Tesla has made a significant change to its Full Self-Driving pricing strategy that will address a common complaint among owners: the inability to transfer FSD purchases to new vehicles. Previously, Tesla did not allow owners who had purchased the Full Self-Driving suite outright to transfer it to a new vehicle, forcing them to buy it again each time they upgraded, which could become quite costly. However, Tesla introduced a one-time transfer option in Q3 2023, and again last year, allowing owners to move their FSD to a new vehicle.
Now, Tesla is once again allowing FSD transfers ahead of the February 14th deadline, giving owners the opportunity to upgrade to vehicles with newer Hardware and AI versions without having to repurchase the $8,000 suite multiple times. This move eliminates the issue of costly repurchases for FSD upgrades.
Elon Musk recently announced that the Full Self-Driving suite will now only be available through a subscription platform, priced at $99 per month. This shift to a subscription-only model offers several advantages, such as the potential for tiered pricing options, pay-per-mile platforms, and the possibility of bundling FSD with other benefits like Supercharging and vehicle protection programs.
One major benefit of the subscription model is that it completely eliminates the need to transfer the FSD suite to a new vehicle, a point of contention for many owners. Now, everyone will pay month-to-month for FSD, making it easier for those interested in trying out the suite from a financial perspective.
Tesla stands to benefit from a higher adoption rate with the subscription model, as more drivers using FSD will provide the company with more data to improve the system. This data is crucial for Tesla to reach its goal of achieving an Unsupervised level of FSD, which requires a significant amount of data. By making FSD more accessible through a subscription model, Tesla is likely to attract more users and gather more valuable data for further development.