Why does Tesla sell used cars with Full Self Driving?

[David29]

Tesla lists some inventory used cars as having "Full Self Driving Capability." This suddenly struck me as curious. Why not advertise the car at a lower price without FSD and offer it as an extra cost add-on? Wouldn't it be likely that today's price for FSD is higher than the previous owner paid for it, at least in many cases? Or to put it differently, if they delete it, would they sell the car for so much less that they are better off selling it to people who don't want it?
I thought of this as I searched for a car, and was thinking I would see if Tesla would delete the FSD and lower the price for me. I seem to recall a post or two in which people said that Tesla did that for them.
I suppose that they can charge somewhat more for cars with FSD, but there must be some push-back from buyers who would prefer a lower price rather than the extra feature.
Anyhow, thought it was curious. I assume it is nothing but some sort of software "switch" they can activate or not, so thee is presumably little or no effort to add it or remove it.
What am I missing?

 

[jmaddr]

Full Self Driving capability may not be FSD equipped. Marketing BS. It's the "capability" to be equipped. Meaning...give us the 12k and only then you get FSD.

 

[bjhinkle]

Tesla lists some inventory used cars as having "Full Self Driving Capability." This suddenly struck me as curious. Why not advertise the car at a lower price without FSD and offer it as an extra cost add-on? Wouldn't it be likely that today's price for FSD is higher than the previous owner paid for it, at least in many cases? Or to put it differently, if they delete it, would they sell the car for so much less that they are better off selling it to people who don't want it?
I thought of this as I searched for a car, and was thinking I would see if Tesla would delete the FSD and lower the price for me. I seem to recall a post or two in which people said that Tesla did that for them.
I suppose that they can charge somewhat more for cars with FSD, but there must be some push-back from buyers who would prefer a lower price rather than the extra feature.
Anyhow, thought it was curious. I assume it is nothing but some sort of software "switch" they can activate or not, so thee is presumably little or no effort to add it or remove it.
What am I missing?

It means it has the hardware installed for FSD to be enabled. Not that FSD software has been installed. You can buy it on that car. That’s all it means.

 

[jjrandorin]

It means it has the hardware installed for FSD to be enabled. Not that FSD software has been installed. You can buy it on that car. That’s all it means.

I realize that this is the model S subforum, but on a model 3 or Y that is used from Tesla they are all sold with the FSD software, which is called "full self driving capability". In other words, its not just the hardware on a model 3 or Y its the software.

As to the OP question, basically "because they can".

 

[Super_Popular]

FSD doesn’t even work lmao

 

[EVRider-FL]

Full Self Driving capability may not be FSD equipped. Marketing BS. It's the "capability" to be equipped. Meaning...give us the 12k and only then you get FSD.

No, Full Self Driving Capability means the car includes the FSD option. If you look at the order page for any Tesla model, the option that you can buy for $12k is called Full Self Driving Capability.

 

[gsmith123]

Lots of misinformation in this thread. "Full Self Driving Capability“ means the car has the FSD software option (and the right to a free upgrade to HW3 if it doesn’t have it)

I bought a used car like this. It’s not a sneaky trick.

As far as why? Maybe simple economics, Tesla thinks the value of FSD on the used car (typically a $3-4k bump) is more than FSD price * take rate among used car buyers

Who buys a used car and then buys a $12k upgrade anyway

 

[dsm363]

Agree. It means it can be added after you buy the car (over the air software update), not that it has it installed.

 

[David29]

Agree. It means it can be added after you buy the car (over the air software update), not that it has it installed.

I do not think so. the used cars are labelled as one of three things: Autopilot, Enhanced Autopilot, and Full Self Driving Capability. Then the descriptions have details on the associated capabilities. If you had to buy them, I do not think they would be listed as attributes of the cars in the listings.

 

[Carsly2]

If you watch, you'll see that as inventory gets stale they do at least two things:
1 - lower the prices
2 - drop FSD for a bigger price drop

It makes a heck of a lot of business sense. Take in these off-lease cars, turn on FSD (or market as such) in Tesla used inventory in order to raise the list price of selling it used and thereby increase the spread of the used car residual/trade-in value vs. used retail with virtually no expense added.

It wouldn't surprise me if there is some accounting trickery as well where they can manipulate the value of used inventory on hand but having xx% listed with or without FSD and correspondingly higher (or lower) mark to market values. I have no evidence of such, and am not making an allegation, just that it creates the opportunity for something like this to take place.

 

[dsm363]

I do not think so. the used cars are labelled as one of three things: Autopilot, Enhanced Autopilot, and Full Self Driving Capability. Then the descriptions have details on the associated capabilities. If you had to buy them, I do not think they would be listed as attributes of the cars in the listings.

All the cars with modern autopilot hardware have Full Self Driving Capability, right? You pay for the software to activate it.

 

[momo3605]

Like everyone said, you DO get FSD software with the used cars (I bought my model 3 with FSD from tesla like this). But it's a smart move, a lot of the 1-3 year old inventory is hardly listed < 20% below msrp. They can use FSD to bump up the used prices a bit for something people would never spend on anyway

 

[momo3605]

All the cars with modern autopilot hardware have Full Self Driving Capability, right? You pay for the software to activate it.

Not correct. Full Self Driving Capability is the name of the $12k software package.

 

[dsm363]

Not correct. Full Self Driving Capability is the name of the $12k software package.

It's really bad marketing then. Full Self Driving included would be better.

 

[EVRider-FL]

 

[David29]

View attachment 989631

So, evidently they use the word "Capability" because the actual features that have been released are not a full set of features, i.e., it isn't really "full self driving" yet. They explain that in the text, which is effectively a disclaimer.

 

[gsmith123]

Exactly. It's extremely confusing feature naming from Tesla.

Technically speaking a car can have the "Full Self Driving Capability" option without having the hardware for it (yet) as well. Just to be extra confusing!

 

[jjrandorin]

Exactly. It's extremely confusing feature naming from Tesla.

Technically speaking a car can have the "Full Self Driving Capability" option without having the hardware for it (yet) as well. Just to be extra confusing!

It really is dumb naming, for sure. Just about anyone would look at the product name (full self driving capability) and assume the exact same thing that is said by @dsm363 . I mean, its a logical conclusion, and does not appear to have much wiggle room. Why call something "capability" if it actually has it? (rhetorical question, heh).

So, evidently they use the word "Capability" because the actual features that have been released are not a full set of features, i.e., it isn't really "full self driving" yet. They explain that in the text, which is effectively a disclaimer.

This has always been my guess as well, but, frankly, its at a minimum misleading on Teslas part. The only saving grace on this is, the natural assumption by someone seeing "full self driving capability" is that the car WOULD NOT have "full self driving software included with it", so even if they make that (very natural) assumption, the reality is the car would have it, so there isnt much recourse.

In effect, "I thought this thing was not included but it is" is not something someone could sue over, but if they made a distinction between calling it "full self driving capability" and full self driving " they would have 8 million lawsuits saying "you call this "full self driving" but it isnt. They retain deniability with this name.... but its stupid as heck.

 

[CapeOne]

What am I missing?

I think Tesla simply wants to get as many people as possible using FSD and including it on most used cars they sell is a way to do so. I also felt they did it so they could roll it into the used car price for much less than full retail without "degrading" the perception/image/opinion of FSD by publicly discounting it. HOWEVER, with all the price reductions and discounts Tesla has done this past year (including lowering the price of FSD) I don’t think that is quite as much of a factor right now.