Tesla to Offer Self-Driving Only by Subscription, Starting at About 145,000 Won per Month

[Financial News] Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tesla, Inc., has announced that the company will stop selling its supervised autonomous driving software Full Self-Driving (FSD) for a one-time payment and will offer it only through a subscription model. This means the self-driving function will shift from a vehicle option to a continuously billed service.
On the 14th (local time), Musk stated on X, "Tesla will stop selling FSD after February 14" and added, "Going forward, FSD will only be available through a monthly subscription."
Until now, Tesla has offered FSD either as a one-time purchase for 8,000 dollars or as a subscription starting at 99 dollars per month. However, starting on the 14th of next month, the one-time purchase option will be discontinued and only the subscription model will remain. Musk did not provide a separate explanation for the reasoning behind this shift.
Tesla does not disclose the number of FSD users or the size of its subscriber base. However, industry observers view this move as a strategy to both reduce the burden of a high-priced option for consumers and convert software revenue into a recurring income stream.
Tesla is currently operating a limited driverless taxi service in Austin, Texas, using the fully autonomous version of FSD. In San Francisco, California, it offers a ride-hailing service with a safety operator seated in the driver’s seat.
Even so, its position in the robotaxi market remains limited. Consumer News and Business Channel (CNBC) reported that Tesla is significantly lagging behind Waymo, a subsidiary of Google LLC, in the autonomous taxi sector. According to a report by Tiger Global Management, Waymo recorded more than 450,000 paid rides per week as of December last year.
Waymo is currently operating driverless taxis in Austin, Texas, San Francisco, California, Phoenix, Arizona, Atlanta, and Los Angeles, and plans to expand its services to additional cities this year. Attention is now focused on whether Tesla’s shift to an FSD subscription model will become a stepping stone for expanding its robotaxi business.
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km@fnnews.com Kim Kyung-min Reporter