Tesla is still the most sought-after EV brand out of all the options, and it's partly because of its automated features such as Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD). Potentially because of the company's current financial difficulties, its subscription fee for the FSD has now been cut by half.
Tesla's FSD Price Drop
Unless you have the FSD feature and placed a one-time payment of $12,000 for the service, you might be happy to know that you will be paying significantly less for the monthly subscription fee for the assistive driving function.
Once costing $199 per month, Tesla FSD is now available for $99 monthly, cutting it down by a little over half the price. In case you don't know, FSD is the more capable assistive feature for Teslas when it comes to automated driving as opposed to Autopilot.
Before committing to the monthly payment, Tesla owners can try the feature out for free with the one-month free trial, as per The Verge, which is part of the EV maker's attempt to encourage more drivers to use the automated feature.
Tesla buyers, including the prospective ones, will also get a demo ride with the FSD so they can see it in action. It has been mandated and was a direct order from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, which means service center employees will show customers how it works.
Although the price drop might seem like another strategic move to get more owners to use the FSD function, it might also be due to Tesla's current financial woes. Reports say that the company's quarterly vehicle deliveries have seen a decline for the first time in years.
That does not bode well for the company, especially since more automakers are entering the EV market with more affordable prices, as well as providing more options than what Tesla can offer. Plus, the EV giant plans to enter the robotaxi industry as well.
The only difference between Tesla's and other automakers' automated driving features is that the former now encourages its customers to use FSD on local roads that have traffic signals, compared to the generally accepted highway-only rule.
Tesla Driverless Taxis
We have already seen what robotaxis are capable of and what kind of incidents they might cause, which is why Tesla's call to release its own fleet of driverless transportation units might not be drawing the kind of attention the company expected.
According to Elon Musk's post on X, Tesla is set to unveil its robotaxi on August 8th. However, based on the company's record of not delivering on the initially announced release window, people are doubtful that they will see it on the set date.
After all, the tech CEO has promised shareholders the unveiling of a robotaxi for years, as per CNBC, and that hasn't happened yet. Even if the company does go through with the plan, it might face the same issues that have shut Cruise down. Driverless taxi systems might not be advanced enough to be the promised safer mode of transportation.
