Tesla drops Autopilot in pivot to FSD subscription model in US, Canada

Jan 23 (Reuters) – Tesla on Thursday discontinued its basic driver-assistance system, Autopilot, in Canada and the U.S., in an attempt to push customers toward a more advanced version of the technology branded as Full Self-Driving (Supervised). The company had last week said it would stop offering FSD as a one-time $8,000 purchase from February 14, meaning customers will only be able to access the software through a monthly subscription priced at $99. Tesla's online vehicle configuration pages showed that new cars come only with Traffic Aware Cruise Control, a feature that maintains a set speed and follows traffic at a safe distance. Autosteer, which previously worked with cruise control to keep vehicles centered in a lane and navigate curves, is no longer listed as a standard feature. California's Department of Motor Vehicles had placed Tesla on a high-stakes 60-day deadline to overhaul its marketing or face a mandatory 30-day suspension of its retail sales license. One condition was that Tesla stops using the "Autopilot" name, which regulators argued misled consumers into believing the system was capable of autonomous driving. The department declined to comment and Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reason for the change. For a long time, Autopilot has been the core selling point for Tesla vehicles, even as the company warned drivers that the system required active supervision and did not make cars fully autonomous. CEO Elon Musk said on Thursday the subscription price for FSD would rise over time as the software's capabilities improve. The subscription is expected to be a key profit driver for the company when it is more capable and accessible in most parts of the world. CFO Vaibhav Taneja had said in October that only 12% of all Tesla customers had paid for the FSD software. (Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid and Arun Koyyur)

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