Tesla owners have started sending "Happy Holidays!" messages to their cars offering free 30-day trials of the enhanced Autopilot. from Tesla.
Messages now appear on social media posted by owners in Australia and New Zealand. Notably, this started happening early enough for people to wake up in these countries, but late at night or very early in the morning in the US and EU.
So it remains to be seen if this is a global giveaway or just the Oceania region, but I think we will find out soon as the rest of the world wakes up and goes out for a drive. I don't see any reason why it should be limited to So as the days go by, you may need to spread it around the world.
The message is "Happy Holidays! Your FREE Enhanced Autopilot Trial has been activated and you can enjoy it for 30 days." Then, explain to the driver how to activate the various Autopilot features. you have to do this. while the vehicle is parked Before an individual driver profile attempts to use the system for the first time.
Users report a 30-day free trial of Enhanced Autopilot. I already have it on my Model Y and Model 3 FSDs, and they offer this.Auto Lane Change is definitely the most useful feature. pic.twitter.com/GSVhAj0Nti
All Teslas are equipped with Autopilot, Tesla's brand name for driver assistance technology. Basic Autopilot includes Traffic-Aware Cruise Control, which follows the vehicle in front, and Autosteer, which keeps you on the highway.
Enhanced Autopilot is an additional package that adds more functionality. Tesla has offered it as a separate package for years, but brought it back in June at its current price of $6,000 (or 5,100AUD / 5,700NZD in countries that have seen this giveaway so far). I got
The Enhanced Autopilot includes the Basic Autopilot plus the following features:
Auto lane change: Assists the driver to move into the next lane on the highway when the indicator is turned on
Navigate on Autopilot (Beta). It proactively enhances auto lane changes by providing drivers with guidance to move from highway entry ramps to exit ramps, including lane change suggestions and interchange navigation.
Automatic parking: Parallel parking and parallel parking are OK with one touch
Summon: Use the mobile app to get your car in and out of tight spaces
Smart Summon: Your car navigates through more complex environments and parking spaces, avoiding objects when necessary to find you in a nearby parking lot.
Then, beyond enhanced autopilot, is Tesla's "fully self-driving capabilities," which include the features mentioned above, starting and stopping the car for traffic lights and stop signs. and enter Tesla's "FSD Beta" with Autosteer on. city street.
All of these functions still require the active participation of the driver and are considered “level 2” automated driving systems in which the driver is primarily responsible for monitoring the driving environment. So, while Tesla has repeatedly claimed that FSD-equipped cars will eventually be able to drive themselves without driver intervention, they are not yet "fully self-driving."
Tesla has a way for owners to "try" FSD by purchasing an FSD subscription for $199/month (assuming you have HW3. They charge $1,000 for the ware, but you might get it.) reimbursed in small claims court). Enhanced Autopilot does not have a similar subscription and is only a one-time purchase option.
But this ordeal comes at a rather troubling time. Now new Tesla owners are receiving cars without ultrasonic sensors. Tesla abruptly removed ultrasonic sensors from new cars in October, saying it was redundant to Tesla's All-Vision sensing system.
As a result, Autopark, Summon, and Smart Summon will all be disabled on these new vehicles until Tesla upgrades its software to use vision sensors instead of previous ultrasonics. This means that unless Tesla pushes a Vision update within the next 30 days, the new car won't let him use 3 of its 5 enhanced autopilot features during this trial period.
Electrek take
Since most customers have no other way to "try" the enhanced autopilot, this seems like a great way to show people what the system can or can't do. Many owners want to know if the extra features are worth it, but not many can afford to throw thousands of dollars at something they're not sure it's worth.
This allows these owners to experiment with the system for quite some time. Not just a few days, but a month.
It costs nothing for Tesla to enable this, and may drive some conversions if owners are happy with how the system works.
Personally, I don't think EAP is worth charging thousands of dollars for. At least for me it is.
Navigating on autopilot is convenient, but the main benefit is that it tells you which lane you should be in at highway interchanges. You can also make those lane changes with Auto Lane Change (but you must confirm the change with the turn signal stick). ).
Autopark works very well in odd parking lots and can be helpful for people who are or have trouble parallel parking.
the summons In many cases A neat gimmick, but useful when you need to adjust your car in a parking lot and don't want to get up and go to your car. It impresses people.
And smart summon...well, I've never used it because it's never worked in situations where I wanted to, but from everything I've heard it doesn't sound all that smart ( CEO Elon Musk admits he's never been so smart).
Those are interesting features the car has, but I'd rather keep the thousands of dollars to myself. there is.
If you received this message this morning, let us know in the comments below. We are curious if this is a global giveaway or just AU/NZ only.
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