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

[PrudentOcean]

From https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/0...venue-discontinues-autopilot-in-favor-of-fsd/

Love it or hate it, Tesla has been responsible for helping to shape the tastes of automotive consumers over the past decade-plus. Over-the-air updates that add more features, an all-touchscreen human-machine interface, large castings, and hands-free driver assists were all introduced or popularized by Tesla’s electric vehicles, prompting other automakers to copy them, mostly in the hopes of seeing the same stratospheric gains in their stock prices. But starting on Valentine’s Day, if you want your Tesla to steer itself, you’ll have to pay a $99 monthly subscription fee.

Tesla currently offers a pair of so-called “level 2” partially automated driver assist systems. Autopilot is the older of these, combining Tesla’s adaptive cruise control (Tesla calls this TACC) and lane-keeping assist (Tesla calls this Autosteer). FSD is the newer system, meant to be more capable and for use on surface streets and divided-lane highways. Although the company and Tesla CEO Elon Musk regularly tout these systems’ capabilities, both still require the human driver to provide situational awareness.

But Autopilot has been under fire from regulators and the courts. Multiple wrongful death lawsuits are in the works, and after a high-profile loss resulting in a $329 million judgmentagainst Tesla, expect many of these suits to be settled. Both the federal government and California have investigated whether Tesla misled customers, and in December, an administrative law judge ruled that Tesla indeed engaged in deceptive marketing by implying that its cars could drive themselves. The judge suspended Tesla’s license to sell cars in California, a decision that the California Department of Motor Vehicles stayed for 60 days.

No Tesla sales in California
Tesla was told that if it couldn’t resolve the deceptive marketing within those 60 days, the sales suspension would take effect. That would be bad for the automaker, as California is far and away its largest market in the US, albeit one that is shrinking each quarter. Having to suspend sales entirely in the state would be disastrous. Some had speculated that Tesla could change Autopilot’s name to something less misleading, but the company chose a more drastic approach.

Now, if you want your new Tesla to steer itself—while you pay attention to the road—you will have to pay for FSD. Until the middle of February, that can be done for a one-time fee of $8,000. But starting on February 14, that option goes away, too, and the sole choice will be a $99/month FSD subscription.

But probably not for very long. Last night, Musk revealed on his social media platform that “the $99/month for supervised FSD will rise as FSD’s capabilities improve. The massive value jump is when you can be on your phone or sleeping for the entire ride (unsupervised FSD).”

The quest for recurring revenue streams is becoming something of a holy grail in the automotive industry as OEMs that previously treated their customers as a single sale now hope to make themselves more attractive to investors by encouraging customers to give them regular payouts.

This may have contributed to General Motors’ decision to drop Apple CarPlay and Android Automotive. BMW has also experimented with subscription services. Tesla’s stock price remains so high that such games are probably unnecessary here, but with falling profit margins, declining sales, and the loss of emissions credits to bolster the bottom line, one can see why regular cash infusions from Tesla drivers would be desirable.

So no more equivalent of InnoDrive.

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[AndrewH]

As someone who was conned into paying $10 grand for so called FSD that never materialised in my Model S, I’d be right with you on the schadenfreude bandwagon but sadly Porsche can’t seem to work out how to do automatic lane keep assist/innodrive in Australia Apparently a whole continent with nationally consistent road rules is too hard

 

[PrudentOcean]

I know a few people who paid for FSD and got rid of the car before it became available. Everyone should have received a full refund.

I’m not sure what the problem with InnoDrive for the Macan is in Australia, it is available on the Taycan. The cars are built on different software platforms but the feature should not be much different from InnoDrive for the UK. It must be something about the certification process.

 

[AndrewH]

Completely agree with you about the refunds. I believe there’s a class action underway here at the moment but sadly it’s only for model 3 and y owners

 

[Stuart]

suddenly inodrive seems like a cheap option

 

[vanjwilson]

I drove a Model Y for almost 4 years, and most of that time I just used the basic Autopilot with adaptive cruise control and lane centering. I did subscribe to FSD for a few months when the subscription became available, but it was so jerky at that time, that I finally dropped it. It was better a couple of years later, when Tesla gave everyone a free month-long trial, but still not worth the then reduced price of $99 a month.

I've had my Macan for almost a year, and I think Innodrive is as good as basic Autopilot ever was, and better in some respects. For example, I don't have to keep applying torque to the steering wheel like on the Tesla, to let it know I'm paying attention; just keep touching the capacitive wheel on the Macan. Also, lane changes are more natural. On the Tesla, I'd have to break out of Autopilot by tapping a stalk or tapping the brake--with an accompanying "bong" sound--make the lane change manually, and then double-tap a stalk to re-enter Autopilot (2 more "bongs"). With Innodrive, I activate the turn signal, make the lane change, and Innodrive automatically takes over again when it senses I'm between the new lane lines.

 

[Stuart]

I drove a Model Y for almost 4 years, and most of that time I just used the basic Autopilot with adaptive cruise control and lane centering. I did subscribe to FSD for a few months when the subscription became available, but it was so jerky at that time, that I finally dropped it. It was better a couple of years later, when Tesla gave everyone a free month-long trial, but still not worth the then reduced price of $99 a month.

I've had my Macan for almost a year, and I think Innodrive is as good as basic Autopilot ever was, and better in some respects. For example, I don't have to keep applying torque to the steering wheel like on the Tesla, to let it know I'm paying attention; just keep touching the capacitive wheel on the Macan. Also, lane changes are more natural. On the Tesla, I'd have to break out of Autopilot by tapping a stalk or tapping the brake--with an accompanying "bong" sound--make the lane change manually, and then double-tap a stalk to re-enter Autopilot (2 more "bongs"). With Innodrive, I activate the turn signal, make the lane change, and Innodrive automatically takes over again when it senses I'm between the new lane lines.

thanks for the insight, I'm not hoping this can be an OTA option/upgrade as I only optioned the ACC

 

[alxman]

I drove a Model Y for almost 4 years, and most of that time I just used the basic Autopilot with adaptive cruise control and lane centering. I did subscribe to FSD for a few months when the subscription became available, but it was so jerky at that time, that I finally dropped it. It was better a couple of years later, when Tesla gave everyone a free month-long trial, but still not worth the then reduced price of $99 a month.

I've had my Macan for almost a year, and I think Innodrive is as good as basic Autopilot ever was, and better in some respects. For example, I don't have to keep applying torque to the steering wheel like on the Tesla, to let it know I'm paying attention; just keep touching the capacitive wheel on the Macan. Also, lane changes are more natural. On the Tesla, I'd have to break out of Autopilot by tapping a stalk or tapping the brake--with an accompanying "bong" sound--make the lane change manually, and then double-tap a stalk to re-enter Autopilot (2 more "bongs"). With Innodrive, I activate the turn signal, make the lane change, and Innodrive automatically takes over again when it senses I'm between the new lane lines.

FSD has improved significantly. It used to be like you described so I only used it when driving on the highway with our older 2019 Model X. However, if I want to, I can now drive “driveway to destination driveway“ using FSD without touching the steering wheel or pedals on our new 2025 Model X as long as I keep an eye on the road. And before I get accused of being a Tesla fan boy, I would like to say that I will rather drive my Macan 4S anytime instead of my wife’s Tesla Model X. However, you should “give recognition where it is due!”

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