Tesla Full Self-Driving subscription model coming in Q2, Musk says
CEO Elon Musk promised the model in early 2021, but now, he says it's "for sure" coming in the second quarter of this year.
Elon Musk says tehre will soon be another way to gain access to Tesla's controversial driver-assist system: the Full Self-Driving option. Following up to a question on Twitter, the Tesla CEO said drivers will be able to subscribe to the FSD option in the second quarter of 2021.
Q2 for sure
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 1, 2021
Musk's promise of the subscription model "for sure" launching the coming months follows a couple of delays for such a subscription ordeal. He first brought it up last year and said we'd see it launch in late 2020. That became early 2021. I'm not even poking fun, but it's on brand for Tesla, at least.
When it does launch, it will likely be an easier price to swallow for those that want to experience FSD in its beta version. Right now, it's a $10,000 option when ordering a new Tesla. Musk somewhat acknowledged this in a followup tweet saying, "buying FSD will still be a better long-term deal than subscription." Whatever the price to subscribe to the system, paying for it all up front will be cheaper in the long run, in other words.
FSD finally launched at a very limited scale in the fall of 2020 with the beta slowly rolling out to more drivers in the months following. It's not clear how far reaching the beta is yet, but Musk promised to swiftly open it up last November. It also came as Musk's previous prediction for a fleet of autonomous Model 3 sedans for a Tesla ridesharing network came and went last year. This January, the CEO said the company will have Level 5 autonomous car technology by the end of this year. The company's Autopilot with FSD just touches on Level 3 autonomy, based on the SAE's scale, so it will be a tall order for the company to achieve in just nine months.
