberg has a positive track record of reporting on financial decisions. We’ll be sure to update the article if there is confirmation on X from Elon Musk or another Tesla senior official.

Tesla’s stock has dropped nearly 8.5% over the day, ending back-to-back gains over the last two weeks. It closed yesterday at $ 241 after hitting a peak of $270 earlier in the day before the news broke.

Why the Delay?

The delay – of approximately two months – has been communicated internally, but not publicly announced just yet. Bloomberg goes on to mention that the design team was told to rework certain elements of the Cybercab, necessitating the delay.

If Bloomberg’s report is correct, it sounds like Tesla’s unveil event will be largely focused on showing off the vehicle, instead of demoing how it will work. Of course, it could still be both, but given past events, Tesla has always shown off the vehicle years before it hits production.

Rimac recently showed off their version of robotaxi vehicle named Verne, and surprisingly, it could almost pass for Tesla’s own robotaxi. A lot of design cues in Rimac’s version are elements we have already seen or expect to see in Tesla’s autonomous taxi.

A recent Tesla patent revealed that Tesla is incorporating a sanitation system into their robotaxi that will be responsible for analyzing and cleaning the vehicle’s interior, although the delay itself is likely tied more to a physical feature rather than software.

Another element we know almost nothing about is how Tesla plans to charge these robotic taxis. Will they rely on the existing charge port and adapt a solution like the robotic charging arm (video below) we saw almost eight years ago, or will wireless charging or a dock finally become realized?

While the delay for Tesla’s event appears to be related to the vehicle’s design itself and not further development of FSD, Tesla is wasting no time in getting FSD working for the upcoming vehicle. Model 3 vehicles have already been spotted with camera locations that resemble a robotaxi.

Is the Delay Accurate?

We expect that this delay might actually be true – Elon Musk usually takes to X within hours of such news breaking if it's false to refute it and hasn’t done so yet.

Tesla has delayed several of their events in the past, and a delay of a couple of months seems plausible. We should hear from Musk himself soon on whether this report is accurate.

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