Full Self Driving actually counts as deferred revenue to Tesla, and is reported as a liability on the balance sheet. They cant realize that income until the feature is delivered.

They already recognized large part of that revenue. That was the main reason for them to release half baked party tricks, like smart summon, or weird ones like traffic light control (that will stop your on green light). They used it to recognize more FSD revenue. In 2020 they booked over $250M of that revenue, to help them boost profits.

Don't underestimate power of accounting, mixed with loose ethics.

Interesting. Do you have a source that confirms this?

I searched "Tesla recognizes FSD revenue" and found several immediately.

https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/tesla-autopil...

https://loupventures.com/teslas-software-advantage-is-clear-....

Parent stated that Tesla is using party tricks to recognize a larger than merited portion of FSD revenue. Your links do not make this case.

A "full self driving" car does not exist in this universe, from any company, let alone Tesla, so the fact that they've recognized any revenue against "full self driving" packages does "make the case". If you think the name was meant to mean something lesser, when this $10000 option was added, Elon Musk was publicly saying that there'd be a million Tesla Robotaxis on the road by the end of last year, earning money driving people around while the car owners are at work.

>deferred revenue to Tesla, and is reported as a liability on the balance sheet

if it is a liability on their books, then i would agree with OP that it is an interest free loan.

They can still spend that cash though. It's just an accounting formality.

> the worst part is that it's not even transferable from one car to another.

That would make sense to do it that way: Sell FSD as some sort of license that always works in any Tesla one drives.

How does it currently work? If someone sells their Tesla does the FSD package follow the car or does the new owner need to purchase FSD for that car?

I believe it follows the car, as you can buy used Teslas with FSD.

IIRC it depends on if it was ordered with FSD or bought it as an upgrade. My understanding is if it wasn't originally ordered with it, the new owner has to upgrade again to get it.

(Since its on the monroney label they have to keep it for cars that are ordered with it originally)

It follows the car if you sell directly to another person or through a third party dealership. If Tesla gets the car back, they'll wipe the upgrade and charge for it again.

thanks for answering my question. wow, "wipe the upgrade and charge for it again"... what a racket smh