Tesla pushes autonomy into subscriptions

Tesla is turning Full Self-Driving into a subscription product, not a one-time upgrade. (cnbc.com) (techcrunch.com) Elon Musk said on January 14 that Tesla would stop selling Full Self-Driving, or FSD, for a flat fee after February 14. The software now starts at $99 a month instead of an $8,000 upfront purchase. (cnbc.com) (tesla.com) Tesla’s support page says FSD subscriptions are currently available for eligible vehicles in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand. Customers can buy it in the Tesla app or on the car’s touchscreen. (tesla.com) FSD is not a self-driving car in the everyday sense. Tesla describes it as a supervised driver-assistance system, which means the human driver must stay attentive and ready to steer or brake. (tesla.com) (cnbc.com) That pricing shift changes what Tesla is selling with each vehicle. Instead of collecting most of the software money at delivery, Tesla can bill drivers every month and keep the feature tied to ongoing use. (cnbc.com) (techcrunch.com) Tesla’s April 22 first-quarter update put that strategy at the center of its investor message. The company said its Spring Update added a new in-vehicle Self-Driving App that lets AI4-vehicle owners subscribe to FSD, learn the feature and view ongoing stats. (tesla.com 1) (tesla.com 2) The same quarterly update paired software with robotaxi expansion. Tesla said it received approval for FSD Supervised in the Netherlands in April and launched unsupervised Robotaxi rides in Dallas and Houston in April. (tesla.com) South Korea shows why that matters for Tesla’s overseas playbook. Tesla became the top imported car brand there in the first quarter, selling 20,964 vehicles, while March registrations alone reached 11,130 units. (techinasia.com) (biz.chosun.com) South Korean mobility company Socar is also building around autonomy as a service. On April 15, it said it would use its 25,000-vehicle fleet and 15 years of operating data to develop end-to-end autonomous driving models and future robotaxi services. (en.sedaily.com) Tesla is making that subscription push while regulators and rivals keep pressing the company’s claims. CNBC reported Tesla still needs permits for driverless testing in California, while Waymo had already reached more than 450,000 weekly paid rides by December. (cnbc.com) The result is a simpler Tesla sales pitch: sell the car once, then sell the driving software every month. Tesla’s April disclosures show the company wants investors to value that software stream alongside the vehicles themselves. (tesla.com 1) (tesla.com 2)