Suggestion: How Tesla should charge us full FSD to improve consumer confidence: Options Contract

[tomsla]

I am getting my Model 3 next week. I have been enjoying my Model S with AP1, and am intrigued by FSD. But I did not order AP & FSD on the Model 3. Here's why, along with a suggestion to make it so I would have paid something for future software:

I prefer to pay for my goods and services at the time I receive them.
Is anyone here pre-paying in full for future software such as Windows 2021, or for hardware that can run Windows 2021 but can't be used yet? I am certainly not!
I know people are also pre-paying $250k in full for the Roadster (even the lower tier of $50k is exorbitant). To each their own, and I've already read the reasoning, so not trying to argue about that. It's just not how I personally want to do business.

The FSD option pricing for future software (that may or may not work as intended once out of Beta) should be structured like an options contract, as follows: Tesla should charge a lower price now for the contract giving you the right to buy FSD later, which gives you the option to buy FSD at a later time for a fixed price.

Eg. FSD is $9,000, the option contract could be $500, and could guarantee you a future cost of $8,500 whenever it comes out, if you still own the car at that time. If it doesn't come out of Beta and get software updated to the car by a promised date (with certain agreed performance levels for the software - FULL FSD criteria), then you would get your $500 back. If it does come out on time and you opt not to get it, you would lose your $500. Similar to how an option contract on stocks expire. If the option price at that time (say 2021) is $11,000, you would still have the right to buy for $8,500 or $9,000 or whatever was agreed upon for you in the past.

This was an example to illustrate my suggestion only, I'm not setting up the actual numbers.

I would have paid an extra $500 or $1,000 w/ my Model 3 order for an option to get FSD in the future at a locked in price, with some of that upfront option cost being credited towards FSD at a later date.

If the FSD doesn't come out by a promised date or doesn't meet a pre-determined level of performance (FULL FSD) by that date, say Jan 1, 2021, each customer should be granted their contract money of $500 back.

Just an idea... They'd make $500 off of a lot of people without doing anything. Win win for everyone!

 

[tomsla]

To further explain my general mindset on paying for goods and services - I want the Roadster, and intend to get it. I currently have a performance car of similar value to the next Roadster, and I love performance cars more than high tech cars (I'm very fortunate to have 2 cars that do 0-60 under 3 seconds, one is a Tesla).

I know the roadster will be great, but worry about when it will come out, and when people lower on the list will actually get theirs (after production delays, etc). I will be one of the first to purchase one for sure - ONCE they restructure their deposit program to make it fair, but I am simply not paying the price of a Model 3 ($50k) down for a deposit for something that will almost certainly not come out on time. I'd rather be lower on the list and have my $50k (and drive a Model 3 around) than low on the list and be missing $50k.

Again, to each their own!

 

[azred]

I haven’t purchased either software option for my refresh S or 3. I may be proven wrong but I believe it is more likely than not that the $8000 pre-purchase and $10,000 post-purchase prices will drop considerably within a year or two — and we keep our cars a long time. In the meantime purchasers of AP2/EAP can continue to Beta test it and FSD can become more than an idea. (Of course if I frequently flipped or leased my cars I might have purchased EAP in spite of its warts.)

 

[Kant.Ing]

Not only waiting for dual motors, we're also willing to wait until FSD software really works in real life. The FSD hardware is already in every M3 so no hurry, and investing in TSLA might have the same risk as making FSD work on the current hardware.