If you own a Tesla, you’ll likely know that adding the company’s “Full Self-Driving” feature, a NHTSA level 2 driver assistance feature, would come at a pretty hefty price: $US10,000 ($13,516), to be exact. Now, the electronic driver aid will be available on a subscription basis for $US99 ($134) or $US199 ($269) per month, depending on the vehicle.
This information has been gleaned from Tesla’s support page, which has been updated to reflect the subscription pricing. To subscribe to the Full Self-Driving Feature, you’ll have to have Autopilot. If you have Basic Autopilot, you’ll be paying $US199 ($269) per month. With Enhanced Autopilot, that’ll be $US99 ($134) per month.
So, instead of paying $US10,000 ($13,516) up front, you’ll be paying just under $US1,200 ($1,622) or just under $US2,400 ($3,244). You’ll already need to have the Full Self-Driving computer available on your Tesla; if that’s missing, you can choose to download it from the Schedule Service section of Tesla’s app. That hardware will cost an additional $US1,500 ($2,027).
As a reminder, the Full Self-Driving feature has a misleading name. It’s only a level 2 driver assistance technology, which means that a human driver needs to be monitoring the system at all times — which is something Tesla notes with the following paragraph:
Note: These features are designed to become more capable over time; however the currently enabled features do not make the vehicle autonomous. The currently enabled features require a fully attentive driver, who has their hands on the wheel and is prepared to take over at any moment.
So, Full Self-Driving is so named to reflect the technology it will one day become, not the technology it currently is.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been promising a subscription-based FSD service for a while, and the company made its first steps toward rolling it out on a wider scale by introducing over-the-air software updates for the FSD beta of version 9.
There are a few important things to note here, though. The subscription agreement on Tesla’s website notes that the company can increase the price of subscription at any time; owners will be given a one-month notice to determine whether or not they want to continue with FSD. They can also cancel at any time.