Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently announced the automaker is increasing the price of their Full Self-Driving system by $2,000.
That’s a significant jump and brings the system’s price to $10,000. Which begs the question of whether or not it’s worth it.
The simple answer, for now, might be no. The technology is still in beta and has only been rolled out to a handful of owners. This means that even if you shell out $10,000, you won’t get the Full Self-Driving experience right now – just AutoPliot.
Also Read: Tesla Full Self-Driving Beta Rolls Out To Selected Owners, NHTSA Closely Monitoring The Situation
Musk has said they hope to offer Full Self-Driving to more people later this year, but the company has already missed several self-imposed deadlines and there’s no guarantee when it will arrive to the public. The government is also closely monitoring the situation and there’s always the potential for issues to arise and cause setbacks.
That being said, the promise of Full Self-Driving is undeniably alluring as it allows you to program in a destination and let the car drive you there. Of course, Tesla cautions users that it’s “intended for use with a fully attentive driver, who has their hands on the wheel and is prepared to take over at any moment.”
However, if everything works as promised, those $10,000 might be money well spent. It would also become a major selling point and a way of retaining customers as it’s hard to give up certain semi-autonomous driving technologies once you’ve become accustomed to them.
In particular, a number of people love adaptive cruise control. While it’s not as advanced as Tesla’s Full Self-Driving technology, it makes driving on the highway a lot of stressful and going back to a ‘dumb’ cruise control system feels like stepping into the Stone Age.
With all that in mind, how much would you be willing to pay for something that would enable you to sit back and let the car do most of the work?