- Tesla is no longer selling its so-called Full Self-Driving (Supervised) feature in Europe.
- The company switched to a subscription model today.
- The hands-free driving assistance system is approved in two European countries.
Tesla is no longer selling its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) driver assistance system as a one-time purchase in Europe.
Starting today, European Tesla buyers will have to pay a monthly subscription fee if they want to use features like Autosteer. Meanwhile, the complete FSD (Supervised) pack, which allows for hands-free driving from point A to point B under the driver’s supervision, is available in just two European countries.
Tesla FSD (Supervised) subscription price in the UK.
Photo by: Tesla
Previously, customers could pay a one-time fee of €7,500 or £6,800 if they wanted to buy the “potential for fully independent driving” or “Full Self-Driving Capability.” Now, Tesla is asking for €99 or £99 per month, and has removed the option to pay a smaller fee that offered access to Enhanced Autopilot alone.
Until yesterday, European buyers could spend €3,800 or £3,400 to gain lifetime access to Enhanced Autopilot, which offered driver-supervised hands-free navigation on the highway, automatic lane changes, automatic overtaking, and the ability to summon the vehicle from the smartphone app without anyone sitting inside.
Basic Autopilot, which enables the car to steer, accelerate, and brake automatically for other vehicles and pedestrians within its lane, was free before and remains free.
So far, Tesla has gained regulatory approval for its FSD (Supervised) feature in the Netherlands and Lithuania, leaving customers in all other European countries stuck with a subscription that doesn’t offer everything that’s written on the box. On its United Kingdom website, the company says that “Full Self-Driving (Supervised) is not yet available but may be in the future. Its availability depends on development and regulatory approval.”
Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, where FSD (Supervised) is live, the site claims that “Your car will be able to drive almost anywhere with minimal driver intervention.”
Earlier this year, Tesla made the same move in the United States. It removed the option to buy FSD (Supervised) outright for $8,000 and instead introduced a $99 monthly subscription.
Money-wise, this might seem annoying, but in the long term, it might actually make more sense. For €99 per month, it would take a little over six years to spend a total of €7,500, which is how much FSD used to cost to buy outright. Plus, owners can skip the subscription if they don’t need its features and only pay for a month when they might need it.
That said, all of this puts previous owners of Tesla EVs, who were promised a self-driving car for thousands of euros on top of the vehicle’s price, in a weird spot. Elon Musk, the company’s CEO, stated during an earnings call that cars equipped with the previous-generation, HW3 hardware will not be capable of full autonomy, and that the automaker would have to build micro factories to retrofit older vehicles with the latest hardware.