Tesla removes option to pay one-time fee for Driver Self-Driving (Supervised) assistance software, CEO Elon Musk declare Wednesday. Moving on, the only way to access these features is through a monthly subscription.
The change is a major break from how Tesla has sold access to its advanced driver assistance suite for years. It’s also a decision that could have an impact on Tesla’s bottom line, Musk’s ability to unlock the full value of a $1 trillion pay package, and the company’s ever-swirling legal issues. And it comes as many other global automakers are making strides in their own advanced driver assistance systems in hopes of competing with Tesla.
Tesla has sold access to its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software — which still doesn’t make the car autonomous, and requires human supervision — at various price points over the years. The front price rises to $15,000 in 2022, although now the company is charging customers $8,000.
Tesla has since offered access to the software for $199 a month subscription in 2021and dropped that price for only $99 per month in 2024. Musk often encourages customers to pay the price up front, as he claims FSD costs will rise dramatically as Tesla increases its capabilities.
But on Wednesday, Musk wrote in a post on X that Tesla will stop selling FSD directly from February 14th. He did not say whether Tesla plans to change the pricing structure for the subscription.
Musk also didn’t elaborate on the change, but there are several reasons. Musk and other Tesla executives have spoken publicly about the lower-than-expected adoption rate. In October 2025, chief financial officer Vaibhav Taneja said only 12% of all Tesla customers have paid for FSD. A shift to a subscription-only model with lower upfront costs could help boost those numbers, especially during what is expected to be a rough first quarter for Tesla.
Boosting subscriptions will also bring Musk closer to fulfilling one of his key “product goals.” required for him to receive full payment of the new $1 trillion pay package. The company has set itself the task of, among other things, reaching “10 million active FSD subscriptions” (measured daily for three months) before the end of 2035.
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Moving to a subscription-only model may be a legal hedge.
For a decade, Musk and Tesla have been promoting the idea that customers buy cars that have all the hardware they need to be autonomous vehicles, and all the company needs to do is add the software. But this is not true: Tesla has had to make some upgrades in the vehicles in the past years, and Musk himself said that a large part of the existing owners (those with “Hardware 3” vehicles) need new hardware in their cars.
FSD is sold under the same promise. Customers who purchase the software will immediately receive software updates that will make their cars autonomous. Tesla still hasn’t lived up to that promise.
Tesla is currently facing all kinds of legal issues related to broken promises. In December, a judge ruled that the company engage in deceptive marketing around the FSD (and its less capable system, Autopilot) and ordered the California DMV (which brought the case) to suspend the license of the manufacturer and seller of Tesla in the country for 30 days.
The DMV upheld the order and gave Tesla at least 60 days to comply by changing the name of the product, or shipping software that made the promise.
Tesla also faced some class action lawsuits about claims made about the future autonomous capabilities of vehicles. By eliminating the option to buy FSD outright, the company can limit its potential liability in the lawsuit if it goes to trial.
FSD Tesla is still considered as the most qualified driver assistance software in the market in the US But the success of the company does not stop competitors from trying to develop their own systems. Rivian recently detailed its own efforts to release driver assistance software like FSDstarting with majors geographical expansion for its hands-free driving feature. Ford and General Motors have their own hands-free systems. And many automakers competing with Tesla in China have developed their own solutions, with some even offer driver assistance features as a standard option.