Tesla just made a big change to its Full Self-Driving (FSD) package in the US. They dropped the subscription price from $199 to $99 per month. This move is surprising because CEO Elon Musk had said before that the FSD cost would go up as it got closer to full autonomy with approval from regulators.
Musk even said FSD could be worth over $100,000 per car. The FSD system can do things like change lanes and avoid objects, but a human driver needs to watch over it all the time.
Even though it can do a lot, the high starting price has made it hard for more people to buy it. Tesla has about 2.5 million cars on US roads, but not all of them have FSD.
Tesla’s Price Cut: Investors’ Response and Future Outlook
Amidst a free one-month trial of FSD by Tesla, they’ve cut the price to boost how many people use it.
Gary Black from Future Fund Active ETF likes the price drop and thinks it will make more people use FSD. Wall Street experts changed their guess for how much Tesla will earn in 2024 to about $2.70 per share, down from $4.90 last year.
They expect Tesla to deliver about the same number of cars as last year. Tesla’s stock went down by 31% this year but went up 4% last week, maybe because Musk said they’ll reveal a Tesla robotaxi on August 8th.
Tesla Faces Competition: Rivals Advance in Autonomous Services
Tesla cutting the FSD price doesn’t match up with Musk’s big claims about self-driving cars and Tesla cars becoming robotaxis.
This difference between what Musk says and what Tesla’s technology can do has made people look closely, and the California Department of Motor Vehicles even accused Tesla of misleading marketing.
At the same time, other companies like Alphabet’s Waymo, Didi’s self-driving unit in China, and Amazon’s Zoox in the US are making progress in using robotaxis for business. This makes the competition tougher for Tesla.
Tesla’s FSD Trial: Mixed Reactions and Uncertain Road Ahead
Some Tesla customers are split about the choice to make salespeople show off FSD and give a one-month trial.
Some think it’s great, but others worry about safety and aren’t trying the trial. People are curious about the robotaxi reveal on August 8, which adds to the excitement about Tesla’s self-driving plans.
But in the past, there have been delays between announcing something and making it happen, so some people are cautious. It’s not clear if the FSD price drop will stick around, which makes it hard to know Tesla’s plan for self-driving.
