Tesla is letting people take out a 'Full Self-Driving' subscription for $199 per month
- Tesla is offering a new payment method for its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software.
- Customers can now pay $199 a month, rather than $10,000 upfront.
- Tesla says customers can cancel their subscription whenever they want.
Tesla owners can now subscribe to have the company's "Full Self-Driving" software in their cars, rather than paying upfront for it, as first reported by Electrek.
Tesla announced the new payment method Saturday, giving customers an alternative to paying $10,000 to have Full Self-Driving included in their car's capabilities.
Tesla's website states the subscription is not a long-term commitment and customers can cancel their subscription "at any time."
As Tesla warns on its subscription page, its Full Self-Driving mode does not make a vehicle fully autonomous. "The currently enabled features require a fully attentive driver, who has their hands on the wheel and is prepared to take over at any moment," the company said.
Read more: Meet 9 former Tesla execs who left Elon Musk to become power players at rivals like Apple and Rivian
Tesla rolled out a new beta of its Full Self-Driving software this month. While it's able to control the car in some situations, it still makes major mistakes. Earlier this month, CEO Elon Musk urged customers to "please be paranoid" when using the feature. In addition, Tesla said it may "do the wrong thing at the worst time."
Tesla has come under fire for its Autopilot software, which includes Full Self-Driving. It is being sued by the family of a 15-year-old boy who was killed in a car crash where one of the cars was a Tesla with Autopilot enabled. It's also under scrutiny from lawmakers, as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced in June it's launching an investigation into Autopilot's role in 30 crashes.
The company attracted particularly intense scrutiny in April after two people died in a fiery Tesla crash and police said no one was behind the wheel. Elon Musk disputed that any Autopilot features were enabled at the time of the crash.