Electric vehicle giant Tesla has just cut the Full Self-Driving monthly subscription fee in the US to just $99 after it suffered from lowered-than-expected sales in Q1 2024.
Tesla reduces FSD (Supervised) price by $100
Tesla’s official X account announced Saturday that the FSD (Supervised), former FSD Beta, is now available for only $99 per month for US-based owners. It represents a notable drop from its original price of $199 per month.
“You can now subscribe to FSD (Supervised) for $99/month in the US…”
Tesla
Interestingly, the announcement came after one electric vehicle/Tesla enthusiast (@heyitsyashu) gained Chief Executive Elon Musk’s “like reaction” on X as he predicts a >25% take rate for the FSD if the company lowers its monthly subscription price.
“If Tesla lowered FSD subscription price to $99/m I bet it would get a >25% take rate.”
Yashu Sharma, EV content creator
Musk’s expectation
In hindsight, CEO Elon Musk expected in 2020 that the FSD price could hit $100,000 as it “gets closer to full self-driving capability with regulatory approval.” However, he did not clarify if he was referring to the price per Tesla electric vehicle.
“The FSD price will continue to rise as the software gets closer to full self-driving capability with regulatory approval. It that point, the value of FSD is probably somewhere in excess of $100,000.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk
At first, the FSD aligned with CEO Musk’s forecast when the company hiked the FSD lifetime service price by $3,000 from $12,000 to $15,000. Meanwhile, the monthly subscription fee is $199. However, the company brought the FSD lifetime price back to $12,000 to make it more accessible to more owners.
Promotional efforts
It is worth noting that this $100 price cut is just one of Tesla’s recent efforts to entice more people to try its Level 2 self-driving system, which still requires a human driver behind the wheel to constantly monitor the vehicle’s driving behavior when FSD is activated.
For instance, CEO Musk previously instructed all Tesla employees to conduct a “short test ride” of FSD before handing over the unit to its buyer as part of the delivery process.
As he indicated in the internal memo, “almost no one actually realized how well (supervised) FSD actually works.” Therefore, he is exploring other possible ways the company can bring the FSD experience to customers without requiring them to pay immediately. In addition, Tesla also launched a month of free FSD trial to all US owners in March.
These promotional efforts reflect CEO Musk’s concerns that most owners and prospective buyers are not aware of FSD’s functions and advantages. Therefore, such offers are crucial for the company to show its customers the software’s full potential in enabling safe and convenient driving.
