If a picture is worth a thousand words, the latest chart from Tesla on its Full Self-Driving software speaks volumes. Tesla AI announced that its customer fleet has now cumulatively logged over 1 billion miles driven using its premium autonomous driving features – with recent growth charting a startling upward trajectory.
When Elon Musk on X tweeted out Tesla’s updated FSD mileage chart, one thing immediately jumped out: that unmistakable hockey stick shape as the cumulative mile count launched into the stratosphere in recent months.
The last 500 million FSD miles were accumulated in just 90 days, according to the chart – roughly half of its entire multi-year total up to that point. Easy to see why Musk is already looking ahead, predicting “won’t be long before Tesla exceeds 10B miles of FSD.”
Crediting That Unprecedented Free Trial
So what’s fueling this sudden exponential growth in FSD usage? Many are crediting Tesla’s unprecedented free one-month trial for over 1.7 million owners across North America.
Up until the promotion, only around 500,000 Tesla drivers had splurged for Tesla’s premium FSD package. But by extending demo access so widely, Tesla instantly quadrupled the total FSD user base overnight.
With all those newly unlocked users getting their first taste of hands-free driving thrills, it’s hardly a surprise FSD usage is blowing up on Tesla’s mileage counter.
A virtuous hype cycle may be taking hold – Tesla’s trial program highlights FSD’s viral-worthy convenience, begetting more buyers, which boosts miles driven and real-world data for iteration.
The billion-mile mark is an undeniably massive milestone for Tesla’s autonomous ambitions. But if those adoption trends keep holding, reaching the next few billions could happen in the blink of an eye.