FSD upgrade. On the fence.

[xpitxbullx]

Tesla wrote me and said to pay the $5000 and they will reimburse me $1000 within 30 days.

With all of the price fluctuations, I’m on the fence with ordering now vs later. My thought is they might not honor the original $4000 upgrade if I wait too long.

Your thoughts?

 

[JeffK]

They are going to be testing it with 100 employees in 2019. If they release it to the public in 2020, it turns out to be the greatest thing ever, and they end up being first in class to consumers.

Do you believe the price will stay the same?

See what the rest of us think:
Do you regret buying (or not buying) FSD?

 

[glide]

What is the earliest you expect to see any benefits from ordering FSD?

In that time do you think you could make your $4000 work for you in better ways than a zero-interest loan to Tesla?

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

If they had something great coming, why would they offer a deal on it?

 

[xpitxbullx]

I think the price will go up.

They are going to be testing it with 100 employees in 2019. If they release it to the public in 2020, it turns out to be the greatest thing ever, and they end up being first in class to consumers.

Do you believe the price will stay the same?

See what the rest of us think:
Do you regret buying (or not buying) FSD?

 

[xpitxbullx]

What is the earliest you expect to see any benefits from ordering FSD?

In that time do you think you could make your $4000 work for you in better ways than a zero-interest loan to Tesla?

It almost came out in v9 but they held it back. I think sometime next year.

If they charge me more than $4000 next year and charge for a hardware charge (CPU), then I should have given them the interest free loan. If it comes out in 5 more years, then I could have done something different.

 

[xpitxbullx]

If they had something great coming, why would they offer a deal on it?

Cheaper for early backers.

 

[Tam]

Cheaper for early backers.

I believe it is not whether will there be FSD or not but when.

Prudent consumers would wait for proof of competency before buying because it might be a long time from now.

I, on the other hand, do not want to wait for its success before buying it because it might be quite expensive by that time.

 

[ATHiker]

Tesla wrote me and said to pay the $5000 and they will reimburse me $1000 within 30 days.

With all of the price fluctuations, I’m on the fence with ordering now vs later. My thought is they might not honor the original $4000 upgrade if I wait too long.

Your thoughts?

Pay $5k and get $1k back in 30 days? That makes no sense and sounds like a scam. Are you sure it was from Tesla? Do you mind posting the e-mail text?

Edit: Curious to see if other people get something similar.

 

[ebmcs03]

In that time do you think you could make your $4000 work for you in better ways than a zero-interest loan to Tesla?

Have you seen the stock market lately. You’ll lose $4000 before you can make anything. Your money is better off with Tesla.

 

[insaneoctane]

Tesla wrote me and said to pay the $5000 and they will reimburse me $1000 within 30 days.

With all of the price fluctuations, I’m on the fence with ordering now vs later. My thought is they might not honor the original $4000 upgrade if I wait too long.

Your thoughts?

I am in the same position as you. Although I am starting to regret not saving the $1000 by ordering it originally The funny thing is that nothing has changed really since my decision to wait for something tangible other than 1) the announcement of new hardware and 2)it seem like Tesla's willingness to offer it afterwards at $4k has become questionable....

 

[alseTrick]

Tesla wrote me and said to pay the $5000 and they will reimburse me $1000 within 30 days.

With all of the price fluctuations, I’m on the fence with ordering now vs later. My thought is they might not honor the original $4000 upgrade if I wait too long.

Your thoughts?

If you wait too long (currently, unspecified amount of time), they definitely will not honour it.

But if you pay now, you also must be willing to accept that no/only limited FSD will be available for 5-10 years. On the bright side, they'll almost certainly be legally obligated to honour your initial investment.

That said, I do agree that EAP and FSD will only continue to increase in price in the next few years. The original AP did.

However, personally, I don't see how ordering FSD makes any sense whatsoever, even if you plan on keeping the car 10+ years. But to each their own. Fwiw, I don't find EAP to be a worthwhile either.

 

[glide]

Have you seen the stock market lately. You’ll lose $4000 before you can make anything. Your money is better off with Tesla.

You know you can make money in the market regardless of the direction it swings, right?

To say a $4000 loan to Tesla is better than you can do in the market over the course of at least a full year means you shouldn’t be investing.

 

[rjdoc74]

Just FYI, I contacted Tesla support last week and heard back this am. If you purchased your car before 6/26/2018 they will honor $4000. After that it’s $5000.

 

[Canikony]

I firmly believe that it will take 10+ years for true self driving tech to work. I don't mean just highways, I mean point to point, punch in an address and hit go.

 

[xpitxbullx]

Pay $5k and get $1k back in 30 days? That makes no sense and sounds like a scam. Are you sure it was from Tesla? Do you mind posting the e-mail text?

Edit: Curious to see if other people get something similar.

This is a response to my question directly on the Tesla website. I asked if the website was going to be updated to reflect the $4000 price originally offered. At first they said to wait because they were working on it. After a while and it wasn’t updated, I received this:

 

[Chewy3]

If they had something great coming, why would they offer a deal on it?

A very good point! However, I'm looking at it slightly differently.

FSD was $3k/$4k (buying at purchase/buying after purchase)
--This was when they believed the equipment was capable.

FSD 'now' $3k/$5k
--Assumed price change to motivate more people to buy at purchase

FSD removed as an option
--This happens shortly after Tesla acknowledges they will be moving to AP 3.0 for FSD
--The more people that pre-purchased FSD the more money it will cost Tesla to retrofit/upgrade

If the price of an option is going to decrease, or a new option released = Telsa makes a big push to sell as many current inventory as possible before those vehicles' value is decreased.

Price is going to increase = They keep it under wraps, and bump the price in the night. Or in this case, remove the option entirely until they can implement new hardware. Although they will lose on $3k purchases, they will not be required to upgrade those cars for free either. $3k now, or $5k+ to upgrade it later? Basic economics for Tesla. Removing the FSD option only reaffirmed my decision to purchase FSD @ $3k, I'll never have to pay anything more for upgrades.

 

[schofer]

Tesla wrote me and said to pay the $5000 and they will reimburse me $1000 within 30 days.

With all of the price fluctuations, I’m on the fence with ordering now vs later. My thought is they might not honor the original $4000 upgrade if I wait too long.

Your thoughts?

It is a very difficult question, which I thought a lot about. Much is unknown, most importantly the future cost (which will probably fluctuate; eventually hardware prices will come down and Tesla may adjust prices to boost demand at various times).

My personal conclusion: If I were risk averse, I should wait. There isn't much value at the moment, and many things can change in the next year. One's financial situation might change. One might crash the car. Etc.

However, I am willing to take some significant risk. I ordered an M3 with FSD because I expect to keep our car for a long time and I would like to receive new features that get added in coming years.
-- I have no idea if "true" (level 4-5) autonomous driving will work with existing or upgraded M3 hardware, but I think there is a high probability of useful improvements, such as stop sign and stop-light recognition, etc.
-- I think there is a high probability that I'll get a free hardware upgrade (as mentioned in Elon Musk's tweets), though I expect it might take longer than the tweets suggest.

Also, for me, paying up front is psychologically easier than continually weighing whether to jump at every announcement or price change. YMMV.

 

[xav-]

I have to wonder... why would anybody want to purchase FSD at this point? How can Tesla removing that feature be any positive news?!

 

[MorrisonHiker]

I have to wonder... why would anybody want to purchase FSD at this point? How can Tesla removing that feature be any positive news?!

Buying now lets one lock in at $4000 or $5000, avoiding any potential price increases when AP3 is released. As others mentioned, I believe Tesla removed it to limit the number of upgrades they might have to do.