A select number of all-electric Tesla Cybertrucks now have the ability to drive on US highways hands-free, after the automaker pushed an update to the vehicles this morning. Tesla AI head Ashok Elluswamy wrote in X that Cybertrucks will be the first Tesla vehicles to get the “end of the highway” driving feature, which the company says uses a “neural net” to navigate every part of highway driving.
“Good job,” Tesla CEO (and X owner) Elon Musk responded to his AI chief.
The feature appears to be in “early access,” meaning it is only available to certain Cybertruck owners who have purchased the feature. It’s unclear when the automaker will roll out the feature more widely. Tesla, which disbanded its public relations team in 2021, did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
Tesla owner’s manuals maintain that the fully self-driving feature, or “FSD (Supervised),” should only be used when drivers are paying attention to the road. This feature reportedly turns off when it detects that drivers are looking elsewhere. Critics have argued that Tesla’s marketing is wrongly leading drivers to think that the FSD can drive itself and that the automaker has done little to prevent driver abuse.
Customers who bought base models of Cybertrucks early, by pre-ordering, paid $7,000 to access the drive feature, while others waited almost a year for it to be available in their trucks. Tesla owners can now sign up for the FSD (Guard) feature for $99 per month.
One Cybertruck driver reported to X that, based on driving this morning, the feature “works well.”
The introduction of this feature is much-needed good news for the Cybertruck, which has faced a rocky introduction to Tesla’s lineup. The car was delayed for years due to the Covid-19 pandemic and engineering problems. (A leaked “alpha” session with the car, first reported by WIRED, found the truck to have major issues with braking, handling, and noise.)
The all-electric truck has also been subject to several safety recalls, including one where the company had to repair or replace stuck accelerator pedals.
As more automakers race to electrify, and Tesla’s huge lead in electric vehicles is eroded by other manufacturers, Musk and company seem to believe that AI-powered “self-driving” features will help Tesla regain the edge. “Tesla’s value is very much independence,” Musk told investors this summer.
The US road safety regulator, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, found that Tesla’s Autopilot feature, an older version without FSD, did not adequately prevent drivers from misbehaving—and was involved in 13 fatal crashes between 2018 and 2023. After a years-long investigation into Autopilot, last year Tesla recalled 2 million cars with Autopilot. (The automaker said it disagrees with the government’s conclusions.)
Earlier this year, Tesla settled a lawsuit brought by the family of a Northern California man who died using Autopilot in his Model X.
Tesla is also facing a class-action lawsuit alleging it misled customers into buying Teslas after Musk promised the cars had everything they needed to drive themselves. Eight years later, Tesla has made major advances in its self-driving features and has plans to monetize the feature—but it still hasn’t produced self-driving technology.
That may change this month. Musk has promised that Tesla will introduce a self-driving taxi, which it calls Cybercab, at an event in Southern California on October 10.