Longtime Tesla owners are no stranger to EAP and its functionality. Enhanced Autopilot was offered as an option in the US several years ago, but the option was removed in 2019 when Tesla restructured their Driver Assitance System (DAS) options.
Prior to 2019, Teslas did not include any Autopilot features with their vehicles, but offered two paid add-ons, Enhanced Autopilot and FSD.
In 2019 Tesla introduced basic Autopilot that came standard with every vehicle.
Date
FSD Cost
April 2019
$5,000
May 2019
$6,000
August 2019
$7,000
July 2020
$8,000
October 2020
$10,000
January 2022
$12,000
Basic Autopilot includes traffic-aware cruise control and lane keeping, basically allowing your vehicle to drive on the highway. Basic Autopilot however does not include the ability for your vehicle to change lanes based on traffic or your route.
When Tesla introduced basic Autopilot, Enhanced Autopilot was removed as an option and the FSD package became the sole add-on.
The FSD option has slowly increased in price as Tesla has increased its capabilities. With the last price increase in January 2022, FSD now costs $12,000 in the US.
With FSD's increased capabilities and price, there was now a large gap between basic Autopilot and FSD, in terms of function and price. This made it an ideal time for Tesla to reintroduce Enhanced Autopilot.
For vehicles with EAP, the FSD subscription costs $99, while for those with basic Autopilot, it's a $199/month subscription.
The subscription requires your vehicle to have the FSD computer (hardware 3.0).
Enhanced Autopilot and FSD packages are non-transferrable (tied to the car, not the driver), but the monthly subscription can be stopped on one vehicle and added to another at any time. There is currently no monthly subscription for Enhanced Autopilot.
What's Included
Enhanced Autopilot, Tesla's new mid-tier option, offers several features that are not available in basic Autopilot, including:
Auto lane change: The ability for your vehicle to perform lane changes on the highway and take on ramps and off ramps automatically (driver will need to confirm by applying tension on the steering wheel).
Autopark: Your vehicle will be able to park itself when it detects an available parking spot.
Summon: The ability to retrieve your car from a tight parking spot by having it move forward or backward.
Smart summon: Your vehicle will be able to drive to you in a parking out.
The only major self-driving feature missing from Enhanced Autopilot is the ability for the car to navigate city streets, which is only included in the FSD package.
While the parking and summoning features of Enhanced Autopilot are fun, the biggest advantage to upgrade to EAP is to have automated lane changes on the highway and the ability to subscribe to a cheaper FSD subscription.
Enhanced Autopilot is available for purchase now through the Tesla app.
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While most automakers are adding basic and un-integrated AI assistants to their vehicles, Tesla appears to be working hand-in-hand with xAI to build out an entire cast of characters for in-vehicle Grok. In the latest dive into Tesla’s firmware, Tesla hacker @greentheonly uncovered a few new details about the upcoming Grok feature.
This discovery, part of a larger batch of changes found in Tesla update 2025.20, also offers a hint at the hardware required for the Grok.
A Dozen Groks
While we knew from previous firmware teardowns that Tesla was adding various Grok personalities to the vehicle UI, this update introduces a new one called Language Tutor, which may allow users to learn and practice a new language.
These are the different personas that will be included in Grok:
Argumentative
Assistant
Conspiracy
Doctor
Kids’ Stories
Kids’ Trivia Games
Meditation
Motivation
Romantic
Sexy
Storyteller
Therapist
Language Tutor
and the Grok Classic - Unhinged Mode
Release Date
Icons for these personalities have been added to the firmware for the first time, leading us to think Tesla is getting close to releasing the feature. However, even after the feature is developed and included in vehicle software, Tesla may only enable it selectively — such as for select employees for testing.
Grok is expected to be one of the largest vehicle features added via a software update, so it’ll be a big deal when it’s finally released. While we know more or less what to expect from Grok, what we don’t know is about vehicle requirements or whether it’ll require a subscription beyond Premium Connectivity.
Grok Requirements
While subscriptions required are anyone’s guess, vehicle requirements may be a little clearer now, thanks to Green’s discovery that Grok is only being added to AMD-based vehicle software builds.
Unfortunately, this likely means that older, Intel-based vehicles will not receive Grok support, at least for the time being. When Tesla introduced a voice assistant in China, they also started off with AMD-only support but later added Intel support, so it’s possible that the same could happen with Grok.
Energy Saving
Green also found a new undocumented navigation feature in 2025.20.3. This one focuses on leveraging Tesla’s vast amounts of data in an interesting way and offers drivers proactive advice to save energy on a well-traveled route.
In the Energy App, your vehicle will display, “This route is typically driven at X mph. Slow down by Y mph to save Z% for the rest of this trip.’
As you can see in the photo below, Tesla recognizes that vehicles typically drive at 66 mph on the route being driven and offers the driver the option to go five mph slower to save 1% of range. While this example doesn’t provide much incentive to slow down, it could be useful for someone with a low state of charge or if the savings are more significant.
In a letter to industry, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced that it is overhauling its approvals process for vehicles designed without human controls.
The change addresses a regulatory bottleneck that has slowed down American companies like Tesla from deploying purpose-built Robotaxis, rather than relying on using traditional vehicles with steering wheels and pedals. The policy shift is outlined in a letter posted to the NHTSA’s website, which you can find here.
Reducing Approvals From Years to Months
Under the existing rules today, any vehicle that is built without a steering wheel or brake pedals must receive a special exemption from federal safety standards.
Obtaining exemptions for a particular vehicle was a time-consuming process for both the companies requesting exemptions and the NHTSA. The process was often a black box—nobody knew when an exemption might be granted, and approvals could take years.
The NHTSA, under the new administration’s guidelines for autonomous vehicle development, is now committed to streamlining this process. The agency will be implementing a new, faster approach immediately for receiving exemptions for autonomous vehicles without standard controls. The NHTSA expects decisions on exemption requests to be determined within months rather than years.
Accelerating the Cybercab
This change has massive implications for Tesla, which is banking on the production of the simplified and easy-to-maintain purpose-built Cybercab. The Cybercab is developed from the ground up as an autonomous Robotaxi and will be one of the key beneficiaries of this move by the NHTSA.
Knowing that a final design won't be caught in a multi-year regulatory limbo provides a level of certainty that has been missing. It allows Tesla to confidently plan the manufacturing, development, and deployment processes without worrying whether the project will get stuck in regulatory approvals.
According to the letter, the agency will publish its improved instructions for the streamlined process "shortly." With Tesla already having begun Cybercab pre-production and the goals for its deployment as soon as late 2026, there’s still a lot to be done to make autonomy a part of Tesla’s new sustainable abundance mission statement.