Elon Musk says Tesla FSD driver assistance will cost $12k.
- Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated on Twitter on Friday that the company's premium driver assistance package, billed as Full Self-Driving or FSD, will increase the price from $10,000 to $12,000 on January 17 for customers in the United States alone.
- Full-Self Driving, or FSD, is a premium package that includes Autopilot functions as well as more advanced features like automatic lane-changing, stop light recognition, and "smart summon," which allows drivers to summon their car from a parking spot using their smartphone and the Tesla app as a remote control.
- Musk claimed in a tweet on Friday that a new 10.9 release is approaching completion, which will update FSD Beta.
"Monthly subscription pricing will raise when FSD goes to wide release," Musk said in response to a question about Tesla's FSD subscription service (which currently costs $199 per month for most users). He also promised a new edition of FSD Beta, an invitation-only programme that gives chosen drivers who match Tesla's standards access to more advanced capabilities.
Tesla does not say how many of its customers pay for FSD in advance or subscribe to it each quarter in its earnings reports. As a result, it's unclear how much a price increase in the United States will help the company's margins in the future.
Autopilot is the company's standard driver assistance feature, which comes standard on all new vehicles (the Model S, X, Y and 3).
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According to Tesla's website, Autopilot features include automated emergency braking, forward collision warning, lane keeping, and adaptive cruise control, which basically matches your car's speed to that of the surrounding traffic.
Full-Self Driving, or FSD, is a premium package that includes Autopilot functions as well as more advanced features like automatic lane-changing, stop light recognition, and "smart summon," which allows drivers to summon their car from a parking spot using their smartphone and the Tesla app as a remote control. Despite its name, it does not currently allow cars to drive themselves without the need for human assistance.
Separately, an FSD Beta tier is available, which contains even more advanced features.
Musk claimed in a tweet on Friday that a new 10.9 release is approaching completion, which will update FSD Beta.
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FSD Beta is only available to drivers who have received, purchased, or subscribed to FSD and have received a high "safety score" from Tesla. Once inside, visitors can try out incomplete capabilities such as "autosteer on city streets," which Tesla claims will eventually allow drivers to manoeuvre around residential and urban surface streets without having to steer on their own, avoiding any obstacles.
Different components of Tesla's FSD development and technology are being investigated by the California Department of Motor Vehicles and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Tesla has stated that their technology is just a "level 2" system to both agencies. "Level 2 systems may enhance safety or provide driver assistance, but they are not capable of driving or running the vehicle without the active physical control or monitoring of a human," according to the DMV.
Musk, on the other hand, has hinted that the company's technology is further advanced than level 2. "When do you believe Tesla will solve Level 4 FSD?" YouTuber Lex Fridman asked Musk in an interview released on December 28, 2021. "It's looking fairly likely that it'll happen next year," Musk said, referring to 2022.
Tesla has been promising self-driving cars since around 2016, but it has yet to demonstrate the hands-free driving across the United States that Elon Musk predicted would be available by the end of 2017.
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