raptor5244
Active Member
Look at it this way Google is a giant advertising company because they have a bad ass search engine, google is not a search company. Facebook is a giant platform for advertising, they got you for free, they are not a social media company. Similarly Tesla is not a car company, it is an AI company and they are in transportation. There were many other search engines, so many other social media before and after Google Facebook etc. In fact Amazon handles more searches a day than Google does. So, Tesla is going to be your "driver" regardless you drive their car, a car from Ford, GM, Toyota or anyone else. You will be paying this "driver" monthly, and it's not going.to be cheap, definitely not $10/mo.
I agree that Tesla is changing the game in the auto industry but this industry was so long overdue and so ripe for a change. There is no question Telsa software and AI is the differentiator, however I don't think the general population will be willing to give up the freedom to drive their own vehicles for many years, if ever. In order for autonomous driving to become a reality we need all the vehicles on the road to be capable of autonomous driving. The vehicles should be aware of one another and networked to the traffic lights, etc. We are not even close technically and then we have many years of politics to deal with.
Moving toward a FSD subscription plan makes sense so Tesla can have a recurring revenue stream to drive development as we continue to march down a path toward level 3, 4 and 5 autonomous driving. Now if Tesla wants to license their software system out to other auto manufacturers then great and it would probably create the best of both worlds.