Tesla is once again upping the price of its “full self-driving” feature which is available in a number of its car models.
According to a tweet from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the electric vehicle manufacturer will increase the price of its autopilot driver assistant by $1,000 USD on August 16th.
Musk also promised in a subsequent tweet that that date (and price bump) should coincide with the release of Tesla’s Advanced Summon feature, which will only be available on FSD-equipped cars.
“Musk said earlier this year that the price of the “full self-driving” Autopilot package would ‘increase substantially over time,’ and has even warned that the overall cost of Tesla’s cars will go up ‘significantly’ if and when they gain the ability to drive themselves without human supervision or intervention,” reads a report from The Verge.
Cost of Tesla full self-driving option increasing by ~$1000 on August 16
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 16, 2019
While it is not a 100 percent driverless system, Tesla‘s Autopilot is far more advanced than today’s driver-assistance systems. The package can keep the car in the center of a lane, change lanes automatically, and even tackle on and off-ramps while driving on a highway. However, the driver has to monitor the changes made by the system and ensure that they have their hands on the driving wheel at all times.
While Tesla dubbs the package “full self-driving,” though it should be noted that Tesla’s cars still cannot operate autonomously. The “full self-driving” package doesn’t give its vehicles level 5 autonomy at this point in time, something that Musk has said the company will make that possible by the end of 2019.
