Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Sunday announced a 25 percent price increase for the company’s premium driver assistance system, marketed as Full Self-Driving, or FSD. The price will increase to $15,000 from $12,000 on September 5, Musk said in a tweet.
Today, Tesla charges customers $12,000 up front for FSD, or $199 per month on a subscription basis.
Musk did not immediately mention an increase in the price of FSD subscriptions, and Tesla did not respond to a request for additional information.
All new Tesla vehicles come with a standard driver assistance package called Autopilot, which includes features like Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer. They rely on cameras, other sensors, hardware and software to automatically keep the Tesla vehicle centered in its lane and moving at the speed of surrounding traffic.
Tesla’s most expensive driver assistance option, FSD, includes what the company calls “Traffic and Stop Sign Control” and “Autopilot Navigation” among its features.
These more advanced features are intended to allow Tesla cars to automatically detect and slow down for traffic signs and signals; navigate from an on-ramp to an off-ramp while using your turn signals; make a lane change and take exits.
Tesla tells drivers to stay alert and be ready to take over the steering and braking of their cars at all times while using Autopilot or FSD. Its technology does not make Tesla vehicles autonomous.
One Tesla feature called Smart Summon allows drivers to use a smartphone and the Tesla mobile app as a remote control to summon their car from the other parking lot and drive slowly, without anyone behind the wheel, to where they are standing.
Although some FSD features are also included in a lower-cost option called Enhanced Autopilot, or EAP, only Tesla customers who purchase or subscribe to the premium option can request access to the FSD Beta, an experimental version of the system on Tesla.
FSD Beta users must receive a high “safety score” from Tesla to gain and maintain access to the system.
Tesla’s approach has drawn criticism and regulatory scrutiny from both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
Still, the company is going ahead and making a limited release of the latest FSD Beta for a relatively small number of users, Musk tweeted on Sunday.
He previously tweeted: “There are very big changes to the code so this will be an extremely cautious rollout. Release on 8/20 to ~1000 Tesla owners, then 10.69.1 next week to accommodate feedback and release to ~10k customers, then 10.69.2 a week after that and release to the rest of the FSD Beta.”
Owners who gain access to the FSD Beta can send feedback to the company through their cars when the system crashes or malfunctions. Tesla previously said that 100,000 drivers have already installed the FSD Beta.
Tesla plans to make the FSD Beta even more mainstream.
At Tesla’s 2022 annual shareholder meeting on August 4, Musk said the FSD Beta will be available to anyone who requests it by the end of this year. Here is a quote from the Thomson Financial meeting transcript:
“We’re still very much on the lookout for a broad rollout of the FSD Beta this year in North America. So I would basically say that FSD will be available to anyone who asks for it by the end of this year.”
Among those getting the limited edition update this weekend are widely followed social media influencers who sell Tesla merchandise and run ad-supported videos on YouTube channels where they review the latest Tesla releases and more.
Since 2016, NHTSA has opened 38 investigations into crashes involving a Tesla vehicle where driver assistance systems, including Autopilot and more advanced systems, are believed to be a factor. Nineteen deaths were reported as part of these Tesla-related collisions, which are under investigation.
Separately, the California DMV recently accused Tesla of deceptive marketing practices regarding the features of its cars and is conducting a technical review of Tesla’s systems, including the FSD Beta.
Ashok Eluswamy, director of Tesla’s Autopilot software, said on Twitter this weekend that “Autopilot prevents ~40 crashes per day where human drivers mistakenly hit the gas 100% instead of the brakes.” Tesla typically does not provide data about its systems to third-party researchers to back up its claims.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23935560/acastro_STK103__03.jpg)
