Tesla’s Latest FSD Transfer Shenanigans Show The Tough Choice Electric Truck Buyers Face

The Latest Bait & Switch

If you follow the electric vehicle space, you probably feel like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football when it comes to Tesla and its Full Self Driving promises. The latest drama involves a very quiet update to the terms and conditions for transferring FSD software to a new vehicle. Lucy yanked the ball again.

Back in January, Tesla announced a promotion that allowed existing owners to transfer their paid FSD license to a new car, provided they simply placed an order by March 31, 2026. This sparked a massive wave of orders for the newly introduced $59,990 Cybertruck Dual Motor AWD. Buyers wanted to lock in that transfer before the deadline and enjoy the FSD software they paid for in the years to come. Delivery dates for that specific lower-cost truck are now stretching well into 2027.

Then, right at the end of February, Tesla quietly updated its support page. They changed the requirement from ordering by the deadline to actually taking delivery by March 31. Because the Cybertruck AWD will not be delivered for another year (people buying up other, more expensive packages pushed that out), this effectively canceled the transfer eligibility for thousands of buyers. According to reports from Electrek, Tesla maintains that the program is subject to change at any time and they are offering to refund the $250 order deposits.

Critics argue (reasonably, IMHO) this appears to be a classic bait and switch. To make matters worse, Tesla raised the base price of that same Cybertruck to $69,990 just ten days after launching it. They also stopped selling FSD as a flat fee in the middle of February, moving new buyers entirely to a $99 per month subscription model. Teslarati noted that the decision has ignited a fierce debate among owners who feel cheated out of their original investments.

A Decade of Moving Goalposts

This recent policy shift is just the newest entry in a very long history of moving the goalposts on people who paid in full for Full Self Driving. We have been hearing that full autonomy is around one year away (or less) since 2016. That was the year Elon Musk promised a completely autonomous demonstration drive from Los Angeles to New York by the end of 2017. He also insisted in a 2016 company blog post that every car rolling off the production line had all the hardware needed for full self driving capability once the software was ready.

Today, the reality looks quite different. Tesla recently rebranded the software to FSD Supervised, which legally shifts the liability back to the human driver. During recent earnings calls, the company finally admitted that older Hardware 3 cars might not ever achieve unsupervised driving. People who paid thousands of dollars for a robotaxi that never arrived are now realizing their cars lack the computing power to finish the job.

Great Technology Trapped by Fine Print

To be abundantly fair, the software itself is achieving some incredible milestones and has even delivered on the coast-to-coast promise from 2017.

In January, automotive adventurer and journalist Alex Roy completed a zero-intervention cross country trip from Los Angeles to New York using the latest FSD version on a 2024 Model S. Roy is well known for setting a major Cannonball Run record and for his subsequent EV and autonomous Cannonballs. This 3,081 mile winter drive is just the latest part of his story, proving that a full auto run across the US is finally not only possible, but a completed task. The journey took just over 58 hours and the car handled extreme weather and charging detours completely on its own.

That run proves the new AI4 hardware and neural nets are making massive technical progress, but that success does highlight the frustration for early adopters. The technology is finally starting to work, yet Tesla is making it nearly impossible for some of its most loyal customers to move their old FSD licenses to capable new vehicles without paying a monthly fee forever, just like the Johnny-come-lately buyers.

The Opportunity Cost, Especially In The Electric Truck Space

When you look at the electric truck market right now, buyers face a very clear fork in the road.

On one side, you have vehicles like the Chevy Silverado EV LT, which costs roughly $72,000 for the extended range model without Super Cruise (I recently paid about that myself). That money buys a massive 170 kWh battery pack and straightforward physical utility on a frame that’s honestly somewhere between ¾-ton and one-ton capacity. It is built to tow heavy loads and allow you to drive around two hours between 20–30 minute charging stops with a mid-sized trailer. The GMC Sierra EV (the same truck with different looks, as usual) is available similarly specced and priced.

On the other side, you have the Cybertruck AWD. Tesla recently hiked the price of that model back up to $69,990. While the Cybertruck offers a roughly 40% smaller battery (123 kWh) and that much less towing range, it sells the appeal of cutting edge technology and a self-driving future for people who don’t see themselves doing long-distance towing.

The problem is the hidden cost attached to that technological dream. If you want the advanced self-driving features on a new Cybertruck today, you are forced into a $99 monthly subscription because Tesla stopped selling the software as a one-time purchase. The only way around that subscription was to transfer an older, fully paid FSD license from a previous Tesla. As we just saw with the sudden policy change, buyers who ordered a Cybertruck specifically to keep their paid license are now losing it anyway because of fine print and delivery delays out of their control. They are effectively being asked to surrender a feature they already own and start paying rent on it instead, which drives the cost up compared to the GM trucks.

Taking Care Of Tesla’s Most Loyal Customers

Every driver has different priorities.

Some people (like me) just want a massive battery to pull a travel trailer across the country, while others are more than happy to pay for the latest neural net advancements and avant-garde design. This doesn’t make Cybertruck owners not “truck people” like people who want a GM or Ford truck, but it does mean that they’ve got different priorities and use cases.

But, the people who bought into the FSD vision six or seven years ago are the ones who funded the research that makes today’s FSD software (arguably the biggest advantage to the Cybertruck that can negate its limited towing range) possible. Those early adopters took a huge financial risk on an unfinished product that is finally paying off. They deserve a much more fair shake than a midnight policy change that traps their original investment on an aging car.

Featured image: the original Cybertruck announcement, complete with broken glass. Image by Kyle Field, CleanTechnica.