Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated on Twitter on Friday that the company's premium driver assistance package, billed as Full Self-Driving or FSD, will increase the price from $10,000 to $12,000 on January 17 for customers in the United States alone.
In a number of tweets, where Musk has 69.2 million followers, Tesla’s Technoking wrote, “Tesla FSD price rising to $12k on Jan 17. Just in the US. FSD price will rise as we get closer to FSD production code release.”
When asked about Tesla’s FSD subscription product that costs $199 per month for most customers, Musk replied that the monthly subscription price will increase when FSD goes to a wider release. He also said a new edition of FSD Beta, an invitation-only program that gives chosen drivers who match Tesla's standards access to more advanced capabilities.
Tesla does not say how many of its customers pay for FSD in advance or subscribe to it each quarter in its earnings reports. As a result, it's unclear how much a price increase in the United States will help the company's margins in the future.
Autopilot is the company's standard driver assistance feature, which comes standard on all new vehicles. According to Tesla's website, Autopilot features include automated emergency braking, forwards collision warning, lane keeping, and adaptive cruise control, which basically matches your car's speed to that of the surrounding traffic.
Tesla's Full-Self Driving with Beta Renderings
Full-Self Driving (FSD) includes Autopilot functions and advanced features like automatic lane-changing, stop light recognition, and smart summon that lets drivers to summon their car from a parking spot using their smartphone and the Tesla app as a remote control. Despite its name, it does not currently allow cars to drive themselves without the need for human assistance.
Separately, an FSD Beta tier is available, which contains even more advanced features. Musk claimed in a tweet on Friday that a new 10.9 release is approaching completion, which will update FSD Beta.
FSD Beta is only available to drivers who have received, purchased, or subscribed to FSD and have received a high safety score from Tesla. Once inside, visitors can try out incomplete capabilities such as "autosteer on city streets," which Tesla claims will eventually allow drivers to maneuver around residential and urban surface streets without having to steer on their own, avoiding any obstacles.
Different components of Tesla's FSD development and technology are being investigated by the California Department of Motor Vehicles and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Tesla has stated that their technology is just a "level 2" system to both agencies. "Level 2 systems may enhance safety or provide driver assistance, but they are not capable of driving or running the vehicle without the active physical control or monitoring of a human," according to the DMV.
Musk indicated the technology is now more advanced than level 2. In his interview on the Lex Fridman podcast in December, Musk was asked when Tesla would solve Level 4 FSD, to which the CEO replied, “It’s looking quite likely that it’ll be next year,” referring to 2022.
Tesla has been promising self-driving cars since around 2016, but it has yet to demonstrate the hands-free driving across the United States that Elon Musk predicted would be available by the end of 2017.
Giga Texas Opening Soon
Tesla's Giga Texas, according to Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives, would start producing the Model Y in the next 7 to 10 days. The production machines are almost finished with their testing. As a result, Tesla is on the approach of gaining approval to begin production.
On January 4, a Travis County official verified that certifications of conformity had already been issued to some factory zones. The county fire marshal issued these certificates. Tesla can open that part of the building, and more critically, the production line, with the certificates.
These places linked to Model Y manufacture appear to be mentioned in the documentation. However, we have yet to see any activity or hear any rumors about the Cybertruck or Semi.
Tesla wants to increase manufacturing of its popular compact SUV in Europe and North America. The demand is tremendous, and the opening of both Giga Texas and Giga Berlin would go a long way towards clearing the existing delivery list for the automaker.
Crews were completing up work on the parking lot that would house newly manufactured cars as of Sunday, January 9.
