Partial90% autopilot capable by 2015
“A Tesla car next year will probably be 90-percent capable of autopilot. Like, so 90 percent of your miles c…”
“That issue is better in latest Autopilot software rolling out now & fully fixed in August update as part of our long-awaited Tesla Version 9. To date, Autopilot resources have rightly focused entirely on safety. With V9, we will begin to enable full self-driving features.”
— Elon Musk · Jun 10, 2018 · Elon Musk on Twitter, June 10 2018 (verified via publish.x.com oEmbed) ↗
See his original post on XLoads Elon's actual tweet, right here.
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What actually happened
Version 9 didn't ship in August — it began rolling out in October 2018, and it contained no 'full self-driving features.' Its flagship addition was Navigate on Autopilot, a supervised highway feature, while the Full Self-Driving package was actually pulled from Tesla's order pages that same month, with Musk calling it 'too confusing.' FSD-branded features didn't reach customers until years later. Re-graded partial (2026-07-05 audit): V9 (Oct 2018) shipped with zero FSD features, but Tesla did 'begin to enable full self-driving features' via software update on Oct 20, 2020, when the first city-streets FSD Beta reached Early Access customers — ~26 months late, supervised where full self-driving was promised, and initially limited to a small group. Tesmanian — FSD Beta released to Early Access Program, Oct 20 2020 ↗
The Progression
Jun 10, 2018
The promise: “That issue is better in latest Autopilot software rolling out now & fully fixed in August update as part of our long-awaited Tesla Version 9. To date, Autopilot resources have rightly focused entirely on safety. With V9, we will begin to enable full self-driving features.” · Elon Musk on Twitter, June 10 2018 (verified via publish.x.com oEmbed) ↗
Oct 20, 2020
Partial — 2.1 years late. Version 9 didn't ship in August — it began rolling out in October 2018, and it contained no 'full self-driving features.' Its flagship addition was Navigate on Autopilot, a supervised highway feature, while the Full Self-Driving package was actually pulled from Tesla's order pages that same month, with Musk calling it 'too confusing.' FSD-branded features didn't reach customers until years later. Re-graded partial (2026-07-05 audit): V9 (Oct 2018) shipped with zero FSD features, but Tesla did 'begin to enable full self-driving features' via software update on Oct 20, 2020, when the first city-streets FSD Beta reached Early Access customers — ~26 months late, supervised where full self-driving was promised, and initially limited to a small group. Tesmanian — FSD Beta released to Early Access Program, Oct 20 2020 ↗
Today · Jul 16, 2026
Status: Partial · 2.1 years late. Sort of happened.
In June 2018 Musk promised Tesla's Version 9 software in August would 'begin to enable full self-driving features' — the first concrete ship date ever attached to the FSD package sold since 2016. V9 arrived in late October without any of them, and that same month Tesla temporarily removed the FSD option from its ordering pages. The first real FSD-branded city-streets software reached limited beta testers in October 2020.
Receipts
LAST CHECKED 2026-07-05- [TWEET] Elon Musk on Twitter, June 10 2018 (verified via publish.x.com oEmbed)
- [REPORT] Electrek, June 10 2018 — contemporaneous coverage, embeds the tweet
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← Tesla profitable & cash flow positive in Q3 and Q4 2018
Two BFR cargo ships land on Mars in 2022 (IAC 2017) →
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