- Tesla’s FSD will soon cost $99 a month
- Single payment option removed
- It means that autonomous driving technology will not be sold with the car
Elon Musk took to
The technology, which requires unlocking as an optional extra when purchasing a vehicle, can no longer be added for a one-off payment of $8,000/£6,800/AU$10,100 and will instead move to a monthly subscription package from February 14.
Currently, Musk has only stated that the package will cost $99 per month, although pricing for other regions has not yet been set. We expect it to cost between £75 and £99 in the UK and $149 in Australia.
Supervised full autonomous driving has a long, tumultuous history of price changes, starting with free trials and then tantalizingly offering a flat $5,000 fee in 2019 that was supposed to last the life of the vehicle and move with the customer.
During that time, the price has risen to an all-time high of $15,000 as the technology has improved, but the goalposts have moved almost continuously when it comes to pricing strategy, despite Musk reiterating that the technology was an “investment in the future” as the company continued to roll out upgrades.
In April 2024, the adoption rate of supervised full autonomous driving slowed and fell further in 2025, when the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into 2.88 million Tesla vehicles equipped with its FSD system, based on more than 50 reports of traffic safety violations and a series of accidents, according to PakGazette.
As a result, Tesla reduced the price of FSD from $12,000 to a one-time fee of $8,000 to boost sales, and also cut the monthly subscription price from $199 to $99.
Analysis: reality makes an appearance
Elon Musk has long promised a future in which Tesla customers will, in theory, become owners of a fully autonomous Robotaxi, where an ordinary passenger car can go out and run errands, as well as earn income as a ride-hailing service.
This future promise was part of an attempt to convince potential punters to donate up to $15,000 for what is currently a relatively standard Level 2 semi-autonomous cruise control system. “If you buy a Tesla today, I think you’re buying an appreciating asset, not a depreciating asset,” Musk said in 2019.
Either Tesla has finally admitted this new reality, or the recently announced monthly pricing strategy is because such a small number of buyers have been willing to part with the extra money up front lately.
Moving it to a much easier to accept subscription means the public will pay a much fairer price over the life of their vehicle for a technology that many rival manufacturers now offer for free.
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