Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, said on Twitter that after the release of the latest beta version of the Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, the price of the latter will increase from $12,000 to $15,000 in North America. The price increase will take place on September 5, but Elon Musk specifies that orders placed before this date will be honored at the initial price. A rate that has already undergone a sharp increase, since it had gone from $10 to $12,000 in January 2022.
After wide release of FSD Beta 10.69.2, price of FSD will rise to $15k in North America on September 5th.
Current price will be honored for orders made before Sept 5th, but delivered later.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 21, 2022
At this time, we don’t know if Tesla will increase the price of the FSD subscription, which is set at $199 per month. In France, this subscription formula is not valid, as is Fully Autonomous Driving or Full Self-Driving, but it is possible to subscribe to Autopilot for an optional additional cost of €7,500.
Full Self-Driving software allows drivers to use Tesla’s Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS), Autopilot, to navigate to a specific destination, adding traffic light and sign recognition, which allows assisted driving in town. However, the FSD does not make the vehicle completely autonomous, since it requires the driver to keep their hands on the wheel and to be attentive to the road at all times.
In addition, the manufacturer has not yet taken any steps to make its fully autonomous driving compatible with the legislation concerning level 3 semi-autonomous driving. This has been legal in Europe since July 2022, but only Mercedes has the the moment has equipped its S-Class and EQS with this option.
Elon Musk justifies this price increase by the work done by its developers and the update of its software, which would improve the insertion of the vehicle in dangerous intersections and would solve the problems of ghost braking. It should also be noted that at the beginning of the summer of 2022, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) accused Tesla of making “misleading statementsabout the self-driving capabilities of its vehicles. The DMV says the Autopilot and FSD names, and the language Tesla uses to describe them, could mislead users into believing the vehicles can operate autonomously. Similarly, Tesla is under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration due to several crashes potentially involving the FSD.