Tesla FSD Transfer - I did it! How did it go?

In the Tesla Q2'23 quarterly call, retail investors (and Tesla customers) asked (for about the millionth time) if Tesla would allow Full Self-Driving (FSD) to be transferred to a new car. The answer has been 'no' every time this has been asked. So when I heard the question, I was thinking "What a waste of time"; however, shockingly, the answer was 'Yes' this time.

It was a qualified yes, but still a yes. Here are the conditions from Tesla: 

from Tesla's website

We've been considering a Model Y. It would be our road trip vehicle. I've been waiting for Tesla's new camera suite (HW4) to be deployed. These new cameras are significantly better than the HW3 cameras and may be required for FSD to ever leave the beta phase.

via AIDRIVR on Twitter/X 

 We checked our eligibility.

from Tesla's website

1) We'd be ordering the Model Y in late July, so it should
     be easy to take delivery by the end of September

2) Make sure you include FSD in the car we're ordering

3) We currently have a Model 3 with FSD

4) We order them on the same account

5) Agree to terms (more on this later) 

 

We met all of the requirements. We ordered a new Model Y on July 29th. 

Here's what happened next. We received a text from our sales advisor. We told them that we wanted to transfer FSD. They said that we'd have to wait until a VIN was assigned. 

Our VIN was assigned about a week later. We then received the terms and conditions document with both the donor VIN and the recipient VIN typed in a tiny font on a document that looked like a copy of a copy of a copy.

Here are the terms and conditions: 

We signed the terms and conditions and sent it in. Our delivery was scheduled for August 8th. 

I had to get the finances in place. The vehicle purchase agreement had the $15,000 FSD price on it. We know that's being removed from the price, but I can't just remove $15,000 from the final price and use that for the new final price since there are taxes and other things that would be adjusted too. So I texted Tesla and said I needed the purchase agreement updated to show the final price updated for the FSD transfer. They said, "It's coming." Finally, on the day before delivery, we received an updated purchase price.

The way they modified the price was by adding $15,000 to the referral credit. This had me worried. Referral credits could be considered a payment of sorts and could have tax consequences. After a little googling and I found this:

 

from https://referral-factory.com/learn/calculating-the-value-of-a-referral-reward/

My worries were assuaged when, on purchase day, we received an update and saw that this was only temporary. The referral credit was back to $500 (for using our referral code) and this final version of the purchase agreement removed FSD from the cost altogether. Luckily, the amounts were exactly the same or we'd be running back to the bank for an updated cashier's check. Later that day we received the transfer confirmation.

FSD was removed from our Model 3 on the day before we picked up our new Model Y. 

When we picked up our Model Y. It listed FSD on the vehicle. 

We completed our camera calibration driving, double-tapped the stalk, and Autopilot started. Just AP, not FSD. What happened? FSD was not yet functional on the HW4 platform. There's a note on the FSD screen in the car that says a new (yet unreleased) version of FSD is needed to enable HW4. 

FSD Beta for HW4 is coming soon and our crystal-clear cameras will be waiting for the over-the-air update to enable it.

If you are interested in transferring FSD, I would not wait until the end of the quarter. Things get hectic at that time and if your delivery is moved from Q3 to Q4, you might lose out. 

Disclosure: I am long Tesla

UPDATE: FSD Beta Arrived! On August 30th, we received our first SW update for the car and it came with FSD Beta v11.4.4. So we had the car for less than a month and it is already driving itself (with close supervision). After hearing Musk say that HW4 would be 6 months behind HW3, I thought I'd have to wait until 2024 sometime.