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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

#81

Post by ericd »

FireBeyond wrote: post #41
scottyah wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It sounds like the point you're making is that manufacturers taking liability will make all of this unaffordable for normal people, similar to how medicine has become unaffordable?

I don't think that's actually your point, but it sort of sounds like it.

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

#83

Post by rootusrootus »

linuxftw wrote: post #50

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 tha…

> self-driving features will require ongoing maintenance and updates for the next several years

Autopilot is not self-driving, it is lane-centering with traffic aware cruise control. It has not gotten any maintenance or updates in years, as far as we can tell.

Identical functionality is available from many competitors with no subscription. This is a noteworthy decision for Tesla because AP has long been one of their defining features, dropping it is a big step backward just as the market caught up.

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

#85

Post by Auracle »

tra3 wrote: post #52

I would gladly pay $99/month if this was honest FSD. I started tracking my time consistently since end of December and in the past 2 weeks I spend 23 hours driving. That's already only $4/hour. I haven't been keeping up with the progress in this space. Last I heard, Benz introduced some sort of self driving feature AND accepted full liability for it (whereas Tesla does not). How does Benz's self driving compare to Te…

Benz's full self driving is only up to 40mph and only when it has a car to follow in front of you.

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

#86

Post by rootusrootus »

dmitrygr wrote: post #3

This is similar to GM‘s Super Cruise, which is similar in functionality and also a monthly subscription.

GM Super Cruise (and Ford's Blue Cruise) is hands-free, autosteer is not. Ford has an equivalent of autosteer available without a subscription, I would guess GM does too.

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

#87

Post by ModernMech »

rootusrootus wrote: post #66
ModernMech wrote: post #48

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…

I'm not any kind of Elon fan, but I think it is a little more nuanced than that. FSD is definitely more advanced than any regular competition. It is not as capable as Waymo, that is for sure, but that is not a car you can own.

Their vision-only system will never live up to promises without inventing an AGI-level inference engine. Maintaining an aura that they are capable of doing this is part of the con. A kind of, shangri-la promise of harmonious one-true vision system that to date has not come true despite promises of its impending coming.

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

#88

Post by finolex1 »

tra3 wrote: post #52

I would gladly pay $99/month if this was honest FSD. I started tracking my time consistently since end of December and in the past 2 weeks I spend 23 hours driving. That's already only $4/hour. I haven't been keeping up with the progress in this space. Last I heard, Benz introduced some sort of self driving feature AND accepted full liability for it (whereas Tesla does not). How does Benz's self driving compare to Te…

Mercedes' feature has been sunset. It only ever worked in good weather on a limited set of motorways, below a certain speed, and with a guide vehicle in front of it l.

https://www.electrive.com/2026/01/12/mercedes-pauses-level-3...

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

#89

Post by TacoCommander »

YY59487598347 wrote: post #37

Do BYD and other Chinese EVs have this insane subscription scheme for basic features on their cars, or is that only a feature of North American/European manufacturers?

I am also curious about this, how does the average person in China feel about subscriptions?

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

#90

Post by enragedcacti »

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.

It is in the EU but in the US ADAS won't be mandated until 2029. It would tank your IIHS rating though and all major mfgs have met a voluntary pledge to have >95% light duty vehicles ship with autobraking by 2023: https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/automakers-fulfill-autobrak...
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