Every two to four months, the price of the Full Self-Driving (FSD) option, which you could buy in Tesla’s electric cars for then 6,000 dollars or 6,300 euros, explained CEO Elon Musk in August 2019. In fact, it was shortly thereafter, at least in the USA, 1,000 dollars higher and since then it has increased in two further steps to 10,000 dollars the FSD price in Europe rose only once to currently 7500 euros. But the last US increase is now more than a year ago – and on Saturday Musk announced the next one.
Tesla boss wants to take $ 2,000 more
The CEO’s latest announcement only affects the US, as he specifically wrote that the price would rise to $ 12,000 and later explicitly confirmed this restriction. In addition, a beta test with a version of the autopilot system, also known as FSD, is currently only running in Tesla’s home country, with which the vision of autonomous driving is to be implemented. With the Starting in October 2020, the FSD price rose by $ 2,000. European customers were again spared, but no beta test has yet started for them – on the contrary, some complain that the European autopilot is apparently no longer being developed any further.
In the USA, on the other hand, things are progressing, albeit much more slowly than Musk has repeatedly promised. The beta test was originally supposed to be extended to all US customers with the FSD option as early as March 2021. That was delayed until the fall and then only started for Tesla drivers working in one The newly introduced Safety Score previously received the highest scores reach. The FSD beta is now at version 10.8.1, and even if CEO Musk and some fans celebrate almost every update as breathtakingly good, testers continue to report serious bugs.
Tesla FSD price rising to $12k on Jan 17
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2022
Apparently unaffected by this, Musk announced the next US price increase to $ 12,000 for the end of next week on Saturday, in a step of 2000 as at the beginning of the beta test in October 2020. After several of his previous target dates for the technical Completion of the Tesla system passed without result were, he named a new one at the end of 2021: “It looks quite likely that it will be next year,” he replied to the interview question as to when, with the usual small restrictions master the FSD software level 4 autonomous driving become, i.e. in certain areas completely without human drivers or watchdogs. Before that, the Tesla boss had even spoken of Level 5 by the end of 2021, among other things.
Fewer Tesla customers are buying the FSD option
His credibility in matters of autonomy won through the row-wise shifts has not increased since 2017, and according to the evaluation of a Twitter observer, the proportion of Tesla customers who opt for the FSD option has also fallen significantly since mid-2019. In neglected Europe, it is lower than in the USA, despite the omitted price steps, and the global average was only 11 percent in mid-2021. With the next increase announced at home at the end of next week, Musk could, at least in the short term, get some customers there to buy the autonomy option. However Tesla now also offers a subscription model for $ 199 a month. CEO Musk did not initially reveal whether this should also be more expensive.