Tesla may offer self-driving capabilities via subscription model

Tesla is considering the introduction of a pay-as-you-go subscription for its Full Self-Driving Capability package. The package was pre-sold in Tesla vehicles for years before the company planned to make the technology available through the software, which led to criticism of Tesla for giving the impression that its vehicles can operate entirely autonomously, which they cannot. Tesla has said it will increase the price of the Full Self-Driving Capability package as new features are rolled out. The pay-as-you-go subscription is a way of making it more affordable.

Tesla is working on a pay-as-you-go subscription to its “Full Self-Driving Capability” package in order to make its features more accessible.

There are several things about how Tesla is approaching self-driving technology that makes it different from the rest of the auto industry and tech companies developing the technology.

The automaker refuses to use lidar sensors and instead plans to rely mainly on computer vision technology using cameras.

It also started installing the needed hardware in all its vehicles years ago when it believed that self-driving had become mostly a software problem.

But most notably, Tesla started to pre-sell a “Full Self-Driving Capability” package in its vehicles years before it planned on making the technology available through the software.

That’s a somewhat bold move that has been criticized for different reasons.

Some say that it’s confusing customers in thinking that Tesla vehicles are currently capable of self-driving, which is not the case.

Others have also criticized Tesla for often changing the price of the package up and down, even though they haven’t delivered the features promised in the package.

Over the last year, CEO Elon Musk has made Tesla’s pricing strategy clearer when it comes to the “Full Self-Driving Capability” package: Tesla is going to increase the price of the package as it introduces new features.

Currently, Tesla sells its “Full Self-Driving Capability” package for $7,000. It’s not cheap and it’s getting more expensive.

With the latest features being released, Musk recently said that Tesla is preparing another price increase “probably on July 1.”

Now we learn that Tesla is working on a way to make it less expensive with a pay-as-you-go subscription plan.

Tesla hacker Green said on Twitter that the code is already on the app:

There’s code for pay as you go subscription plan, has been for quite a while. Waiting for that eventual time when it will make sense I am sure 😉

Last year, Tesla introduced software upgrades available for sale through its app in just one click. The first feature available was the Acceleration Boost.

They also added the “Full Self-Driving Capability” package to the in-app purchase system, which led to some issues with Tesla owner unintentionally buying the expensive software upgrades and not getting refunds.

Now it sounds like Tesla is also planning to offer a reduced price on the package through the app for the people who had Enhanced Autopilot, which included many of the features who are now in the FSD package.

Electrek’s Take

That’s interesting. I’d be curious to know what shape such a model would take.

How much would you be willing to pay per month to have access to the FSD features? $20? $30? $40?

What I think would be even more interesting is if Tesla would breakdown the package for people to buy just some features.

What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.