Tesla will hike prices on self-driving mode, again

Tesla's "full self-driving" (FSD) feature has had something of a rocky history, to put things generously. It's been implicated in multiple crashes, seemingly persistent software bugs and a cavalcade of scrutiny from a panoply of regulatory bodies. Also, it's about to cost more money.

Tesla FSD price rising to $12k on Jan 17

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2022

The bump represents an additional $2,000 being tacked onto the not insubstantial price tag: a new grand total of $12,000, or most of the way to a Honda Civic. Nor is it the first time FSD has gotten more expensive. In 2020, Musk (again, on Twitter) announced a roughly $2,000 price increase. This most recent hike, Musk clarified, will only apply in the US; he added that the feature's "price will rise as we get closer to FSD production code release."

Whether that means there are plans for even further price increases is anyone's guess — Tesla famously dissolved its corporate communications department around the same time FSD gained it's $10,000 price tag.

Notably, purchasing the "full self-driving" feature doesn't actually result in a car that drives itself. This largely is why Senators Markey and Blumenthal have called on the FTC to investigate Tesla and Musk for, among other things, "overstatements of their vehicle’s capabilities." According to one survey, only around 11 percent of Tesla owners drop the money required to enable FSD, and it's difficult to imagine how increasing the financial burden on buyers could reverse that trend.