Facepalm: Elon Musk has finally admitted what auto industry insiders have said for years: no other automaker wants to license Tesla's Full Self-Driving technology. The admission comes after years of bragging by Musk and other senior Tesla executives about how great the software is and how major car companies are supposedly lining up to use it.
This week, Musk admitted on X that since offering to license Tesla's self-driving technology for a small fee, there have been no takers. Most rival automakers want nothing to do with it, and the few that did show interest wanted to run small pilots with no immediate plans to bring it to scale.
Musk recalled previously warning automakers they could face an existential crisis without FSD, but most still turned him down. One major automaker reportedly wanted to implement FSD in an extremely limited trial with "unworkable" conditions for Tesla, ensuring the talks went nowhere.
I've tried to warn them and even offered to license Tesla FSD, but they don't want it! Crazy …
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2025
When legacy auto does occasionally reach out, they tepidly discuss implementing FSD for a tiny program in 5 years with unworkable requirements for Tesla, so pointless.
Musk stopped short of naming the automaker, but reports from last year claim Tesla was negotiating with Ford over an FSD licensing contract. In June, Ford CEO Jim Farley confirmed those talks, telling journalist Walter Isaacson that the deal fell through after the company evaluated Tesla's and Waymo's driver-assistance software and found Waymo's LiDAR-based system to be far more advanced than Tesla's, which relies solely on cameras.
Tesla charges a one-time fee of around $10,000 for its Full Self-Driving (FSD) suite, and most customers gladly pay for what is legally just Level 2 driver-assistance software. The technology allows cars to steer, change lanes, park, and respond to traffic lights autonomously, but it still requires human supervision.
Despite Musk's optimism, FSD and its predecessor, Autopilot, have often proven less than reliable. The technology is currently under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration following reports of vehicles in FSD mode running red lights and driving the wrong way on highways and suburban roads.
In August, a judge found Tesla liable for a death linked to Autopilot and ordered the carmaker to pay $242 million in damages. The company is also under investigation for four other crashes reportedly involving FSD, with the probe covering up to 2.4 million vehicles.