What changed
Tesla has moved key highway driver-assistance functions behind a subscription, requiring customers to pay for Full Self-Driving (Supervised) to access lane-centering and related features in the U.S. and Canada. The change was implemented Thursday and appeared on Tesla’s online configurator Friday.
- Highway lane-centering (Autosteer) and automated lane changes now require the FSD (Supervised) subscription at $99/month.
- New vehicles still include Traffic Aware Cruise Control (adaptive cruise) at no extra cost.
- The Autopilot and Enhanced Autopilot packages have been discontinued.
Pricing and timeline
- FSD (Supervised) costs $99/month, and Elon Musk said the price will rise as capabilities improve.
- The one-time purchase option for FSD (last priced at $8,000) ends on Feb. 14; access will be subscription-only afterward.
Impact on drivers
- Included with new cars: basic adaptive cruise control (Traffic Aware Cruise Control).
- Now paywalled: Autosteer (highway lane-centering) and advanced functions like automated lane changes.
- FSD (Supervised) remains a driver-assistance system that requires active human supervision; it does not make the car autonomous.
Why it matters
The move deepens Tesla’s shift to recurring software revenue as vehicle sales growth softens. With a valuation around $1.4 trillion driven in part by expectations for autonomy, bundling widely used highway features into a subscription could lift uptake and stabilize software income.
Customer and regulatory reaction
Some owners voiced disappointment, noting they relied on basic Autopilot for daily commuting and subscribed to FSD only for road trips. The timing intersects with regulatory scrutiny: California’s DMV gave Tesla 60 days to overhaul marketing or face a potential 30-day sales license suspension, including a condition to stop using the “Autopilot” name. The agency declined to comment on the latest packaging changes; Tesla did not immediately respond.
Adoption and strategy
- As of October, Tesla’s CFO said 12% of customers had paid for FSD.
- Musk’s long-term compensation plan targets 10 million FSD subscriptions over the next decade.
- Consolidating features under FSD (Supervised) removes mid-tier options and may nudge more buyers into the subscription.
Who is affected
The changes apply to new buyers in the U.S. and Canada. Tesla did not announce modifications to driver monitoring or safety protocols, and it remains unclear how existing owners with previously purchased packages will be affected. For now, new buyers who want highway lane-centering and automated lane changes must subscribe monthly.
