Rather than shoveling over $10,000 for the Tesla FSD autopilot system, customers can now opt for a fixed monthly fee of $199 – but there is a hidden fee there as well.
Apparently, a new version of the FSD just came out that requires an upgrade to late-2019 computing hardware. Earlier on, Elon Musk promised everyone to only update the software in Tesla cars, claiming that they already had all the necessary hardware straight from the factory. This is apparently not so, and owners of cars produced between 2016 and late 2019 will need a $1,500 upgrade.
The catch is, while those who paid the full sum for the FSD get it for free, the subscribers will have to pay for the upgrade from their own wallets.
If you were wondering about the name of the feature, ‘Full Self Driving’ does not mean an SAE Level 4 or 5 system. Autonomous driving systems of the two top tiers support completely unattended driving: the Level still leaves an opportunity for manual control, while the Level 5 removes the steering wheel and pedals from the cabin altogether.
Tesla’s misleadingly named FSD probably comes closest to a Level 3 system, as it can plot routes across multiple points, accelerate, change lanes, turn, brake, and park. Even so, the driver has to be aware of the situation of all times and ready to resume driving whenever the system encounters a challenging situation.