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Tesla kills Autopilot, locks lane-keeping behind $99/month fee

arstechnica.com

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Re: Tesla kills Autopilot, locks lane-keeping behind $99/month fee

#41

Post by FireBeyond »

scottyah wrote: post #24
7e wrote: post #2

[flagged]

This sounds like almost every other product I buy, except it's designed to eventually save a lot of lives? Imagine being mad that a kitchen knife has no liability for what you do with it, or a motorcycle.

Imagine if professional medical equipment designed to save lives had no liability clauses?

Except they do.

Which is why there's FDA certification and regulation and the Lifepak 15s I used as a paramedic cost around $40,000.

Mercedes was also willing to put their money where their mouth was and accept liability for vehicle software issues. (Cue here the Tesla stans talking about "how limited" that was. Almost perhaps as if it was for a good reason and not "if it compiles, ship it").

Re: Tesla kills Autopilot, locks lane-keeping behind $99/month fee

#42

Post by rootusrootus »

adamkittelson wrote: post #23
ipv6ipv4 wrote: post #14

In light of recent trends, Tesla is signaling supreme confidence in its prospects by already pursuing enshittification.

They’ve been enshittifying for the better part of a decade. The model 3 launching without rain sensors and taking years to get any where near comparable with cameras comes to mind.

It still is not anywhere close with cameras. My guess is that it will not ever get better than it is today.

Re: Tesla kills Autopilot, locks lane-keeping behind $99/month fee

#43

Post by hermanzegerman »

tokyobreakfast wrote: post #19
siliconc0w wrote: post #16

Article is unclear but if this is saying you can't even get basic ADAS w/out $99/mo that is a pretty big deal, especially if it's applied to existing cars. Basic stay-in-line and start/stop following in traffic has become pretty standard for almost a decade at this point and paywalling it now would be outrageous. I have a 2017 car that does this.

Basic ADAS is government-mandated. Even shitbox Toyotas with traditional ignition keys have it for free.

Well Teslas now ship without the Lane Keeping. So the Toyota Shitbox has better ADAS (and surely also a better quality)

Re: Tesla kills Autopilot, locks lane-keeping behind $99/month fee

#44

Post by scottyah »

nxtfari wrote: post #18

My guess is Tesla is desperately in need of Q1 revenue and they want people to scarcity buy FSD lifetime @ $8K. Otherwise the strategy doesn’t make any sense. They’re saying FSD and basic Autopilot will go behind subscription and that subscription prices are expected to go up. Basically laying out that they’re planning to lock you into a subscription and then price gouge. It’s so transparent that I think the point is…

1. There's a CA lawsuit against the FSD name, Tesla has to fix it by Feb 14th (the last day FSD is being sold). I wonder if it'll just be a rebrand for the new service. https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/news-and-media/news-releases/d...

2. Elon's Trillion Dollar Payout is tied to a certain number of FSD Subscriptions.

3. Some consumers were sold that they would get hardware upgrades for FSD. I'm pretty sure Tesla would like to minimize that, and I expect incentives for those people to purchase new vehicle without FSD.

4. Subscriptions drive our economy, I don't know the details but it seems like every company wants subscriptions over one time purchases.

I honestly don't think they want a lot of people with lifetime FSD, it's disappearing without a lot of news.

Re: Tesla kills Autopilot, locks lane-keeping behind $99/month fee

#45

Post by jeffbee »

FireBeyond wrote: post #30
cbsks wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla’s “autosteer” is significantly more advanced than the “lane keeping” feature I’ve seen in rental cars, or my own 2023 Jeep. My understanding is that autosteer will actively keep the car centered in the middle of the lane, while the “lane keeping” I’ve experienced will only adjust the steering when you approach the lane edge, which pin balls you back and forth like a drunk driver.

In mid tier and premium tier cars, lane keeping is generally either implicitly or explicitly lane centering . My Navigator calls it lane keeping but it is centering, and my Audi specifically calls out lane centering.

My experience with that brand specifically is they should call it "lane oscillating".

Re: Tesla kills Autopilot, locks lane-keeping behind $99/month fee

#46

Post by thefourthchime »

coolspot wrote: post #4

$99/mo is for FSD, not just lane keeping. The article doesn’t explain what happens to simple lane leeping. Surely it should be free like in any other car (like my Volvo).

Autopilot / FSD was a mess. Autopilot is very old tech and people confusing "self driving" with it, which it's not. We'll see how many pony up for FSD, but I think the play is to force people to try it.

Re: Tesla kills Autopilot, locks lane-keeping behind $99/month fee

#47

Post by rootusrootus »

nxtfari wrote: post #18

My guess is Tesla is desperately in need of Q1 revenue and they want people to scarcity buy FSD lifetime @ $8K. Otherwise the strategy doesn’t make any sense. They’re saying FSD and basic Autopilot will go behind subscription and that subscription prices are expected to go up. Basically laying out that they’re planning to lock you into a subscription and then price gouge. It’s so transparent that I think the point is…

My guess is they made FSD subscriptions a requirement for Elon's big compensation package.

Re: Tesla kills Autopilot, locks lane-keeping behind $99/month fee

#48

Post by ModernMech »

This is part of the long con. They promised FSD almost a decade ago and as their competitors eclipse them, it's clear Tesla is a) behind and b) will never catch up.

So instead of admitting they were wrong all along and doing what's necessary to catch up (add LiDAR to their sensor stack), they are going to quietly "pivot" Tesla to a "ai and robotics" company, with the monthly fee they'll continue to bilk anyone who is still enthralled enough to believe them on their FSD grift, but they will run the same scam as they did with FSD (Musk will say "humanoid robots for the home in in 3 years", yet we will still be waiting for them to be useful in the year 2035)

Re: Tesla kills Autopilot, locks lane-keeping behind $99/month fee

#49

Post by sublinear »

cbsks wrote: post #27
stefan_ wrote: post #6

Is the article confused or will there literally be no lane-keeping without the subscription? Because nowadays every car rental place bottom of the barrel Kia has lane-keeping.

Tesla’s “autosteer” is significantly more advanced than the “lane keeping” feature I’ve seen in rental cars, or my own 2023 Jeep. My understanding is that autosteer will actively keep the car centered in the middle of the lane, while the “lane keeping” I’ve experienced will only adjust the steering when you approach the lane edge, which pin balls you back and forth like a drunk driver.

Jeep and all the other Stellantis brands have the worst lane assist and worst tech options on the market, and the trim level on any rental is going to be as basic as they can get away with.

Re: Tesla kills Autopilot, locks lane-keeping behind $99/month fee

#50

Post by linuxftw »

I don't see what the issue is. No one is forced to buy a tesla, no pay for the subscription. It seems likely that self-driving features will require ongoing maintenance and updates for the next several years, it's not like it's 0 cost to them to develop and distribute the software.

I'm not a Tesla fan, I will never own a fully self driving car, but I don't have a problem with a company charging money for features that consumers want. There are about a dozen other car manufacturers in the US alone that can sell self driving cars without a subscription if they want to.

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