Why Tesla FSD Is Probably a Scam

When I called out Nikola one year before they were charted with fraud, there were warning signs. With Tesla there is one big warning sign and that is its supposed full self-driving product, FSD.

Tesla is poised to expand its FSD Beta program that would allow customers to get new versions of the company’s software even though it hasn’t been debugged yet. The problem is it’s a $200 monthly subscription and it sucks, after years of empty promises by founder Elon Musk. This is false advertising, if ever there was such a thing!

Tesla has just made their Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, which was originally only available as a $10,000 one-time purchase, into a subscription service for anyone whose Tesla “has FSD [Hardware 3.0] or above, plus Basic […] or Enhanced Autopilot.”

If Tesla was legit, it wouldn’t have to pretend it’s a technology company or promise things it cannot deliver on. Then there’s Tesla’s very poor safety record and its cutting corners in rushing manufacturing targets. That’s not what leading companies do.

In the transition to EVs, other car manufacturers are likely to crush Tesla’s lead in EVs. That’s what they are, manufacturers, not technology companies. Tesla isn’t special. Lucid’s cars are already more battery efficient.

But if you pretend to be something you are not, don’t pretend that your shady product is a smart car or can self drive. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who called a previous version of FSD Beta software “not great”, cautioned Friday evening that FSD Beta now seems so good it can give drivers a false sense of security that they don’t need to drive while FSD Beta is engaged. So now he’s warning us about how bad it actually is? Elon is a special kind of salesman visionary.

“FSD Beta 9.2 is actually not great [in my opinion], but Autopilot/AI team is rallying to improve as fast as possible,” Musk tweeted. Okay, whatever, you little salesman.

Marketed as Full Self-Driving capability, or ‘FSD’ by Tesla, the driver assistance system does not make Tesla electric vehicles safe for use without an attentive driver at the wheel. It’s not really FSD, at all, and has missed many verbal promises and deadlines. Even the most attentive Tesla fan-boy must get tired following that.

The subscription will cost $199 per month for users upgrading their Basic Autopilot to FSD and $99 per month for users upgrading Enhanced Autopilot. Owners should be aware that available FSD features depend on location and if your vehicle does not have Hardware 3, you will be required to make the $1,500 upgrade. Also, just as a reminder, despite what the name implies, FSD requires “a fully attentive driver who has their hands on the wheel,” as per the Tesla website.

So you shell out more money for an unfinished protect whose execution is, you know, not great.

Some owners, though, are feeling deceived. A July 18 article in Electrek has pointed out that in 2016 Tesla announced that cars made from October 2016 through mid-2019 needed “no further hardware upgrades” for FSD capabilities. By late 2019, Tesla walked that statement back, revamping their hardware with version 3.0 and offering free upgrades to anyone who didn’t already have it.

It’s time to say WTF, Elon Musk!

You too are likely a fraud for many of Tesla’s shiny promises. Try wining in China or Europe, you moron! Tesla markets its driver assistance systems in a standard package called Autopilot and a premium package called FSD, short for Full Self-Driving in the U.S. Neither of these systems make Tesla’s cars autonomous, according to the company’s users’ manuals and website.

So what is it if it’s not a scam? It’s a way to train their fleet of cars before the product is even ready, with users actually paying for it. That’s just lazy and bad product marketing.

Now, they’re charging interested users $1,500 for it, some of whom bought their car between 2016 and 2019, thinking it was already capable of FSD. Did Tesla mislead loyal customers or is the new price point justified? We want to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Musk’s tweet contradicts facts about the FSD Beta program conveyed in the California Department of Motor Vehicles Autonomous Vehicles Branch memo written in March 2021. Elon Musk not being factual has become a huge problem. Even Tesla engineers cannot save his credibility, which has already taken a hit in China.

While Tesla looks like a clown act, SpaceX looks like a spectacle show. So that’s marketing in the 2020s? False advertising. Where’s the FTC or SEC when you need them?

Democratic Senators Richard Blumenthal and Ed Markey asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Tesla over the company’s advertising of its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving technology.

The senators claim Tesla’s marketing messages may not be fully representing Autopilot’s capabilities. Yeah, you don’t say? That’s been the case for the last three years with Waymo and Tesla more or less failing to get self-driving right for the last crucial 1% of reality. This isn’t a simulation, guys.

Owners must have Tesla’s newest computer, known as Hardware 3, in order to subscribe to the new FSD offering. An upgrade costs about $1,500. Sounds costly. Sounds like a scam.

It’s gotten so bad for the electric car company that one Tesla owner even filed a lawsuit in Albuquerque, New Mexico district court saying that the company made false and misleading claims about FSD. Only now you guys realize this? How many more lawsuits will come?

The current FSD isn’t even safe. The letter comes two days after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a formal investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot system. NHTSA said in public documents that since 2018 it has identified 11 crashes involving a Tesla with Autopilot engaged striking at least one vehicle at a first responder site. The technology is a limited self-driving feature that still requires human operation.

Very hard to trust a company whose stock price has been propped up by multiple billionaires in the biggest market bubble in history. Seems sketchy, universally adored by fans who have no idea about the business dealings of Elon Musk, a shady deal maker now at this point in his life. A salesman who loses touch with reality almost at regular intervals.

“We fear that Tesla’s Autopilot and FSD features are not as mature and reliable as the company pitches to the public,” they wrote, pointing to comments from CEO Elon Musk as well as a 2019 YouTube video entitled “Full Self-Driving” which has a link to Tesla’s site.

In their correspondence, Tesla characterized even their newest FSD Beta features as a Level 2 driver assistance system, rather than fully driverless technology. So why is Elon Musk pretending otherwise on Twitter? Where is the SEC who’s supposed to be watching his ridiculous tweets? So much of a lack of rule of law on Twitter and in America for big shiny firms. Woodstock much?

Who would be dumb enough to pay for Tesla’s incompetence with a sub that doesn’t even work right? Elon Musk is asking us to believe in Martians and dreams of an incompetent car manufacturer. I don’t get it. Tesla is such an overly valued company it’s so ridiculous.

Tesla likely won’t even be able to compete with China or VW in Europe or even Rivian, Lucid and GM at home. When you get desperate, you begin to lie. Elon Musk has done some shady things along the way but this would land him in prison if we had rule of law for false advertising.