Owners with No AP - Thoughts/Plans/Speculation on What Happens Next

[Thirsty3]

When I ordered my car in October, I think EAP was $5000 - didn't seem worth the price but really liked it during the trial. I contemplated the $2,000 AP offer last month but ultimately passed. Now AP is "free" for all new cars (and the post-purchase add-on is now $3k instead of $4k) - I can't help but wonder if they will incentivize owners without AP in some other way to take the plunge (perhaps to standardize future software, etc.).

I'm not expecting it to be free - nothing is - but maybe $1000 when they need a surge of extra revenue? They can say it's part of their commitment to standardizing safety. Probably not in the next 60 days, but it's been such a wild pricing/configuration ride since January, who knows?

Obviously, this is all pure speculation (wishful thinking?) - but curious to hear your takes on it!

 

[googlepeakoil]

Yeah. Think you're right. At some point this year - probably near the end of the quarter when they're at "cash crunch time" they'll make some ludicrous offer to people to get them to upgrade. I'm saddened Tesla didn't make it right for people that paid $5k or whatever for FSD when they dropped the price to $2500 or $3k (people gave Tesla effectively a 3 year interest free loan for something they were told would increase in price if not bought with the car, then years later, still undelivered, it halves in price!) - i've lost track of all the price variations.

 

[antoinearnau]

Next, they will turn off your car if you don't buy it. And maybe limit the car to 90 kph if you don't buy fsd...

 

[lolder]

Folks, ICE car dealers change the price of their cars DAILY. You don't have the option there to get rebates retroactively. Tesla honors the price commitment of firm orders and even has made some adjustments. All this complaining is ridiculous and hurting the company.

 

[Thirsty3]

Folks, ICE car dealers change the price of their cars DAILY. You don't have the option there to get rebates retroactively. Tesla honors the price commitment of firm orders and even has made some adjustments. All this complaining is ridiculous and hurting the company.

This isn't a complaint. It's not that deep. And, at this point, I'd argue that comparison to ICE car dealers is also irrelevant. Tesla can't even be benchmarked against earlier versions of itself, let alone an ICE dealer. The bottom line is change with Tesla is constant - and trying to predict it is probably useless - but I can't deny that the speculation/conjecture is fun.

 

[brobinson]

If their goal is to have AP included for the fleet, then I wouldn't be surprised to see 2018 owners receive basic AP for free. Now, those of us that paid $2k just a few weeks ago....

 

[JBT66]

I’m fine with giving AP to everyone. But leave FSD as the $3K option indefinitely on my software upgrade page. I’ll buy it when I’m ready.

I like I imagine most people make budgets and plans on multi thousand dollar purchases.

 

[Dexterryu]

If it's really for "safety" as they are claiming you'd think they'd push it out basic to everyone, just add some "enhanced" features for those that paid for it.

It's all software so there are easy technical ways to make this feasible.

 

[BrunoB]

I was juggling with the idea of adding AP on my LR AWD that is to be delivered in a couple of weeks, but I think I will pass. There is to much uncertainty as far as price goes and frankly right now in my account page it makes my car more expensive than if I was to order one now. Makes no sense whatsoever. LOL

 

[OCR1]

Tesla is not bundling AP because they are concerned about your safety. That’s complete nonsense. Tesla is bundling AP because they have spent a substantial amount of money developing their AP/FSD technology and they want to recoup their investment by selling as many AP/FSD options on their cars as they can. The extra $2K you now are required to pay is pure profit to Tesla since all cars already come with all of the hardware required to utilize it, so the $2K just adds to their bottom line on every car they sell.

There is nothing wrong with them doing this. I want Tesla to be profitable and successful. But let’s not try to spin this into something about Tesla caring about our safety. That’s just silly.

 

[a1machinista1]

If their goal is to have AP included for the fleet, then I wouldn't be surprised to see 2018 owners receive basic AP for free. Now, those of us that paid $2k just a few weeks ago....

We paid $3k five weeks ago..

 

[ewoodrick]

It's not "free" for new cars, it's a "mandatory option" that raises the rice of the cars to cover it.

 

[Runnergirl]

We paid $3k five weeks ago..

I paid $5,800 five months ago.. what's done is done

 

[M423]

Enjoy the car you bought they way you bought it

 

[Dexterryu]

Tesla is not bundling AP because they are concerned about your safety. That’s complete nonsense. Tesla is bundling AP because they have spent a substantial amount of money developing their AP/FSD technology and they want to recoup their investment by selling as many AP/FSD options on their cars as they can. The extra $2K you now are required to pay is pure profit to Tesla since all cars already come with all of the hardware required to utilize it, so the $2K just adds to their bottom line on every car they sell.

There is nothing wrong with them doing this. I want Tesla to be profitable and successful. But let’s not try to spin this into something about Tesla caring about our safety. That’s just silly.

I'm just repeating what I saw on the several articles as the reason Tesla is now adding it "free". You're probably more correct on why the are actually adding it.

 

[KG2V]

Listen, I ordered my car March 9th, watched the crazy complaining about the price, got my car delivered March 28th, watched the complaining about price (LR RWD with Blue paint and Autopilot).

Guess what? I thought the price was fair then. So they changed the price. No big deal. The only thing I still wonder about is "Should I have bought the AWD?" I came close then, I kicked around getting the black paint (saving the $1500) and going AWN. Now with the combined cost being $1000+1500 cheaper, I wonder if I would have decided the other way? Who knows. It is what it is. I won't stress

 

[OCR1]

I bought my LR RWD three weeks ago for $43K. I did not purchase AP because I didn’t need it and it wasn’t worth $3K to me. The price of this car has now gone up $1,500 since I purchased it so I have no complaints. I also was willing to roll the dice that AP would go down in price after I purchased it. At this point I can buy it for the same price ($3K) as pre-delivery, but I’m hearing that some people are being offered a discount down to $2,500 if they buy it after doing the 60 day trial. So if it goes that way for me I will have benefited by holding off on buying it.

The lesson for future buyers to learn here is that Tesla changes their prices frequently, and often has sales when they have a push to make their quarterly numbers. So be patient and wait for the right buying opportunity, just as you would if you were buying any other car.

 

[Thirsty3]

Just to re-center all of this, I wasn't intending this to debate/complain about price fluctuations - I think we're all making peace with that in our own ways (and if not, there are plenty of other threads to hash that out). What I guess I'm trying to do is speculate about what "offer" comes next for those cars without AP now that AP is being re-positioned as standard/core element of the whole brand. Maybe nothing - maybe we wake up one day and it's free or near-free - maybe the price goes up; all three are possibilities. Thought it might be fun to hear your guesses...

 

[BOBEDIGITL]

It's not "free" with the cars being sold today. Did they not raise the price of all vehicles or am I missing something here?

 

[CommandoFL]

When I ordered my car in October, I think EAP was $5000 - didn't seem worth the price but really liked it during the trial. I contemplated the $2,000 AP offer last month but ultimately passed. Now AP is "free" for all new cars (and the post-purchase add-on is now $3k instead of $4k) - I can't help but wonder if they will incentivize owners without AP in some other way to take the plunge (perhaps to standardize future software, etc.).

I'm not expecting it to be free - nothing is - but maybe $1000 when they need a surge of extra revenue? They can say it's part of their commitment to standardizing safety. Probably not in the next 60 days, but it's been such a wild pricing/configuration ride since January, who knows?

Obviously, this is all pure speculation (wishful thinking?) - but curious to hear your takes on it!

AP is not FREE for new cars. The prices were bumped up as a result of it being standard. I think it was 2500 bump.