Tesla Slashes Full Self-Driving Price by 33%

Tesla has dramatically reduced the price of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) package in North America.

The company announced on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the one-off cost for the software would now be $8000 in the United States – down from $12,000. As recently as September last year, it was actually charging as much as $15,000 for the tech.

In Canada, the price has fallen to $8,029.72 CAD from $11,679.60.

The price cut is the latest in a series of moves designed to increase uptake of the Advanced Driving Assistance System, which despite its Full Self-Driving branding delivers only automation rated at Level 2, as defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers.

This means that although FSD can perform tasks such as lane changes, navigating around objects and controlling acceleration and deceleration, and can be used in urban areas as well as highways, it still requires the human behind the steering wheel to be alert and ready to take control if required.

Over the past month, Tesla has introduced a series of measures to promote FSD in the wake of a first quarter that saw deliveries of its vehicles fall around 20% from the last quarter of 2023, and more than 8% year on year.

First, CEO Elon Musk decreed that all compatible new Teslas – currently the Model S, Model X and Model Y – would be enabled with a free trial of FSD for a month.

Related:Musk Orders Full Self-Driving Demos for All New Teslas

This initiative was launched in tandem with an instruction for all new customers to be taken on a test ride by employees to showcase the benefits of FSD. “Almost no one actually realizes how well (supervised) FSD actually works,” Musk wrote in an internal email that was subsequently leaked. 

This was followed by the halving of the monthly subscription price for FSD for customers in the U.S. Where previously it had cost $199 a month, it was announced that it would now be offered at $99 a month.

Given such a significant cut, it was inevitable that the one-off payment for lifetime FSD would be reduced too. Essentially, the $99 a month figure meant that customers could subscribe for a whole decade before they would reach the $12k outlay required for an up-front purchase.

The new $8k price tag equates to around six years, eight months of subscriptions, which although more palatable, may still prove quite a hard sell, particularly given that Tesla’s automation tech has been under

intense scrutiny from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, following a number of collisions with stationary vehicles.

And it’s all a far cry from some of Musk’s previous claims about the value of FSD, such as in May 2020, when he posted: “The FSD price will continue to rise as the software gets closer to full self-driving capability with regulatory approval. At that point, the value of FSD is probably somewhere in excess of $100,000.”

Related:Tesla Slashes Full Self Driving Subscription Price

The FSD reduction was accompanied by price cuts for the Model S, Model X and Model Y, continuing a difficult period for Tesla. The fall in deliveries, as demand for EVs slows globally, has seen it reduce its workforce by around 10%, or 14,000, while every Cybertruck shipped to date – in excess of around 3,800 models – is facing a recall over a potential faulty accelerator pedal.