Drivers charge their Teslas in Fountain Valley, CA, on Wednesday, March 20, 2024.
Jeff Gritchen | Medianews Group | Getty Images
Tesla said on Friday that it’s cutting the subscription price of its premium driver assistance system for patrons in the U.S.
Marketed as its Full Self-Driving, or FSD, package, Tesla customers will now pay $99 monthly, down from $199 previously.
The price cut is at odds with previous guarantees from CEO Elon Musk, who has repeatedly said that the fee of FSD would only go up as Tesla adds features and functionality to the system.
“The FSD price will proceed to rise because the software gets closer to full self-driving capability with regulatory approval,” Musk wrote on Twitter, now often known as X, on May 18, 2020. He said at that time “the worth of FSD might be somewhere in excess of $100,000” per automobile.
Despite its brand name, the corporate’s FSD option today doesn’t make Tesla vehicles autonomous or functional as robotaxis.
Musk has promised shareholders and customers a robotaxi for years, and has said their existing vehicles would soon turn into self driving after an over-the-air software update.
He told investors on a call in 2019 that autonomous driving would transform Tesla into an organization with a $500 billion market cap, up from around $42 billion at the moment. (The corporate is value over $500 billion today even without having developed an autonomous automobile.) Tesla raised over $2 billion through debt and equity after the decision.
In a notice that is now shown to some drivers through the touchscreen displays in their cars, Tesla says:
“Full Self-Driving (Supervised) can drive your Tesla almost anywhere. It’ll make lane changes, select forks to follow your navigation route, navigate around other vehicles and objects, and make left and right turns. It have to be used with additional caution and an attentive driver. It doesn’t make your vehicle autonomous. Don’t turn into complacent.”
The corporate uses sensors in the steering wheel and cabin cameras, positioned above the rearview mirror, to find out if a driver is attentive or not, and can audibly alert drivers to maintain their eyes on the road or hands on the wheel.
In 2022, the California Department of Motor Vehicles formally accused Tesla of engaging in deceptive practices across the marketing of its driver assistance systems, including its standard package Autopilot and FSD in the U.S., in accordance with filings with a state administrative agency.
Meanwhile, Alphabet-owned Waymo is now operating business robotaxi services in several U.S. cities. The corporate also recently struck a partnership with Uber Eats for driverless food delivery. In China, Didi’s autonomous unit operates commercially in markets including Guangzhou. Firms including Bill Gates-backed Wayve in the U.K. and Amazon’s Zoox in the U.S. are testing robotaxis as well.
In a push for end-of-quarter sales last month, Musk mandated that every one sales and repair staff install and demo FSD for patrons before handing over the keys. He wrote in an email to employees, “Almost nobody actually realizes how well (supervised) FSD actually works. I do know this can decelerate the delivery process, however it is nonetheless a tough requirement.”
After that, Tesla also announced it might give away a one-month free trial of FSD to all customers in North America. Owners’ responses to the most recent version of FSD have been mixed with some fans impressed, and lots of safety-conscious drivers switching off the free FSD trial, viewing it as inconsistent and unsafe.
Musk also recently promised to “unveil” a recent dedicated robotaxi on Aug. 8. Tesla unveilings are marketing events, and do not indicate a date for the beginning of production and deliveries. For instance, Tesla unveiled a new edition of the Roadster, and a totally electric heavy-duty truck called the Semi in 2017 and didn’t begin Semi deliveries until December 2022. It still hasn’t produced the new edition of the Roadster.
Tesla didn’t reply to a request for more information, including whether the price cut announced Friday is everlasting or temporary.
WATCH: Musk is trying to spotlight the worth that robotaxis could bring
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