Tesla Ditches Autopilot to Push Full Self-Driving Adoption
▼ Summary
– Tesla has discontinued its basic Autopilot system to boost adoption of its more advanced Full Self-Driving (Supervised) technology.
– This decision follows a California ruling that Tesla engaged in deceptive marketing, which led to a potential license suspension.
– New Tesla vehicles now come standard only with Traffic Aware Cruise Control, replacing the Autopilot package.
– Tesla is shifting its FSD pricing model from an $8,000 one-time fee to a $99 monthly subscription, with plans to increase the price as capabilities improve.
– Despite marketing claims, Tesla’s driver-assistance systems have been linked to hundreds of crashes and at least 13 fatalities due to overpromised capabilities.
Tesla has made a significant shift in its driver-assistance strategy by phasing out its standard Autopilot system. The company now bundles its core advanced features under the Full Self-Driving (Supervised) package, a move aimed at accelerating customer adoption of this premium technology. This strategic pivot coincides with regulatory pressure in California, where a judge recently ruled that Tesla engaged in deceptive marketing by exaggerating the capabilities of both Autopilot and FSD. To comply with the ruling and avoid a potential suspension of its manufacturing and dealer licenses, Tesla has agreed to discontinue the Autopilot name.
The original Autopilot system combined two primary features: Traffic Aware Cruise Control for maintaining speed and distance, and Autosteer for lane-centering assistance. Tesla’s online configurator now indicates that new vehicles come standard only with the basic cruise control, leaving it unclear how existing owners are affected. This change follows another major announcement regarding FSD pricing. The company eliminated its one-time $8,000 purchase fee, transitioning to a monthly subscription model priced at $99. CEO Elon Musk has indicated this subscription cost will rise as the software’s capabilities expand.
Musk has consistently projected an ambitious future for the technology, suggesting that newer vehicles will eventually achieve “unsupervised” driving, allowing occupants to be completely disengaged. He has previously stated that software updates enable such functionality, despite the fact that using a phone while driving remains illegal across most jurisdictions. In a related development, Tesla recently deployed its first robotaxi versions of the Model Y in Austin, Texas. These test vehicles operate without in-car human safety monitors, using a more advanced software build, though they are still followed by chase cars for supervision.
The push for FSD adoption addresses a longstanding challenge for Tesla. Since its beta launch in late 2020, uptake has been slower than executives hoped. By late 2025, only about 12% of Tesla customers had paid for the FSD package. Broader adoption is critical to the company’s financial goals; hitting “10 million active FSD subscriptions” by 2035 is a key milestone tied to Musk’s substantial compensation package.
Tesla first introduced Autopilot in the early 2010s after collaboration talks with Google’s autonomous driving project, which later became Waymo, fell through. The system became standard on all vehicles in 2019. Throughout its history, Tesla faced significant criticism for how it communicated the system’s limits. Overpromising on the software’s capabilities led to dangerous driver overconfidence, which federal safety investigators have linked to hundreds of crashes and numerous fatalities. The company’s latest rebranding effort appears to be part of a broader attempt to reset expectations and steer customers toward its more advanced, and more lucrative, suite of features.
(Source: TechCrunch)
