Tesla has cut the price of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software subscription to $99 per month, down from $199 per month, as the electric car maker aims to boost adoption of its advanced driver assistance system ahead of first-quarter earnings.
The price cut comes two weeks after Tesla launched a free one-month trial of FSD to every US customer with a compatible Tesla vehicle. That trial is still ongoing. Previously known as FSD Beta, Tesla now refers to the program as “Supervised FSD” to clarify that the program does not convert Teslas into self-driving vehicles, and human drivers still need to supervise the non-self-driving software. .
The FSD can handle some advanced driving tasks like making lane changes, navigating around vehicles and objects, following the driver's navigation path, and more.
The FSD price cut comes in the same week that Tesla released further tweaks to the latest V12 version of the software for select users. Tesla says the latest software upgrades the FSD's ability to drive on city streets to run entirely on neural networks.
More drivers with FSD doesn't just mean more money for Tesla. It also means more video data, which the electric car manufacturer can use to train its neural networks and improve the product. Tesla may also seek to use this data so it can fulfill CEO Elon Musk's recent promise to unveil a Tesla robotaxi in August.
Musk urged drivers to increase the value of their cars by purchasing the software, and said in 2022 that Tesla's value is “zero” if it cannot develop self-driving technology. In fact, Tesla stock may be valued like a big tech company, but its margins still remind us that Tesla is still just a car manufacturer.
However, increased access to FSD may increase the likelihood of drivers enrolling who do not play their part in supervising the program and may find themselves unable to take over if something goes wrong.
Tesla doesn't appear to have changed the one-time purchase cost of an FSD, which is still $12,000 in the US, but that price has fluctuated in recent years as well. In 2022, Tesla increased the cost of the FSD to $15,000 in North America, before reducing it again to its current price a year later.
The current price cut, which somewhat democratizes the program, is a stark contrast to Musk's statement just four years ago on X, formerly Twitter, that the closer the FSD gets to full self-driving capability, the more valuable it is. Musk said at the time that the program would likely rise to more than $100,000.
