A select few Tesla Cybertruck owners have taken to the forums to boast about their vehicles finally gaining Full Self-Driving (FSD) capabilities – a technology that was promised alongside the massively delayed truck at launch, but has since taken ten months to arrive.
Posting on cybertruckownersclub.com, one user uploaded a short video of a Cybertruck seemingly driving itself around the city at night, with the user’s hands off the wheel for well over a minute.
The owner then posted: "Boys and girls, the wait is finally over! It is real! It is here now! And it is spectacular!" alongside the clip.
However, a number of customers have been disgruntled at the length of time they have been forced to wait for technology that was sold as a feature rolled into the limited edition Foundation Series of vehicles.
Earlier this month, Tesla said that Cybertruck would also gain Auto Park functionality, but many models are still lacking the most basic Auto Pilot assisted cruise control, as well as the flashier Actually Smart Summon (ASS) features that some influential Model 3 owners gained access to earlier this month.
However, the company has been biding its time when rolling out the very latest version of the FSD software to ensure it works seamlessly with Cybertruck - generally a much larger and more complex vehicle than anything else in the Tesla stable.
After all, Tesla’s Autopilot features and various levels of 'supervised' autonomous driving modes have come under fire in recent years, with US auto-safety regulators claiming it had identified at least 13 fatal crashes in which the Autopilot feature had been involved since investigations were launched in 2021, according to The Guardian.
Despite running on the very latest FSD 12.5.5 (most Teslas are running FSD 12.5.4), there is a caveat that states this remains an "early access" version of the software, meaning not all owners will get it and that there may be some bugs that still require ironing out. As a result, it is largely going out to Tesla employees and Early Access Testers, according to notable Tesla software-tracking website NotaTeslaApp.
There is no word on a wider roll-out of the update, only that it is expected to arrive in the coming weeks for those remaining Foundation Series Cybertruck owners that received Full Self-Driving as part of the limited-edition package.
Going forward, the technology will likely become an optional extra as it is now when building and specifying other models in the Tesla line-up.
Patience is a virtue... when you are a Tesla owner
Tesla is unique in so much as many of its customers are happy to wait for features that were promised at time of launch to arrive. To compound matters, the company seemingly employs a hierarchy of importance, often rolling out these software updates to VIPs and other influential owners first.
But it is not just software that requires a serious amount of patience and self-restraint from owners, as Cybertruck has also been shipping without wheel covers, with many customers still waiting to receive them.
It is a similar story with the range extender battery, which many customers have paid a non-refundable deposit and joined a waiting list for, but production has been pushed into early 2025, so the wait could well be over a year.
Again, an off-road Lightbar accessory, which mounts to the top of the windshield and has to be fitted by a Tesla service center, has been promised several times but still not delivered to many customers.
While many early adopters are often happy to wait, feeling part of an exclusive Tesla club, the same rarely applies to the wider buying public. Over-promising and under-delivering has rarely been considered a strong sales tactic.
