Tesla has reduced the price of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software subscription to $99 per month from $199 per month, as the electric vehicle maker aims to drive adoption of its advanced driver assistance system. driving ahead of first quarter results.
The price cut comes weeks after Tesla launched a free one-month trial of FSD for every customer in the United States with a compatible Tesla. This trial is still ongoing. Formerly known as FSD Beta, Tesla now refers to the software as “Supervised FSD” to make clear that the software does not turn Teslas into autonomous vehicles and that human drivers must still supervise the driving software not so independent.
FSD can handle some advanced driving tasks such as changing lanes, navigating around vehicles and objects, following a driver’s navigation route, and more.
The FSD price cut comes the same week Tesla released more changes to its latest V12 version of the software for some users. Tesla says the latest software upgrades improve FSD’s city street driving capability to run entirely on neural networks.
More drivers with FSD doesn’t just mean more money for Tesla. It also means more video data that the electric vehicle maker can use to train its neural networks and improve the product. Tesla may also consider using this data to fulfill CEO Elon Musk’s recent promise to unveil a Tesla robo-taxi 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 worthless” if it fails to develop self-driving technology. Indeed, Tesla shares may be valued like those of a major technology company, but their margins continue to remind us that Tesla is still just an automaker.
However, as TechCrunch has previously pointed out, greater accessibility to FSD could increase the likelihood of drivers signing up who aren’t doing their part to oversee the software and might find themselves unable to take over if something goes wrong.
Tesla does not appear to have changed the cost of a one-time purchase of FSD, which still stands at $12,000 in the United States.
techcrunch
