Tesla has offered full self-driving hardware and software for numerous years now. The hardware and the software packages have changed significantly over the years. They've had a number of hardware and software package revisions but remain certain that they will be able to achieve full self-driving through their current hardware suite of hardware version 3.

As Tesla gets closer to this full self-driving goal the price of their highest software package has also increased. In the US it's now up to $10,000 and we're likely to see another increase once they're able to stabilize the software they're currently testing in public beta.

This amount of cash is nothing to sneeze at. We've heard it before, but we have once again received confirmation from Elon Musk once again that Tesla will be offering the FSD package as a subscription service.

Before we get all giddy, let's keep in mind this will not be something that we'll be able to swing by skipping our weekly latte. Tesla hasn't been clear on whether the subscription cost would be per drive, month or even annually, but if we're looking at it monthly which we feel is the most likely scenario, then we're likely looking at a price of $150 to $250 per month.

We don't think this is aimed at the average owner so much, but instead aimed at people who may be leasing their cars where it's actually cheaper to subscribe than to pay the $10,000 fee for FSD. It may also be used as a trial of sorts for folks who aren't sure whether the cost may be worth it for them. Having the ability to try it out for a month, maybe on a long road trip may even swing things in Tesla's favor. It may also benefit businesses that use Tesla vehicles as their company cars.

The piece that may be interesting is that it's possible that Tesla may offer a rent-to-own type of subscription, where you'd be able to put your subscription costs toward the final price of the FSD package. This will especially make sense in the lease scenario where the leasee may want to buy the car at the end of their agreement. Whichever way this plays out, it will certainly be interesting to see what Tesla implements in the near future.

Absolutely. We will release FSD subscription early next year.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2020