Tesla’s monthly subscription for its proprietary Full Self Driving package has now begun charging owners $199 per month. Although the subscription would just cost $99 per month for Tesla owners who bought the since-discontinued Enhanced Autopilot package. This was mentioned on Tesla’s support page.
The automaker had been offering its FSD package for a one-time fee of $10,000. This was not favourable for users who wanted to test-drive using the FSD features without paying up for a long-term commitment. The subscription model now solves this problem. The monthly FSD subscription can also be cancelled at any time by the owners, as per the Tesla website.
The computer hardware requires to be 3.0 (HW3) or above and have either the Basic or the Enhanced Autopilot configurations. Only Teslas will be eligible to subscribe to FSD. The other owners can however purchase a hardware upgrade for $1,500 and get their Teslas FSD-eligible.
Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, had been promising owners a subscription option for Full Self Driving for years. Now, finally, Tesla has started sending out over-the-air software updates for the beta of version 9 FSD. The FSD software, however, won’t enable a Tesla vehicle to drive itself. It would still require input from the driver.
An owner shared an update notice from Tesla with CNBC, which mentioned the FSD subscription model would include “features like Navigate on Autopilot, Auto Lane Change, Auto Park, Summon and Traffic Light and Stop Sign Control.” It also went on to state that “the currently enabled features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous.”