Elon Musk has kicked the Full Self-Driving hype machine into overdrive with a free trial for over 1.7 million Tesla owners – but not everyone is along for the ride. Long-time supporters Tesla original Model S and X vehicles are growing restless as they watch newbies get first dibs on the latest FSD software.
“It really sucks to see people who haven’t even paid for FSD get v12 when those of us who have still haven’t gotten it yet,” (Tesla Has Now Started One Month Free FSD Trials for New Model Y/S/X buyers in the US), ranted one disgruntled Model S owner on X/Twitter. Another S/X owner piled on, lamenting “we’ve been living in the dark on this for years” with no official communication from Tesla.
The core frustration? Certain older Model S and X vehicles apparently have different hardware that requires extra validation before receiving OTA updates like FSD v12. But owners say radio silence from Tesla isn’t cutting it.
“An official communication with some sort of reassurance that we’re not being left behind would go a long way,” pleaded Model S driver Anthony Spina. The angst is palpable from these first-generation Tesla diehards who plunked down cash for FSD years ago but now feel leapfrogged.
Tesla: We’re Rigorously Validating FSD V12 For Older Model X/S
Tesla is acknowledging the issue. Rohan Patel, a senior director at the company, responded that while Tesla aims to prioritize paid FSD buyers, “there is a group of S/X customers (~3% of total FSD eligible vehicles) who have different hardware which the Tesla AI team is working to validate.”
Patel says the team has a “rigorous safety validation cycle for every software update” and is “working as hard as possible” to ship the latest FSD version 12 to all owners able to access it – with no “false precision on timing.” Patel sympathized that “many of you have been with us on the FSD journey from the start and it’s super appreciated.”