Elon Musk says Tesla will increase the price of its 'full self-driving' software to $12k. Still working

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the company is raising the price of its "full self-driving" (FSD) software by up to $12,000. Musk tweeted on Friday that the new price, which is a $2,000 increase, will be effective for customers "in the US only" starting January 17th. He added that the monthly subscription price for FSD will increase to $199 as the software moves closer to wide release.

Tesla began testing the FSD in beta in October of 2020 -- when it cost $8,000 -- with a slew of customers. Tesla raised the price of the FSD to $10,000 shortly after. The software doesn't make Tesla vehicles fully autonomous; Musk himself said during a 2019 earnings call that Teslas with FSDs "are able to drive from one's home to work, most likely without interference. So it will be monitored, but it will be hard to drive." will be able to."

In September, Tesla opened the FSD beta to more drivers via a "Request" button on the vehicle's dashboard screen, but to gain access to the software, drivers must have a good "Safety Score." Tesla determines the safety score using five criteria that predict "your driving may result in a future collision."

Musk has promised to release Tesla's FSD widely for several years. He said in 2018 that a "long-awaited" version of the FSD would debut that summer, then estimated in 2019 that "a year from now" there would be "a million with full self-driving, software, everything". . More cars". Those dates have come and gone, but Tesla's FSD remains in beta, available only to early adopters who have purchased the FSD package.

FSD software has also drawn a fair amount of scrutiny and criticism; In August 2021, US censors Ed Markey (D-MA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate its driver assistance software, accusing the Tesla company of "misleading and unfair practices". How is marketing. Was.