Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Now Costs $15,000
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From producing electric semi-trucks to fully self-driving vehicles, Tesla is continuously bridging the gap between the automobile and technology industries. However, being on the cutting edge comes with a price tag. As a result, Tesla’s prices have risen rapidly since the beginning of 2022, including on their already pricey Full Self-Driving (FSD) software. Here’s a better look at FSD software and how Tesla plans to implement it moving forward.
Understanding Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) mode
While Tesla vehicles are on the cutting edge of EV technology, these EVs do not come fully equipped with full self-driving capabilities. If Tesla owners want to gain access to Tesla’s driver assistance technology, they must purchase Tesla’s infamous FSD software.
Infamous is the word that comes to mind when thinking of FSD technology, as it is still in its “beta” phase and has caused a number of accidents since its adoption. In early 2022, a Tesla Model 3 that was using FSD software nearly splattered a cyclist. In 2021, five different Tesla EVs utilizing FSD software kept crashing at the same spot in Yosemite. While FSD technology has had a number of hiccups, Tesla is confident that its new FSD technology is ready for consumer use.
Tesla has been offering an FSD subscription to Tesla owners since 2021. The beta version of Tesla’s FSF went into wide release in October 2021. While Tesla EVs have had autopilot features for many years, the FSD software requires less driver input than ever before. FSD is just a more autonomous version of Tesla’s original AutoPilot function.
FSD operates based on a neural network, where the neural network constantly collects information and shares it with the network allowing the FSD software to “learn” the information being collected by all Tesla’s using FSD. Some of the top features of FSD software include Traffic-Aware Cruise Control, Autosteer, and Navigate. FSD also comes with auto lane change, autopark, summon, and smart summon. Essentially, smart summon allows Tesla owners to call their cars to them like a well-trained dog.
Tesla is raising its FSD price again.
In its late 2021 wide release, the FSD subscription was made available to consumers in the United States for $10,000 upfront or $199 per month. While this is already a considerable amount, Tesla is already raising the price of its FSD subscription. According to Edmunds, Tesla is set to raise the price of its FSD software to $15,000.
Elon Musk announced that the FSD software’s new price would go into effect on September 5, 2022. However, any order placed before this date will be honored at the previous price of $12,000. With Tesla raising its prices on its EVs, too, the overall price of a Tesla with FSD technology has risen more than $5,000 since the beginning of 2022.
Will Tesla be fully autonomous by the end of 2022?
Along with the many changes that Tesla has already made throughout 2022, the company has plans to be fully autonomous by the end of 2022. According to Electrek, Elon Musk says Tesla will have self-driving cars without the need for human drivers in less than a year. While Musk is optimistic about Tesla’s capabilities, he has been wrong in the past.
Back in 2015, Musk predicted that Tesla EVs would be fully autonomous without the need for driver supervision by 2017. Of course, this is not how things ultimately played out. While Musk might be wrong with his prediction timeline, fully autonomous Tesla’s are certainly on the horizon.
