I didn’t say stop offering, just stop “selling.” Going forward, FSD will be offered as a monthly subscription at a price of $99. I am way too frugal to spend thousands of dollars for constantly-available FSD, but have rented it for a month at a time, whenever I head out on a long road trip.
The first year’s experiences, beginning with the third full day of ownership, had some hiccups, so I remained very alert, just is case it did something odd… and it did.
The frequency of those occurrences has dropped substantially, since my first FSD drive a couple years ago.
Since that drive, I’ve gone all-in on FSD for long road trips. At $99 per month, I don’t pay for it while staying around Dallas/Fort Worth.
Here are some of those drives:
- East Texas tour – 902 miles
- Searching for the total eclipse – 773 miles
- Rocky Mountain National Park – 1,990 miles
- Texas EV’s South Texas Road Trip – 1,329 miles
- Texas EV’s Border-to-Border road trip – 2,353 miles
- Several trips to the state capitol and Houston for Texas EV – averaging 500 miles per trip
A three day trip to Austin leaves me with 27 days of FSD while in DFW and I do not waste it. I use it, especially in heavy traffic, where it reduces my stress level.
Here’s why I think this is a major deal: Tesla owners, like me, who are too frugal to have bought FSD at $12,000, then $8,000, then $5,000, will start to rent it. (This has been available for a while, but many still haven’t tried it yet.) Those who haven’t experienced it recently will be surprised by how far FSD has come. News articles that cover FSD can finally stop saying “Tesla’s $8,000 FSD option…”. Drivers will discover that they want FSD (and can afford it) in their next car. Hopefully, the price will continue to drop. I’d keep it on all the time if it was $49 per month. Exploding the frequency of useage and number of users will help keep FSD improving. Tesla needs to shore up sales of their vehicles and this will be helpful in that regard.
The users of hands-free driving will give their friends demos, showing it off. (I know, because I do.) Those people will see commercials for competitors, like GM’s Super Cruise or Ford’s BlueCruise and realize hands free driving isn’t exclusive to Teslas.
In October 2024, Ford reduced the cost of BlueCruise subscriptions to $49.99 per month. (hint, hint, Tesla)
Read more on Electrek.
