Tesla has several promotions running right now in the United States and a couple globally – so we’re here to help you by compiling a list of what’s available, and for how long.
Keep in mind that most promotions on this list are currently only available in the United States – not Canada, Europe, or China. We’re hoping Tesla pushes more promotions out to other markets in future quarters, but it doesn’t look like we’ll see anything else this financial quarter for other markets.
These offers are also not valid for customers purchasing a Foundation-series Cybertruck. We’d expect this to change once Tesla stops offering the Foundation Series next year.
3 Months of Free Supercharging (Global)
This specific promotion pops up often and is available globally. Tesla will offer buyers 3 months of free Supercharging – unlimited Supercharging during those 3 months. That’s quite a deal, especially for those who want to road-trip with their brand-new Tesla!
Teslas are absolutely fantastic to road trip with, and with Supercharger availability and up-time, you’ll almost never be at a loss when trying to find a place to charge. Plus, your vehicle navigation automatically suggests and calculates in for Supercharging stops.
Of note, in the United States specifically, this offer isn’t available to those who choose to do financing. Globally, this offer is for a certain number of free Supercharging kilometers rather than unlimited for three months. In Canada for example, Tesla is offering 5,000 – 10,000 free KM of Supercharging, rather than 3 months. These credits are valid for one year from the date of purchase.
Time period: To qualify for this offer, you must take delivery by August 15th, 2024.
Free FSD Transfer (Global)
As part of a promise made by Elon Musk during the Shareholder Meeting this year, Tesla is offering a free FSD transfer for customers who have purchased FSD (FSD price history) in one of their vehicles and wish to transfer it to a new Tesla.
You’ll move your FSD license from one vehicle to another during the purchase process – and you aren’t required to trade in your older Tesla. The vehicle will simply lose access to FSD, but you can always subscribe to FSD on that vehicle at any point.
For those who have Hardware 2.5 or Hardware 3 vehicles – this could be an excellent opportunity to jump into a Hardware 4 vehicle ahead of the upcoming Hardware Divergence.
Time period: To take advantage of this promo you must take delivery by September 30th, 2024.
1.99% Model Y Financing (U.S. Only)
Tesla is offering – for customers who meet the credit check requirements – 1.99% financing on any variant of the Model Y, presuming you take delivery before September 30th. This is an excellent deal, considering that average financing rates in the US are currently sitting around 5-6%. That’s a huge difference for people interested in upgrading their current vehicle or purchasing another vehicle, as it’ll drastically drop the monthly financing rate. This is probably one of Tesla’s best promotions in terms of a deal for customers, and we’d love to see similar deals rolled out globally!
Time period: The promotional rate is valid for financing terms between 36 to 72 months, and orders need to be placed before August 31, 2024. You must take delivery of your new Tesla by September 30th, 2024
Free Paint for Model 3 Performance & Free Seat Layouts for Model X
This is one of the most unique promotions – and one we haven’t seen Tesla offer before. If you purchase FSD in the United States on a Model 3 Performance or a Model X Long Range AWD, you’ll get certain options for free.
For the Model 3 Performance, with the purchase of FSD, you can add any color option for free, which is up to a $2,000 value.
For the Model X, you’ll be able to select the six-seat or seven-seat interior config instead of the standard five-seats for free. This is a savings of $6,500 or $3,500 respectively.
If you were already thinking about getting the Model X six-seat layout, this essentially brings down the cost of FSD to $1,500.
Since FSD doesn’t count toward the total price of the car regarding the federal rebate, it also means that the Model 3 Performance (with any color) and Model X LR (with 6 or 7 seats) are now also eligible for the $7,500 US Federal EV Rebate.
Overall, an excellent deal – you get FSD, a paint option of your choice for the Model 3, and – if you’re buying the Model X LR – you can grab the six-seat config, which is the best seating option in our opinion.
Time period: Tesla hasn’t provided a timeline for this promo, but it could change at any time.
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Tesla recently showed off a demo of Optimus, its humanoid robot, walking around in moderately challenging terrain—not on a flat surface but on dirt and slopes. These things can be difficult for a humanoid robot, especially during the training cycle.
Most interestingly, Milan Kovac, VP of Engineering for Optimus, clarified what it takes to get Optimus to this stage. Let’s break down what he said.
Optimus is Blind
Optimus is getting seriously good at walking now - it can keep its balance over uneven ground - even while walking blind. Tesla is currently using just the sensors, all powered by a neural net running on the embedded computer.
Essentially, Tesla is building Optimus from the ground up, relying on as much additional data as possible while it trains vision. This is similar to how they train FSD on vehicles, using LiDAR rigs to validate the vision system’s accuracy. While Optimus doesn’t have LiDAR, it relies on all those other sensors on board, many of which will likely become simplified as vision takes over as the primary sensor.
Today, Optimus is walking blind, but it’s able to react almost instantly to changes in the terrain underneath it, even if it falls or slips.
What’s Next?
Next up, Tesla AI will be adding vision to Optimus - helping complete the neural net. Remember, Optimus runs on the same overall AI stack as FSD - in fact, Optimus uses an FSD computer and an offshoot of the FSD stack for vision-based tasks.
Milan mentions they’re planning on adding vision to help the robot plan ahead and improve its walking gait. While the zombie shuffle is iconic and a little bit amusing, getting humanoid robots to walk like humans is actually difficult.
There’s plenty more, too - including better responsiveness to velocity and direction commands and learning to fall and stand back up. Falling while protecting yourself to minimize damage is something natural to humans - but not exactly natural to something like a robot. Training it to do so is essential in keeping the robot, the environment around it, and the people it is interacting with safe.
We’re excited to see what’s coming with Optimus next because it is already getting started in some fashion in Tesla’s factories.
In a relatively surprising move, GM announced that it is realigning its autonomy strategy and prioritizing advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) over fully autonomous vehicles.
GM is effectively closing Cruise (autonomous) and focusing on its Super Cruise (ADAS) feature. The engineering teams at Cruise will join the GM teams working on Super Cruise, effectively shuttering the fully autonomous vehicle business.
End of Cruise
GM cites that “an increasingly competitive robotaxi market” and “considerable time and resources” are required for scaling the business to a profitable level. Essentially - they’re unable to keep up with competitors at current funding and research levels, putting them further and further behind.
Cruise has been offering driverless rides in several cities, using HD mapping of cities alongside vehicles equipped with a dazzling array of over 40 sensors. That means that each cruise vehicle is essentially a massive investment and does not turn a profit while collecting data to work towards Autonomy.
Cruise has definitely been on the back burner for a while, and a quick glance at their website - since it's still up for now - shows the last time they officially released any sort of major news packet was back in 2019.
Competition is Killer
Their current direct competitor - Waymo, is funded by Google, which maintains a direct interest in ensuring they have a play in the AI and autonomy space.
Interestingly, this news comes just a month after Tesla’s We, Robot event, where they showed off the Cybercab and the Robotaxi network, as well as plans to begin deployment of the network and Unsupervised FSD sometime in 2025. Tesla is already in talks with some cities in California and Texas to launch Robotaxi in 2025.
GM Admits Tesla Has the Right Strategy
As part of the business call following the announcement, GM admitted that Tesla’s end-to-end and Vision-based approach towards autonomy is the right strategy. While they say Cruise started down that path, they’re putting aside their goals towards fully autonomous vehicles for now and focusing on introducing that tech in Super Cruise instead.
NEWS: GM just admitted that @Tesla’s end-to-end approach to autonomy is the right strategy.
“That’s where the industry is pivoting. Cruise had already started making headway down that path. We are moving to a foundation model and end-to-end approach going forward.” pic.twitter.com/ACs5SFKUc3
With GM now focusing on Super Cruise, they’ll put aside autonomy and instead focus solely on ADAS features to relieve driver stress and improve safety. While those are positive goals that will benefit all road users, full autonomy is really the key to removing the massive impact that vehicle accidents have on society today.
In addition, Super Cruise is extremely limited, cannot brake for traffic controls, and doesn’t work in adverse conditions - even rain. It can only function when lane markings are clear, there are no construction zones, and there is a functional web connection.
The final key to the picture is that the vehicle has to be on an HD-mapped and compatible highway - essentially locking Super Cruise to wherever GM has time to spend mapping, rather than being functional anywhere in a general sense, like FSD or Autopilot.
Others Impressed - Licensing FSD
Interestingly, some other manufacturers have also weighed into the demise of Cruise. BMW, in a now-deleted post, said that a demo of Tesla’s FSD is “very impressive.” There’s a distinct chance that BMW and other manufacturers are looking to see what Tesla does next.
BMW chimes in on a now-deleted post. The Internet is forever, BMW!
Not a Tesla App
It seems that FSD has caught their eyes after We, Robot - and that the demonstrations of FSD V13.2 online seem to be the pivot point. At the 2024 Shareholder Meeting earlier in the year, Elon shared the fact that several manufacturers had reached out, looking to understand what was required to license FSD from Tesla.
There is a good chance 2025 will be the year we’ll see announcements of the adoption of FSD by legacy manufacturers - similar to how we saw the surprise announcements of the adoption of the NACS charging standard.
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