Tesla has been catching flak for a while now for selling its "Full Self-Driving" package on its cars, even though full self-driving isn't really a thing. It even stopped publicizing the option on its website for a brief period.
Now though, not only is the Big T back in full swing promoting the tech, but according to a tweet from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, if you don't buy in now, you can expect to pay a lot more later. Specifically, if you don't purchase the full self-driving option before Aug. 16, the price is going to go up by $1,000.
Cost of Tesla full self-driving option increasing by ~$1000 on August 16
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 16, 2019
Now, before we all start grabbing our torches and pitchforks, Musk also promised in a subsequent tweet that that date (and price bump) should coincide with the release of Tesla's Advanced Summon feature, which will only be available on FSD-equipped cars.
What is Advanced Summon? Apart from sounding like a high-level warlock spell in Dungeons & Dragons, it will allow you to call your car from the Tesla app and have it navigate to you through a parking lot, for example, while monitoring for objects or pedestrians in its path. It's been in beta mode for a while and the response has been reasonably positive.
Is that alone worth the cost of upgrading to FSD if you haven't already? Definitely not, but the other advanced features that get bundled with that dubiously named option kind of are. Navigate on Autopilot, for example, is a super useful and reasonably competent highway driving assistant.
Much like with its Autopilot technology, Tesla probably could have saved itself a boatload of trouble by calling its Full Self-Driving package something a little less Tomorrowland, such as "Advanced Driver Assistance and Convenience Package." Sure it's less sexy, but it's also less problematic.
Tesla didn't immediately respond to Roadshow's request for comment.
