Tesla FSD Cost and Price Increase History

Tesla's FSD and its historical prices

Tesla

The cost of Tesla's Full Self Driving has increased since it was revamped in 2019. Those lucky enough to buy FSD in April 2019 got it for the price of $5,000. Since then the price has risen as high as $15,000 only to be lowered later.

Elon Musk warned consumers through X/Twitter that FSD would be more expensive. On August 21 2022, he tweeted: After wide release of FSD Beta 10.69.2, price of FSD will rise to $15k in North America on September 5. Current price will be honored for orders made before September 5 but delivered later.

Tesla reorganized its Autopilot and FSD packages three years ago; basic Autopilot was introduced and became standard on every vehicle, while FSD was priced at $5,000. Enhanced Autopilot was removed as an option at the time, but was later reintroduced as a $6,000 option in June of 2022.

Before 2019 FSD was an add-on that required also buying Enhanced Autopilot. Enhanced Autopilot cost $5,000 and FSD was a $3,000 option on top of that if ordered with the vehicle. If you ordered FSD after taking delivery then it cost $4,000, which later went up to $5,000.

It can only be assumed that there were a lot of buyers for FSD when Tesla rearranged their offerings in 2019, as the price for FSD went up the following month and has been on the rise since.

In fact, Tesla raised the price again three months after the first release, and eighteen months later, it had doubled to $10,000. 2022 started with another jump to $12,000 in January, and nine months later, the price went up again.

However, it looks like the buy-rate may have dipped as Tesla started dropping the price of FSD in September 2023.

Historical FSD Prices

Historical prices of Tesla's Full Self-Driving add-on since the revamp in 2019.

Tesla's CEO has made no qualms about the value of the program. At a shareholders' meeting in August, he said Tesla's engineers are producing breakthroughs in artificial intelligence. "We're solving a very important part of AI and one that can ultimately save millions of lives. And prevent 10 of millions of serious injuries by driving just an order of magnitude safer than people," said Musk. Since its inception and to this day, Musk believes that Teslas will be fully autonomous. He sees a future where your car would drive you to work, then operate as a ride share until you need to go home.

While Musk said the price would increase to $15,000 in North America, it skyrocketed to $19,500 in Canada, more than a 50% boost from what it cost in August. Although there is a monthly subscription offered in the U.S., there currently isn't one offered north of the border.

Although the price of FSD has continued to climb since Tesla revamped their FSD pricing structure in 2019, we witnessed Tesla's first price drop in the driver assist feature in September 2023. On the first of September, Tesla lowered the price of FSD by 20% in the U.S., down to $12,000. This brought FSD back to the price it was back at the start of 2022. However, in April 2024, Tesla once again lowered the price of FSD to $8,000, making it much more affordable, although the trend is unlikely to continue. Tesla may be testing the waters to find the optimal price. It'll be interesting to see where Tesla goes from here.

Tesla Is Now Offering Cybertruck Test Drives [List of Locations]

@brandonhd

Tesla has begun to reach out to customers in the United States and is offering demo drives of the Cybertruck on an invite-only basis. @brandonhd on X shared the first invite image, and it looks like it's going out quite quickly to multiple locations that have Cybertrucks on display.

Up until now, display vehicles have been for just that – looking, but no touching. Some Tesla delivery centers and showrooms have also allowed viewers to take a seat inside and open it up, but most are still locked away behind the velvet rope.

It’s exciting to see that Tesla has begun to demo them – and it can only be so long until demo drives open up to everyone.

Advisor-led Demo

This Demo Drive is led by a Tesla Advisor – while you’re driving, the advisor will be in the passenger seat, walking you through the experience. They’ll explain steer-by-wire, off-road controls, and will introduce new-to-Tesla buyers to all the features that are currently available.

Once FSD V12.5 comes to the Cybertruck, we’re sure they’ll be demoing its capabilities FSD capabilities as well.

Locations

The list of locations so far for demo drives appears to be fairly limited, but we will hopefully see demo drives roll out throughout the United States, and eventually Canada too. Here is the current list of city/state locations that have seen demo drive invites.

• Manhasset, New York

• West Covina, California

• Los Angeles, California

• Houston, Texas

• Orlando, Florida

• Westmont, Illinois

• Tucson, Arizona

• Phoenix, Arizona

• Delaware

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Musk Confirms 'Actually Smart Summon' is Coming in a Revision of FSD V12.5

Not a Tesla App

Actually Smart Summon, the successor to Tesla’s Smart Summon feature, has been confirmed to be coming as soon as next month as per Elon Musk. Colloquially known as “ASS”, Actually Smart Summon is supposed to improve on the regular Smart Summon capabilities, which have historically used ultrasonic sensors (USS) to navigate parking lots.

We’re looking forward to Actually Smart Summon, and we’re quite excited about what other features will be unlocked once it finally shows up at our doorstep.

Vision-based Improvements

ASS is supposed to bring Smart Summon to vehicles that don’t have USS – using Tesla Vision. Most recently, Tesla has brought Autopark to vehicles without USS, and Vision-based Autopark has been a huge success. It is faster, more reliable, and smoother than the older USS-based solution. It can also park and maneuver in tighter locations.

Just recently, Tesla returned the Model X’s self-presenting doors, using Tesla Vision. Vision has seen some fantastic improvements, and many people are waiting for ASS to bring forth these improvements to Smart Summon.

Smart Summon Today

Today, Smart Summon is sometimes useful at best, usually a party trick, or downright dangerous at worst. It’s excellent and best used in straight lines, where you have a clear line of sight of the vehicle, and can stop it if doesn’t see an obstacle.

I used Smart Summon today, just before writing this article – my 2022 Model Y (with USS) – did manage to show up just fine – in a straight-line location from where I was parked, after exiting the parking spot fairly cleanly. However, I’ve previously used Smart Summon and have had the vehicle turn towards obstacles, such as cart returns or curbs. Overall, it’s a sometimes-useful feature that has a lot of drawbacks right now.

Smart Summon is also restricted to a certain distance – and it's pretty small. The max distance is shorter than most parking lots, being only about 215 ft (65m). If you’re lucky enough to park close, it's very useful to bring your car right to you.

Actually Smart Summon

ASS will bring FSD V12-like capabilities to Smart Summon – the vehicle will primarily use Vision to drive toward you (or the location you’ve indicated). ASS has been supposed to be coming since about September 2022 and has seen many delays – we’re almost at the 2-year point today.

We’re looking forward to Actually Smart Summon being able to bring the vehicle – safely – right to you. ASS is also one of the key steps towards bringing some other cool features that Elon Musk has previously mentioned – Park Seek and Banish Autopark.

We’re also hopeful that Actually Smart Summon will increase the maximum range a vehicle can be summoned, because the current range is fairly small. Alongside Park Seek and Banish Autopark, we’re closing in on a Robotaxi-based future.

Park Seek and Banish Autopark

When the FSD v12.4 showed up, Elon also mentioned that going forward, vehicles would automatically park themselves when arriving in a parking lot – Park Seek – and that if you got out of the car at the entrance to a business, you could get it to automatically park itself in the parking lot – Banish Autopark. These are two features that are needed for Robotaxi to work – which itself is delayed to October 10^th of this year. We’re looking quite forward to them – as in combination with Actually Smart Summon, Tesla has reached the cusp of vehicle autonomy.

A vehicle that arrives, driverless, at the location you’re at, then drives somewhere, parks itself there, and waits for you – is the definition of a Robotaxi.

While we’re likely to have to wait for Banish Autopark and Park Seek just a bit longer, Actually Smart Summon being around the corner is exciting! Gone will be the days of having to run out to your car when you forgot your umbrella – your car will just come right to you instead.

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