Tesla Releases FSD Subscription starting at $99

By Nuno Cristovao

In late 2020 Elon announced that Tesla would be releasing a full self-driving subscription. We have been expecting the FSD subscription for a few months now, but tonight Tesla has officially made it available to owners in the US.

Tesla FSD subscription

The price of the FSD package has been steadily increasing. It’s now up to $10,000 in the US, which isn’t exactly an impulse buy. So it only makes sense that Tesla is releasing FSD as a subscription service.

The price of the subscription in the US will depend on whether you have Basic Autopilot or Enhanced Autopilot, which was an available option for $5,000 before Basic Autopilot became standard.

The price of the FSD subscription if you have Basic Autopilot will be $199/month. If you already have Enhanced Autopilot, then you’ll pay $99/month.

Tesla FSD subscription requires hardware 3.0

There’s one major difference between the FSD subscription and buying the FSD package for $10,000. In order to be able to subscribe to the FSD package your car will need to have the FSD hardware, version 3.0. If it has hardware 2.5 then you’ll need to upgrade for a one-time fee of $1,500 before you’re able to subscribe. This hardware is normally upgraded for free if you buy the FSD package.

There are advantages to either option and what is best for you depends on your specific situation. For example, if you’re leasing a Tesla then buying a $10,000 option doesn’t make a ton of sense. You’ll also be able to cancel and subscribe to the FSD subscription whenever you’d like without any penalties. So you can subscribe for a month if you’re taking a road trip or would like to try it out.

If you plan on having FSD long-term, you may want to consider buying it, especially if you need an upgrade to hardware 3.0. Buying the FSD package also means that the package will stay with the car whenever you decide to sell it, letting you recoup some of your investment.

Tesla FSD subscription in Tesla app

Once you’re ready to subscribe, you can subscribe directly from the Tesla app or from the Tesla website.

Tesla Improves Trip Planner - Arrival State of Charge Coming

By Karan Singh
DBurkland/X

Tesla recently added the ability to report Supercharger issues - such as insufficient lighting, accessibility, cleanliness, and other things that can’t be automatically monitored. In response to the post on the official X Supercharger Community, Max de Zegher, Director of Charging, North America, confirmed that one of the most wish-listed features - Arrival State of Charge, is coming soon.

The feature is now possible thanks to what Wes Morrill, Cybertruck’s lead engineering, points out is a huge rewrite of Tesla’s Trip Planner, which not only makes it much more accurate but will now allow users to choose their arrival charge percentage.

More Accurate Trip Planner

When you navigate to a destination, your Tesla will automatically calculate when, where, and how much you need to charge. While the process seems straightforward, Tesla deserves a lot of credit for creating a simple user experience because a lot goes into accurately determining this information.

Tesla has to calculate many moving pieces in order to accurately predict when and where you should stop. First, it needs to consider your driving efficiency and wind direction, terrain elevation, traffic, vehicle speed, and ambient temperature. It also needs to predict the best Superchargers to stop at, taking into account congestion and charger speed.

Now, according to Wes’ post this morning, Tesla has made backend improvements to the Trip Planner, thanks to a rewrite by several engineers, that bring even more accurate predictions to Trip Planner.

It sounds like these changes are mostly server-side, so thanks to their OTA connection, more accurate predictions should be available to all vehicles—no vehicle update is required.

Arrival State of Charge

Along with Tesla’s improvements to Trip Planner, Wes also stated that these improvements allow for a popular feature request — the ability to select your desired charge level at arrival.

Up until now, Tesla’s Trip Planner tried to get you to your destination as quickly as possible, which usually meant arriving with a low state of charge.

While this was fine if you have a charger at your destination, it’s not great if you don’t, or it could be even worse if there are no chargers nearby.

Max de Zegher said on X that he has heard the requests for a selectable arrival state of charge. Wes later clarified this by saying that these improvements to Tesla’s Trip Planner now allow for additional features to be added, such as “desired arrival charge.”

When Does it Arrive?

Given that Max de Zegher’s comments came last night and Wes Morrill commented this morning, this feature request likely won’t arrive with the upcoming Holiday Update. Tesla actually hinted at such a feature being added in their last app update, so it does seem like they’ve already planned for it.

Although ‘Arrival State of Charge’ was on our wishlist for the Holiday Update, it looks like it may arrive soon after the holidays.

Tesla Adds Performance & Visualization Improvements to Autopark With Update 2024.44.3

By Karan Singh
Not a Tesla App

As Tesla update 2024.44.3 continues to roll out, we’re seeing more features in this update. While the update doesn’t include many new feature, it either improves existing features or rolls out a feature to new regions. Actually Smart Summon is rolling out to Europe, although with more strict restrictions. AutoPark is also rolling out to the UK and several other countries for the first time, and we’re now seeing improvements to Autopark arriving in North America and Europe.

As Tesla’s 2024.44.3 update continues to roll out, more features in the update are being revealed. While this update doesn’t introduce many entirely new features, it does refine existing features or expand the reach of others.

Notably, Actually Smart Summon is now rolling out in Europe, albeit with stricter regulations. Vision-based AutoPark is debuting in the UK and several other countries, while North America and Europe are receiving updates that further improve Autopark’s functionality.

Improvements to Autopark

As part of the same update, Tesla is making a batch of improvements to Autopark in Europe and North America. In the release notes, Tesla states that Autopark is receiving performance and visualization improvements. Unfortunately, Tesla doesn’t go into more detail here, but it sounds like these improvements could be the faster and more accurate Autopark enhancements Ashok Elluswamy talked about earlier this year.

Those improvements are expected to make Autopark more reliable, let it pick spots faster, move faster into them, and also shift between forward and reverse faster. The improvements would also let the vehicle park in tighter spots than before, with more accurate vision.

We’ll have to wait and see how this improved Autopark compares to the current version.

Your vehicle's Autopark performance and visualizatons have been improved.

Autopark in the UK and Other Countries

Countries in Europe that previously didn’t have access to Vision-Based Autopark, including the UK, will now have access to the new Autopark for the first time with update 2024.44.3 and later. This includes countries such as the UK, Ireland and Malaysia.

While these countries are receiving Autopark, it’s not clear whether it includes the Autopark improvements that other regions are receiving. The release notes don’t include the Autopark Improvements section in these countries, but that could be due to Tesla simplifying the release notes for these countries that are receiving Autopark for the first time.

With Autopark finally introduced in these regions, it’ll be the first time vehicles without ultrasonic sensors are capable of Autopark. Vision-Based Autopark is far more reliable, faster, and easier to use in more situations than the older USS-based solution.

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