Tesla Raising Price of FSD to $15,000, AI Director States "We Can Build a Car That Never Crashes"

After FSD Beta 10.69 successfully rolled out to Tesla owners last night, Elon Musk tweeted that once it is released to all FSD Beta participants, the price of the FSD package will be raised from $12,000 to $15,000 on September 5th. The current price will be honored for any orders placed before September 5th.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1561362640261226499

Another price increase seems like a reassurance that FSD will come to fruition soon. Tesla's Autopilot Software director Ashok Elluswamy shares additional information regarding the progress Tesla has made in FSD Beta 10.69: a huge change introduced in this update are "Occupancy Networks," which Elluswamy states are "our approach to solve general obstacle detection and using it to enable sophisticated collision avoidance." He claims that these occupancy networks are so important in solving self-driving that "when we execute on this plan we can build a car that literally never crashes."

https://twitter.com/x/status/1561151207858573312

https://twitter.com/x/status/1561151574201602048

Tesla enthusiast @WholeMarsBlog on Twitter shares their first 35-minute drive with FSD Beta 10.69, highlighting the significant changes Tesla has made in this update.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1561273991217631232

FSD Beta tester Chuck Cook @Chazman (who also snuck into the v10.69 release notes) also shared a video testing how FSD Beta 10.69 handles turns. "It wasn't very smooth, but it was adjusting its course so it can continue without a full stop," referring to the unprotected left turn his car had just executed.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1561374286115381249

Credit: Chuck Cook on YouTube

We're hoping all the changes that need to be fixed by 10.69.2 will provide more reasoning for Tesla's sudden price increase in FSD Beta 10.69. We can only hope this means Tesla is seriously getting closer to solving the self-driving problem, and we will certainly see how the changes allowing video and map data to simultaneously help FSD Beta learn to drive will affect not only how it drives now, but in the near future.

 

[ElectricIAC]

At a minimum, wait and add FSD after taking delivery to at least avoid paying tax and registration on it (both of which are keyed off the official total sales price).

In Texas unless you live unincorporated you’d pay more tax post sale.

 

[ZenRockGarden]

In Texas unless you live unincorporated you’d pay more tax post sale.

Granted - does vary by state. In CA, tax and registration key from official purchase price, but other states may have the reverse.

 

[EVNow]

Easy. Sell the car.

And lose how much ?

Anyway, you / readers got the point.

 

[PineNut]

So will this new $3000 price increase for FSD give us even more new features than the earlier $2000 price increase did?

 

[uscbucsfan]

So will this new $3000 price increase for FSD give us even more new features than the earlier $2000 price increase did?

It's better than it was then. That's not nothing.

 

[qdeathstar]

It's better than it was then. That's not nothing.

Only if you have the Beta

 

[SR123]

Tesla Raising Price of FSD to $15,000, AI Director States "We Can Build a Car That Never Crashes"​

…that’s what they all say until they get a lawsuit on their hands

 

[azred]

$15k, huh? Maybe he needs some quick cash to complete that Twitter purchase that he’s trying to weasel out of.

 

[SR123]

$15k, huh? Maybe he needs some quick cash to complete that Twitter purchase that he’s trying to weasel out of.

Now the only way that people can experience FSD is the monthly subscription

 

[Dewg]

Now the only way that people can experience FSD is the monthly subscription

That's the goal - and not just Tesla, but every company's holy grail is monthly subscriptions. It's excellent for smoothing out their balance sheets, creates predicable revenue, and shores up poorly performing products/departments while those products mature. Even other, well-established car manufacturers are dipping their toes in subscriptions.

 

[_Redshift_]

Subscriptions are relatively new concept for car companies. While subscriptions have the potential to increase acceptance and potentially garner bigger revenues, the product has to be perceived as valuable, first.

I have seen many examples here, of people saying they did not renew their monthly subscription after trying out the FSD.

It might be tried as a novelty feature, because of all the hoopla surrounding Tesla, but once they figure out it is t exactly ready for prime time, they are not only likely to cancel, but let their friends know about their experience.

It all comes back to the product.

 

[ZenRockGarden]

I'll again assert that raising the FSD price from $12k to $15k should have almost no impact on Tesla bottom line. The price would reasonably result in slightly lower adoption vs never getting it or renting it for $300/mo when needed. I don't think enough people could be "scared" into buying-now-before-it-goes-up-more to have any impact.

This is IMO pure ego - Tesla convinced to the core that they have the tech almost ready for people sending their personal car out on it's own as a taxi service, which simply does not look realistic any time soon.

 

[legendsk]

I saw the tweet that the "current" price will be honored for orders placed before the next price increase. It didn't say if you bought FSD sometime in the past and paid the price then, it will be honored when / if FSD becomes available. I'll have a problem with it if they expect me to pay the difference between the "current" price and the price when I bought it - the year it was going to be available. . . . . . . .

 

[2101Guy]

Now the only way that people can experience FSD is the monthly subscription

Nah. Per Elon himself, the twitter lawsuit is why he had to sell BILLIONS of dollars of his Tesla shares to fund what he anticipates is about to come out of the court action with twitter.

$54.20. The value probably (at the time) was closer to upper $40’s. But he HAD to get 420 into the price. Because he thinks it’s still 2002 and it’s cool to still refer to 420 and 69. So he set the price he wanted to pay..at $54.20.

 

[ZenRockGarden]

Nah. Per Elon himself, the twitter lawsuit is why he had to sell BILLIONS of dollars of his Tesla shares to fund what he anticipates is about to come out of the court action with twitter.

$54.20. The value probably (at the time) was closer to upper $40’s. But he HAD to get 420 into the price. Because he thinks it’s still 2002 and it’s cool to still refer to 420 and 69. So he set the price he wanted to pay..at $54.20.

Elons personal finances and TWTR purchasing adventures shouldn't have any bearing on the price Tesla charges for FSD....

 

[2101Guy]

Elons personal finances and TWTR purchasing adventures shouldn't have any bearing on the price Tesla charges for FSD....

“Shouldnt”

 

[LowlyOilBurner]

$12-15k for the current offering of AP/NoA/Smart Summon/Autopark is disgusting. When I HAD the beta, I found value in it, regular AP/NoA, not so much.

 

[qdeathstar]

$15k, huh? Maybe he needs some quick cash to complete that Twitter purchase that he’s trying to weasel out of.

If you want cash quick you discount prices to encourage people to buy. This has the opposite affect…

 

[SR123]

Elon Musk’s master plan:
1. Get into a sticky situation with Twitter, hence cause controversy
2. Get into a stickier situation where he has to sell billions of dollars of TSLA stock which leads to even more controversy
3. “Add new features to FSD” and increase the already outrageous price by 3k

 

[CSFTN]

So tired of hearing about the next big breakthrough that is going to massively change how FSD behaves. These guys have been full of *sugar* for over a decade now.

Over a decade? Been a decade since the S was first released; I don't recall any conversation about Autopilot until the A&D announcements in August 2014. That's 8 years, not over a decade. Did I miss anything else?