The first big news from Tesla’s quarterly conference call today is that Tesla will finally allow Tesla owners who have a fully self-driving car (FSD) to transfer that to a new Tesla purchase, but this is a one-time offer, so act quickly! let me explain …
Historically, if you buy a Tesla and buy the Full Self Driving (FSD) software suite, that FSD purchase sticks to the car, not the owner. So if you sell the car, the new owner gets FSD with the car. However, if you then go on to buy another Tesla, you will have to pay for FSD again.
This has certainly put a damper on sales, especially since the price of FSD has risen so much in recent years. I purchased our Tesla Model 3 in August 2019 and purchased the FSD package for $6,000. Now it costs $15,000 to get FSD. So buying a new car with the same software would cost me an extra $9,000 just to maintain that FSD software.
People have wanted advanced autopilot and FSD packages to stay with the owner for years, like almost a decade. For those who think this should be a permanent policy, unfortunately, it won’t be. However, for some reason or another, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has decided to allow owners with FSD to trade in their Tesla and get another one with FSD at no extra cost for a one-time time: the third quarter ( current quarter) of 2023. And, to be clear, as long as you order in the 3rd quarter, you’re good. (Although, I would be careful about making any changes to this order after the third trimester.)
Tesla Full Self Driving in action. Photo by Zach Shahan | CleanTechnica.
But why? Why is Tesla finally offering this? And why only this time? Well, one clue might be that Musk is calling this a kind of one-time “amnesty” offer. The definition of amnesty is: “a general pardon for crimes, especially political crimes, against a government, often granted before any trial or conviction.” Is that the right word here? Well, maybe what Musk is acknowledging is that he made a lot of claims about FSD reaching robotaxi capability much earlier than it has (it’s still not robotaxi capable) and he made those claims for several years. When I bought my Model 3 in mid-2019, it was supposed to be “full-featured” in terms of robotaxi capability by the end of the year. It wasn’t even close to full function by the end of the year. Many people who bought FSD hoping for eventual robotaxi capability have already sold or crashed their cars. Others, like me, may have considered or are considering trading in their Tesla for a new one, but don’t want to take a $9,000 haircut to get the still-very-imperfect FSD suite back. So perhaps this one-time offer is some sort of apology and concession for years of delay in FSD’s goals.
Another possibility, probably supplementing my previous theory, is that Tesla is looking for ways to stimulate more sales. The company has been cutting prices a lot this year, and as we previously speculated and confirmed just a few minutes ago, Tesla’s inventory has increased this year while the order book has decreased. Is Tesla Facing a Demand Challenge? Who knows, but allowing many early Tesla buyers to trade in their Teslas and get new ones without having to pay another $9,000 ($15,000 minus the $6,000 or so we’ve already paid) for the same FSD software should lead to many changes and purchases of new cars.
This was definitely the surprise of Tesla’s quarterly conference call, and here are my thoughts. Did I miss something or misunderstand something about this topic?
(Side note: Get ready for all the Tesla owners who traded their cars in with FSD in the past few months to get up and out of this new deal.)
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