The price of a monthly subscription to Tesla's self-driving (kind of) software has just been cut in half. Tesla's Full Self-Driving (Supervised) subscription now costs $99 per month, a reduction from the previous standard of $199.
Tesla instituted the $199 monthly upgrade fee in 2021, when its self-driving system was still in beta. It costs $12,000 to add full (supervised) autonomous driving (full name, every time) to a Tesla directly, so at the current price it will take 10 years for the subscription to become worthless. As far as installment plans go, this seems like a solid deal. To be fair, so was the $199 fee, which gave (auto)drivers five years before hitting $12,000 in fees.
Tesla is doing everything it can to make its electric vehicles (and its stock) more attractive after a difficult financial quarter to start in 2024. For the first time since 2020, Tesla's electric vehicle shipments fell year over year and declined significantly compared to the previous quarter. In the first months of 2024, Tesla's deliveries were down eight percent annually and 20 percent during the final quarter of 2023. Analysts expected Tesla to ship 449,080 electric vehicles in the first quarter of 2024, but it delivered only 386,810.
The company offered a free trial of full (supervised) self-driving, which does not make the vehicle autonomous, to Tesla drivers in late 2023, apparently in an attempt to improve its results before the reports were due. Starting in March 2024, Tesla sellers in North America must demonstrate full (supervised) autonomous driving to anyone who purchases a vehicle. Prices for all Model Y vehicles also increased by $1,000 on April 1.
Tesla has not shared shipping figures for the Cybertruck, which began rolling out late last year. The company is preparing to launch a “next-generation, low-cost” electric vehicle in 2025. Probably.
