Elon Musk hit Twitter on Monday to announce an upcoming $1,000 price hike for Tesla’s full self-driving option (FSD).
“Tesla Full Self-Driving option cost rises by ~$1000 worldwide on July 1st,” the automaker’s CEO wrote in the tweet.
Tesla Full Self-Driving option cost rises by ~$1000 worldwide on July 1st. Order a Tesla online in less than 2 minutes at https://t.co/qJm9uPBCX5
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 18, 2020
Musk had already said in early April that he expected July 1 to mark the date of the hike, with Monday’s tweet confirming both that and the price.
The FSD option currently costs $7,000, with the summer increase set to take it to $8,000. The option last received a price bump in August 2019, when it increased by $1,000. We can expect more rises in the future as additional features are added to FSD over time, something that Musk confirmed in a follow-up tweet on Monday.
It should be pointed out that having FSD in a Tesla vehicle doesn’t mean the owner can sit back and enjoy the ride just yet.
“All Tesla cars require active driver supervision and are not autonomous,” the electric-car maker says on its website. “With the FSD computer, we expect to achieve a new level of autonomy as we gain billions of miles of experience using our features. The activation and use of these features are dependent on achieving reliability far in excess of human drivers, as well as regulatory approval, which may take longer in some jurisdictions.”
Tesla vehicles currently have semi-autonomous capabilities delivered through Autopilot. When the FSD feature is ready for prime time and gets the green light from regulators, owners will have a driverless car ready for use, and could even make some cash out of it by sending it out as a robotaxi — though whether someone would want to send off their prized possession for such a purpose is another question entirely.
