Tesla has reintroduced its Full Self-Driving transfer program as an incentive to purchase this quarter, despite Elon Musk initially claiming it would be a “one-time offer.”
For years, Tesla owners who invested in the up-to-$15,000 Full Self-Driving Capability package have been requesting the ability to transfer it when trading in their vehicles for a new one.
The rationale behind this was clear: Tesla had yet to deliver the self-driving capability as promised. It only makes sense to allow owners to transfer the package to a new car for those who still have faith that Tesla may eventually deliver through a software update.
Despite the deservedness of this request, Tesla had consistently opposed the idea…
Eventually, it agreed to allow transfers, but only for orders placed in Q3 2023. CEO Elon Musk made it clear that it was a one-time offer:
This is a one-time amnesty, so it needs to be — you need to take advantage of it in Q3, but — or at least place the order in Q3 within — within reasonable delivery time frames. So, yeah, yeah, yeah, hope this makes people happy. But want to — I mean, this is a one-time thing, OK?
We criticized this decision as it seemed more of a strategy to boost orders during that quarter rather than genuinely prioritizing the customers’ best interests…
Furthermore, despite Musk’s firm statement that this was a one-time amnesty, we suspected that Tesla would offer it again in the future…
As predicted, Tesla announced in February that it would once again offer FSD transfer until the end of the quarter as an incentive to buy…
Last night, Tesla began offering Full Self-Driving transfer on all new Tesla vehicles except the Cybertruck. This offer can be combined with other incentives that Tesla is currently providing and may provide later in the quarter…
We reported that Tesla has already started offering significant discounts on inventory vehicles early in the quarter…
Electrek’s Take
If you needed confirmation that Elon is willing to bend the truth, or at the very least, mislead, to sell vehicles, now you have it…
Tesla is essentially using its failure to deliver a promised and sold product as a strategy to encourage existing owners to upgrade their cars. FSD transfer should be available to all FSD owners until Tesla fulfills its commitment to deliver the promised product. That would be the ethical thing to do…
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