Tesla has relaunched its Enhanced Autopilot option and pulled almost all the features from its Full Self-Driving (FSD) package in the process.
Over the years, Tesla has changed its Autopilot options and pricing so many times, it has been hard to follow.
Ultimately, the automaker has ended up making the Autopilot’s Autosteer and Traffic-Aware Cruise Control standard on its vehicles and bundled the rest of the features into its “Full Self-Driving package” (FSD), which gradually increased in price to now $12,000.
Before that, Tesla used to offer “Enhanced Autopilot,” which included most of the features currently available in the FSD package except for the potential future capacity to unlock a true full self-driving system through software updates.
Since the automaker kept missing deadlines to achieve that, Tesla gradually moved some of the Enhanced Autopilot features into the FSD package and killed Enhanced Autopilot rather than bringing it back a few times as an optional software upgrade.
Today, Tesla has reversed the move by fully bringing back Enhanced Autopilot as a $6,000 option on new purchases:
As you can see, it took all the main features from the Full Self-Driving Capability package:
- Navigate on Autopilot
- Auto Lane Change
- Autopark
- Summon
- Smart Summon
The Full Self-Driving Capability package is left with:
- All functionality of Basic Autopilot and Enhanced Autopilot
- Traffic Light and Stop Sign Control
But of course, the real value is in eventually achieving a true full self-driving system that doesn’t require driver attention at all times and where the responsibility doesn’t lie with the driver, which is currently the case for all those other features.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla has never disclosed the take-rate of FSD, but it is believed to be quite low, especially these days at $12,000.
This move likely aims at improving Tesla’s margins since the Enhanced Autopilot option at $6,000 is likely going to be more popular, and it doesn’t cost anything for Tesla to activate those features since all the hardware is already in every car it produces.
It also makes the FSD package a harder sale because it’s now a $6,000 option on top of Enhanced Autopilot, and it literally only adds “Traffic Light and Stop Sign Control,” which is in beta and not super useful.
People who buy FSD over Enhanced Autopilot would have to be super confident that Tesla can deliver on its promise as well as willing to bet $6,000 on it.
CEO Elon Musk has always said that Tesla plans to increase the price of the FSD package as it gets closer to a true self-driving system.
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Author: Fred Lambert
Source: Electrek
