• Tesla will not honor transfers of Full Self-Driving software to the base-trimmed Cybertruck AWD.
• Owners are reportedly being told that they must upgrade to a higher trim in order to transfer the software.
• This has led backlash after owners claim Tesla changed the terms of its deal after they ordered the truck. 

The cheapest Cybertruck trim is finally available, and those who reserved the truck expecting to transfer their Full Self-Driving (Supervised) purchase to the new truck are in for a rude awakening.

As spotted by various Tesla blogs, customers are finding out that the most affordable $60,000 trim isn’t eligible for the transfer despite language apparently suggesting that would be possible when they reserved it. The solution? Pony up another $20,000 for a higher trim, or be prepared to pay $99 per month for something they have a perpetual license for today.

Photo by: Tesla

Owners who anticipated transferring FSD from their existing cars—some of which are Hardware 3-equipped vehicles that will be, by CEO Elon Musk’s own account, unable to reach unsupervised levels of FSD—are finding that they are not able to actually complete the transfer process. Instead, people who placed an order report online that delivery advisors from Tesla say that the terms of the FSD transfer have changed.

This has led to some serious backlash from would-be Cybertruck customers. In fact, numerous Tesla owners report cancelling their purchases over what some argue feels like a bait and switch.

Let’s back up for a second to understand what’s happening. In February, Tesla stopped selling its Full Self-Driving as a one-time purchase and fully transitioned to a monthly subscription model. This means that buyers would no longer be able to pay a lump sum of $8,000 to unlock FSD for the lifetime of its vehicle and would instead need to pay $99 per month to use it—it’s important to point out that one of the tranches in CEO Elon Musk’s $1 trillion pay package is Tesla’s ability to hit 10 million FSD subscribers.

Following this decision, Tesla then opened up orders for the new Cybertruck AWD (the cheapest trim at just under $60,000) on February 20th.

Tesla pulled two demand levers in order to drum up sales. First, Musk pulled the FOMO lever by noting that the price would only be valid for 10 days, meaning that buyers who wanted the cheapest trim would need to order so they could lock in the pricing. Next, Tesla separately reminded owners that the window to transfer FSD to a new vehicle would soon be ending. Given that the Cybertruck doesn’t have Autosteer without FSD, there’s a major incentive to buy FSD alongside the truck.

On February 27th, Tesla quietly updated its the support article for FSD transfer eligibility. As one user on X pointed out, Tesla modified the language from “Customers who place an order for a new Tesla vehicle” to “customers who take delivery of a new Tesla vehicle” by the March deadline.

It’s important to point out that the language also specifically says that vehicles “may” qualify, meaning that Tesla had an out from the start. However, owners who placed an order for the Cybertruck AWD (knowing it could extend past the transfer deadline) did so with the expectation that they could transfer the feature to the trim.

Now owners are reportedly unable to transfer unless they move up to one of Tesla’s higher Cybertruck trims, which means spending another $20,000. If owners choose not to move forward, they report Tesla is offering to refund the $250 order fee.

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Tesla’s stance on this transfer is admittedly confusing from the outside. The automaker could have used this opportunity to move a significant number of owners out of aging Hardware 3 cars and decrease Tesla’s potential liability to retrofit the vehicles with new hardware. Instead, owners are backing out of purchase agreements over the new FSD transfer terms.

While Tesla may have built its business around rapid change and continuous software improvement, moves like this that could affect the automaker’s famously high (but slipping) brand loyalty. For now, it looks like many would-be Cybertruck owners are keeping their older vehicles until further notice.

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