Tesla has slashed the price of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software subscription to $99 per month, down from $199 per month, as the electric vehicle maker aims to boost adoption of its advanced driver assistance system ahead of first-quarter earnings.
The price cut comes a couple of weeks after Tesla launched a free one-month trial of FSD for every customer in the U.S. with a compatible Tesla. That trial is still ongoing. Formerly known as FSD Beta, Tesla is now referring to the software as “Supervised FSD” to make it clear that the software doesn’t turn Teslas into autonomous vehicles, and human drivers still need to supervise the not-so-self-driving software.
FSD can handle certain advanced driving tasks like making lane changes, navigating around vehicles and objects, following a driver’s navigation route and more.
The FSD price cut comes the same week that Tesla released more tweaks to its latest V12 version of the software to certain users. Tesla says the latest software upgrades FSD’s city-streets driving capability to run entirely on neural networks.
More drivers with FSD doesn’t only mean more money for Tesla. It also means more video data, which the EV maker can use to train its neural nets and improve the product. Tesla might also be angling to use that data so it can meet CEO Elon Musk’s recent promise to unveil a Tesla robotaxi in August.
Musk has urged drivers to increase the value of their own cars by purchasing the software, and said in 2022 that Tesla is “basically worth zero” if it can’t develop self-driving technology. Indeed, Tesla’s stock may be valued like a big tech company, but its margins continue to remind us that Tesla is still just an automaker.
However, greater FSD accessibility might increase the likelihood of drivers signing up who aren’t doing their part to supervise the software and may find themselves unable to take over if something goes wrong.
Tesla doesn’t appear to have changed the cost of a one-time purchase of FSD, which is still $12,000 in the U.S. But that price has fluctuated in recent years, as well. In 2022, Tesla increased the cost of FSD to $15,000 in North America, before dropping it back down to its current price a year later.
The current price cut, which somewhat democratizes the software, is a stark contradiction to Musk’s statement just four years ago on X, formerly Twitter, that the closer FSD gets to full self-driving capability, the higher its value will increase. Musk said at the time the software could even rise to “probably somewhere in excess of $100,000.”
