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Tesla to Make Full Self-Driving Subscription-Only Starting Feb. 14

The change underscores a push for recurring revenue tied to Musk’s subscriber targets, leaving key regulatory approvals plus customer grandfathering unresolved.

Overview

  • Tesla will discontinue the one-time FSD purchase option and offer the system only as a monthly plan, with the U.S. price currently at $99 and no global pricing update announced.
  • European availability still hinges on regulatory clearance, with the Dutch RDW seeking proof of compliance by February 2026 and no guarantee that broader EU approval will follow.
  • Customers who previously paid for FSD in Europe lack clarity on future access without a subscription, and reports indicate Tesla’s past license-transfer perks for buyers are ending.
  • U.S. oversight continues as NHTSA probes incident reporting and a California ruling over marketing claims threatens a temporary sales suspension.
  • Tesla frames FSD as a supervised driver-assist using a vision-only stack trained on fleet video, while Musk has acknowledged older vehicles may need difficult hardware retrofits and has set a goal of ten million active subscriptions.