Elon Musk has promised that the Tesla FSD beta will be widely distributed this year.

Key Highlights

• Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced Thursday night that the company intends to push out its "full self-driving" beta software to all customers in North America who have paid up to $12,000 for the company's contentious driver assistance system this year.
• The mile-long, $1.1 billion complex, which will serve as Tesla's sixth gigafactory and new worldwide headquarters, will build not only Model Ys, the company's most popular vehicle at the moment, but also the Semi, the Roadster, and the widely awaited Cybertruck beginning in 2023.
• Before Musk drove onstage in a 2008 Roadster to the sounds of "Still D.R.E.," the YouTube livestream and a quick scan of social media revealed some of the party's highlights, including a self-guided tour of the Model Y assembly line.
• Musk tweeted on Wednesday that the event's entrance would be "not very stringent," prompting many fans to attempt to line up and get inside.

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced Thursday night that the company intends to push out its "full self-driving" beta software to all customers in North America who have paid up to $12,000 for the company's contentious driver assistance system this year.

The CEO made the statement while wearing a black cowboy hat at the Tesla Cyber Rodeo, an event commemorating the company's factory's grand opening in Austin.

"The Tesla Autopilot and AI teams have done a great job developing real-world AI, and we're excited to launch a wide beta for all complete self-driving customers in North America this year," Musk said during a live-streamed lecture.

For years, full self-driving, or FSD, as it is frequently referred to, has been an option. Tesla automobiles, on the other hand, are not self-driving. Tesla automobiles include a driver assistance technology dubbed Autopilot as standard equipment. Owners can upgrade to FSD for an extra $12,000—a capability Musk has consistently promised will one day enable fully autonomous driving capabilities. FSD features the Summon parking feature as well as Navigate on Autopilot, an active guiding system that guides a car from a highway on-ramp to an off-ramp, including through interchanges and lane changes. It has been installed on city streets and is currently operating.

Tesla has made FSD available to some, but not all, of the product's paying customers. Last year, the business launched a "safety score" tool to decide if owners are eligible to participate in the beta version of its "Full Self-Driving" software. According to 

Tesla's Q4 shareholder letter, 60,000 Tesla owners obtained access to the FSD beta software.

Numerous films have been uploaded since the FSD beta software was launched, demonstrating owners' pushing the system's capabilities or, in many cases, illustrating the software's limits, such as performing sharp curves, attempting to drive the wrong way on roads, or turning towards pedestrians.

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Additional Cyber Rodeo information

Apart from one sentence uttered by the CEO when he could get a word in edgewise, Musk mentioned nothing more about the FSD rollout, despite the fact that so many passionate fans were shouting their heads off and even sobbing. Nor did he provide any concrete updates, instead implying that next year would bring "some amazing stuff that we haven't even discussed yet."

He did, however, give a few statistics regarding the new factory.

The mile-long, $1.1 billion complex, which will serve as Tesla's sixth gigafactory and new worldwide headquarters, will build not only Model Ys, the company's most popular vehicle at the moment, but also the Semi, the Roadster, and the widely awaited Cybertruck beginning in 2023. Additionally, it will manufacture 4680 battery cells.

"This year is all about scaling up, and then there will be a tremendous surge of new things next year," Musk explained.

The new items include a "dedicated robotaxi" that will appear "very futuristic," as well as the first prototype of Tesla's humanoid robot, Optimus, for which the idea was introduced last year.

"Optimus will obliterate the concept of an economy," Musk stated. "Optimus will be able to perform virtually any task that people are unwilling to perform." It's going to be an age of abundance...I believe it's going to revolutionise the world much more than automobiles. "

Musk did not specify if Optimus would be manufactured at the gigafactory in Texas, which Musk has dubbed "the most advanced automotive factory the Earth has ever seen."

The Austin facility is distinct from Tesla's other five locations in that it houses everything required to manufacture a vehicle, Musk explained.

"What we thought made sense was to think of it as a chip, as an integrated circuit," Musk explained. Combine all components into a single bundle. This is an instance where raw materials enter from one side and are shaped into a cell or a pack. After that, we poured the front and rear bodies. The pack is structural in nature. Finally, a completed product emerges. Thus, raw materials enter on one side and automobiles exit on the other. "

This building design will enable Tesla to achieve "a really huge scale," a goal Musk has set for the company as part of his desire to develop it to "extreme magnitude."

Many expected Musk to reveal updates to the Cybertruck at the event, and some on social media claimed to have seen the rear glass drop to aid in cargo transport, updated side repeater cameras in the front fenders, and a mid guard separating the bed and passenger seats, but the executive made no mention of any of those. Musk's lone "upgrade" on stage was that the Cybertruck would lack door handles, as "the car can sense your presence and know it needs to open."

At the Cyber Rodeo, Musk concluded his brief remarks by saying, "At Tesla, we believe in throwing fantastic parties, so let's start this party."

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"Literally, the world's largest party"

Before Musk drove onstage in a 2008 Roadster to the sounds of "Still D.R.E.," the YouTube livestream and a quick scan of social media revealed some of the party's highlights, including a self-guided tour of the Model Y assembly line.

As evidenced by photos shared on social media, Tesla has truly embraced the Texas spirit, as evidenced by art and entertainment in the form of a gigantic metal ten-gallon hat, a mechanical bull, and 87 red, white, and blue Teslas shaped like the Texas flag were on exhibit.

Minutes before Musk addressed the crowd, a rather impressive drone show took over the skies, displaying Cyber Rodeo iconography one minute, a Cybertruck-shaped array of lights the next, a Shiba Inu for Dogecoin stans, and an image of the executive himself in a cowboy hat, looming in the sky like the Dark Mark.

Regrettably, not everyone who desired to attend the Cyber Rodeo was able to do so.

Musk tweeted on Wednesday that the event's entrance would be "not very stringent," prompting many fans to attempt to line up and get inside. Unfortunately, the unfortunate folks have been continuously turned away by security, who assert that no one will enter without an invitation.

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