I paid $5k for EAP when I bought my 2018 MS. IIRC, at its cheapest point, the FSD upgrade was either 2 or $3k for me. At that time Tesla would take your $ for FSD but wouldn't install the hardware- nor would they make any promises when you could expect the HW upgrade to take place. Because of that, it seemed
very foolish to spend money on the upgrade considering I had no idea when the hardware was coming let alone the
software.
At some point they raised the price to $4k and even then the HW upgrades seemed to be sparse and only going to "social media influencers". This was around the time when people started finding out the M3's they thought were "FSD capable"
actually shipped with HW2.5. Then the price went to $5k for the EAP-FSD upgrade, and it seemed like if you paid that you could schedule an appointment and may or may not hit the HW upgrade lottery. Reports were still coming in of people getting turned down, but when pressed Tesla all of a sudden have the hardware in stock and were able to do it for certain people. Essentially during that time it was "squeaky customer wheel gets the grease," which if I'm being honest seems like Tesla has been in that mode of service since about 2017-18 and continues to current day. That's why I haven't taken my car in for service at all, including to try and get my yellowing screen zapped. I figured I'll try and get them to do a big service and take care of that just before the 50k mile warranty is up. I'm sure my HEPA filter looks awful but it's just a pain to deal with service and I want to interact with them as little as possible.
Over time the price rose from $5k to $7k for the EAP to FSD upgrade. Now it seems to have dropped back to $5k, which IMO is
still too much for something that I have no idea when I will actually be able to use its features. If I pulled the trigger right now the best I would get is smoother visuals (from the more powerful HW3) and traffic sign/light functionality... which is NOT worth $5k.
This whole thing has been a fiasco. I wish Tesla wouldn't raise prices on something until it actually was widely available after purchase. Handling like they have been has felt like a huge bully/pressure tactic and it just alienates the customer base. Feels like a shakedown to be honest.
As much as I want to upgrade I think I'm still going to wait even with this price drop... EAP is 90% of what I need and honestly I'm just struggling to justify the price for something I have no idea when I'd actually be able to use the most compelling part of the upgrade (e.g. the car "fully" negotiating city streets when AP is engaged). I wish Tesla offered a HW3 upgrade package right now (for say $2k) then I might go for it because I'd know I was FSD capable for when the monthly subscription becomes a reality. I WFH almost 100% so I really only use AP on road trips anyway... and even then I barely use Nav on AP because it makes the car more jumpy and I don't think it makes great decisions. What I use the most is AP and the auto-lane change on the highway, which I already have... *shrugs*
