Tesla has been playing fast and loose with its “Full-Self Driving” tech (now called “Full-Self Driving (Supervised)“) the last few years by essentially leaving testing of the driver-assist system up to the owners of its vehicles. These owners have been using the system on public roads, occasionally with disastrous results. That doesn’t seem to matter to Tesla, though, as the company needs the data from customer FSD usage to improve the system. In fact, Tesla wants that data so bad it’s willing to offer its owners lower insurance rates to collect it.
Before we get into this wild insurance discount, let’s make one thing clear: Despite FSD standing for “Full Self-Driving,” it’s not a self-driving system. We’ve stated this before and we’re stating it again: FSD is nothing but an eyes-on Level 2 driver-assistance system, which the Society of Automotive Engineers describes as requiring constant supervision, even if a driver’s hands and feet aren’t on the steering wheel or pedals. Level 2 features are driver support features, not full-on autonomy, but unlike the Level 2 systems offered by so many other brands, Tesla recklessly lets its owners use the system hands-free on basically any road, not just highways.
Tesla has offered in-house insurance coverage to its owners for a couple years now. It’s not the best insurance, but it’s there. In a bid to improve the FSD system, and surely to keep customers within its ecosystem, Tesla is willing to sweeten the deal for its insurance carriers: Engage FSD, and you’ll get a discount on your insurance, as MotorTrend reports.
There are a few catches to this, of course. The main catch is the risk of engaging FSD. Plus, in order to get the insurance discount, you need to have purchased or subscribed to ”Supervised FSD,” as it doesn’t come standard on Teslas. That’s either $99 a month or a whopping $8,000 to pay for the system outright. That’s a lot of dough, especially when you consider the discount you receive for engaging FSD, which is just 10 percent. According to Tesla, in order to get that 10 percent discount, you must have FSD engaged for 50 percent or more of your miles driven. Not everyone will be able to get this discount either, at least not yet. Tesla says the discount is currently only available to FSD owners in Arizona and Texas.
Tesla must be really desperate for this FSD data. As MotorTrend pointed out, the company is willing to take on a loss by offering discounted insurance just to get the data.
…if you zoom out and look at what Tesla’s really doing with FSD—essentially, testing a feature on public roads using, well, the public—the Tesla Insurance discounts read a little differently. Though we don’t think anyone should be using FSD more often in its current form, the insurance cut for owners is a cost increase for Tesla. In other words, it shows Tesla putting more of its skin in the FSD testing game, by taking on (at least in part) the potential liabilities of greater FSD use.
Good on Tesla, I guess? None of this makes up for the fact that, despite the discount, Tesla using owners to test out its sketchy “self-driving” tech is still reckless. The fact that the company would tie the system to an insurance discount is pretty ironic given the history of misuse and crashes associated with it.