Autopilot

[SCTesla]

i didnt think they officially said that? i thought the year of free fsd was to cover autopilot not being sorted out YET.

They did.

The CT was the first vehicle to "not get AP", then the lower cost MY/M3, now the entire fleet.

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[JCERRN]

They announced a while ago the CT will never get AP. They gave those users 1 year free FSD.

The email said “as a thank you for being an early adopter” not “because we arent giving you autopilot, here is 1 year of FSD to compensate you for that change and by activating this trial, you are stating acceptance that this is your compensation.”

no one at the time could reasonably be expected to assume that by accepting that 1 year of FSD trial that they were also accepting Tesla changing their contract of a purchase of a vehicle with autopilot to one without. This realistically only applies to a very small group of buyers, those who bought between the end of Foundation Series, and May 2025 when they officially documented that CT would not includes autopilot. The problem is, they sold us a vehicle whose contract said it includes base autopilot. There was no delineation per all available information at the time what constitutes “base autopilot” and if it is different from “autopilot”, the only reference reasonable consumers had was Teslas autopilot webpage which said all teslas purchase after x date includes autopilot standard, and that autopilot consists of TACC and autosteer. After that email, they changed that site to now have a footnote next to autosteer saying it was only available on select models.

the thing that really gets me is that they changed the vehicle configuration page to now show TACC included rather than “base autopilot included” despite purchase contracts showing “base autopilot included” which clearly indicates there is a difference between the two, and tesla cant just unilaterally change vehicle configuration AFTER purchase

 

[YDR37]

I can understand the logic behind the decision to kill Autopilot.

It obviously provides an incentive for new customers to get an FSD subscription at $99/month. And Elon's pay package provides an incentive to reach 10 million FSD subscribers. The exact number of FSD subscriptions is not known, but they probably have a long way to go. Only 9 million Teslas have ever been sold, and the FSD take rate is low (like 10-20%).

The risk is that the loss of Autopilot could hurt sales, particularly of the M3/MY, because it puts them behind the competition with respect to standard ADAS features. Even a base Subaru Crosstrek, at $26,995, has adaptive cruise control and lane centering (which qualifies as SAE Level 2). Going forward, the M3/MY will only have TACC with no lane centering (SAE Level 1) -- unless that $99/month FSD subscription is added. But a lot of M3/MY customers may not be able to afford another $99 on the monthly payment.

However, the risk of lost vehicle sales is acceptable. Elon's pay package calls for cumulative 20 million Tesla sales by 2035. Tesla recently announced their 9 millionth sale, so they need 11 million more over the next 9 years. That's just 1.2 million per year, which is well below the 2025 level of 1.65 million.

So killing Autopilot could make sense, even if it results in lost vehicle sales. Tesla has low expectations for vehicle sales going forward. Boosting FSD subscriptions is a higher corporate priority.

 

[SCTesla]

The email said “as a thank you for being an early adopter” not “because we arent giving you autopilot, here is 1 year of FSD to compensate you for that change and by activating this trial, you are stating acceptance that this is your compensation.”

no one at the time could reasonably be expected to assume that by accepting that 1 year of FSD trial that they were also accepting Tesla changing their contract of a purchase of a vehicle with autopilot to one without. This realistically only applies to a very small group of buyers, those who bought between the end of Foundation Series, and May 2025 when they officially documented that CT would not includes autopilot. The problem is, they sold us a vehicle whose contract said it includes base autopilot. There was no delineation per all available information at the time what constitutes “base autopilot” and if it is different from “autopilot”, the only reference reasonable consumers had was Teslas autopilot webpage which said all teslas purchase after x date includes autopilot standard, and that autopilot consists of TACC and autosteer. After that email, they changed that site to now have a footnote next to autosteer saying it was only available on select models.

the thing that really gets me is that they changed the vehicle configuration page to now show TACC included rather than “base autopilot included” despite purchase contracts showing “base autopilot included” which clearly indicates there is a difference between the two, and tesla cant just unilaterally change vehicle configuration AFTER purchase

You mean this e-mail?

It seems you missed the first paragraph.

 

[JCERRN]

You mean this e-mail?

It seems you missed the first paragraph.

I do mean that email.

the first paragraph says that autosteer will not be available on the CT.

It does not say anything about the 1 year fsd trial being compensation.
In fact, it reads more like a sales pitch to get people to buy into FSD.

It says “as a thank you for being an early adopter”

this does not change the fact that people purchased a CT expecting to get autopilot based on information available to them at the time, and only AFTER the purchase, tesla changed what is actually included with the truck.

It is the equivalent of a person purchasing a vehicle with a contract that says it comes with a “remote starter” then after the fact, the seller saying actually if you want remote start you need to pay us $8000. BUT we want you to try it out for 1 year so you can see how good it is to convince you to spend $8000 to buy it.

 

[Pops]

I can understand the logic behind the decision to kill Autopilot.

It obviously provides an incentive for new customers to get an FSD subscription at $99/month. And Elon's pay package provides an incentive to reach 10 million FSD subscribers. The exact number of FSD subscriptions is not known, but they probably have a long way to go. Only 9 million Teslas have ever been sold, and the FSD take rate is low (like 10-20%).

It seems like a few choices Tesla (Elon) has made lately are explicitly to help Elon reach his compensation goals. They do not seem to benefit the consumer or Tesla.

• Removing Autopilot (this puts the vehicles at a disadvantage to the competition)
• Removing paying for FSD in full (fewer buying options will result is a lower take rate)

 

[Griswold]

It seems like a few choices Tesla (Elon) has made lately are explicitly to help Elon reach his compensation goals. They do not seem to benefit the consumer or Tesla.

• Removing Autopilot (this puts the vehicles are a disadvantage to the competition)
• Removing paying for FSD in full (few buying options will result is a lower take rate)

It's too early to tell if it will result in a lower take rate. By offering 30 day free trials of what Tesla (and a lot of us) believe is a superior experience, more new buyers might decide it's worth it to continue at $99/month, rather than in the past deciding to fork over $8000 all at once.

It's not a clear benefit to consumers, although safety data (accidents while on Autopilot vs. FSD) makes me think it might actually be a benefit if it does force more people to the subscription (whether their wallet likes it or not, it might save them an accident).

 

[SCTesla]

the first paragraph says that autosteer will not be available on the CT.

This was all that I was saying. The 1 year was an offer from Tesla to these people. They are the only ones who received this. The 1 year was absolutely compensation.

 

[JCERRN]

This was all that I was saying. The 1 year was an offer from Tesla to these people. They are the only ones who received this. The 1 year was absolutely compensation.

Where does it say this was compensation?

 

[SCTesla]

Where does it say this was compensation?

Sorry you aren't getting what you paid for, here's 1 year free of FSD.

That's what it is saying. No one else received 1 year free of FSD because Tesla wasn't failing to deliver AP from anyone else that paid for it.

It's implied. If you think it was just a sales tactic, why didn't they offer it to everyone who didn't have FSD?

 

[YDR37]

It seems like a few choices Tesla (Elon) has made lately are explicitly to help Elon reach his compensation goals. They do not seem to benefit the consumer or Tesla.

• Removing Autopilot (this puts the vehicles are a disadvantage to the competition)
• Removing paying for FSD in full (few buying options will result is a lower take rate)

In theory, Elon's compensation goals are tied to achievements that will benefit Tesla, at least in the opinion of the Tesla Board.

Removing Autopilot does put Tesla vehicles at a disadvantage relative to the competition, as I acknowledged previously. And this could result in lost vehicle sales, as I also acknowledged. But -- it could result in more FSD subscriptions. And that's the important thing, because Tesla now cares more about selling FSD than it does about selling vehicles.

For example, consider that Tesla has been actively trying to license FSD to other auto manufacturers (although none have accepted yet). Now it's obvious that if Ford or Toyota or BMW offered the same FSD capabilities as Tesla, it would hurt Tesla vehicle sales. But that's OK, because Tesla would prefer to sell FSD, instead of selling vehicles.

 

[L3it3R]

Autopilot is garbage compared to FSD anyway, just get FSD.

 

[JCERRN]

Sorry you aren't getting what you paid for, here's 1 year free of FSD.

That's what it is saying. No one else received 1 year free of FSD because Tesla wasn't failing to deliver AP from anyone else that paid for it.

It's implied. If you think it was just a sales tactic, why didn't they offer it to everyone who didn't have FSD?

I don't see the words “sorry you aren't getting what you paid for, heres 1 year free fsd” Anywhere in that email.

Arguing it is implied is completely up to subjective interpretation of what a reasonable consumer would interpret. There is also no stipulation in that email that suggests that by accepting the trial, you are accepting that as your form of compensation.

how can you say with certainty that no one else got that email? Do you have inventory of everyone who got that email? It seems that a lot of people did.

 

[SCTesla]

I don't see the words “sorry you aren't getting what you paid for, heres 1 year free fsd” Anywhere in that email.

Arguing it is implied is completely up to subjective interpretation of what a reasonable consumer would interpret. There is also no stipulation in that email that suggests that by accepting the trial, you are accepting that as your form of compensation.

how can you say with certainty that no one else got that email? Do you have inventory of everyone who got that email? It seems that a lot of people did.

I can't tell if you are joking.

I never said there was any stipulation. I said Tesla gave CT owners who didn't have FSD 1 year of FSD as compensation.

We know that only CT owners received this offer. It was published by Sawyer Merritt and many others. FS owners didn't because we have FSD included.

 

[PungoteagueDave]

I am in the window of CT owners who were provided a year of FSD despite having a contract that says the car has AP. My February ‘25 build was delivered in early March last year. My year of FSD will run out at the end of June IIRC. I am still owed AP notwithstanding Tesla’s decision to terminate the function, and the free use period does not mitigate that. The free FSD was just an interim step. It will be interesting to see what they do when the trial period lapses. I am perfectly happy to pay a monthly FSD fee, but wanted and expected regular AP for towing use.

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