Tesla fans who plan on buying a Tesla in the future might want to hurry up
as the EVs could become a lot more expensive once the company’s output
becomes fully autonomous. That’s according to a string of by CEO Elon Musk in
response to another tweet, citing Tesla delivery numbers.
“All HW2+ cars are upgradable to full self-driving capability with Tesla
FSD computer & all production in past few months has FSD computer,” Musk
said, “HW2” referring to the Tesla system that enables full self-driving
functionality in the cars.
“Production fully switched over ~3 months ago. Functionality won’t diverge
until Q4, as it’s limited by software validation. Will be later for Europe
compared to rest of world due to regulatory constraints that were put in
place years ago by big ICE companies.”
Musk was then asked whether the prices for Tesla models would go up as
self-driving cars would be in high demand, Musk answered in the affirmative.
Electrek’s Fred Lambert noted
this was not the first time Musk talked about Teslas going fully autonomous:
turning Teslas into revenue-generating robotaxis was part of Musk’s so-called
Master Plan, Part Deux.
Indeed, if Teslas become fully autonomous and transport regulations are
changed to accommodate self-driving cars, the price for a Tesla would soar:
as Lambert notes in his report, Tesla itself calculated that a robotaxi could
generate more than US$300,000 in profits over its lifetime. This means that
if someone wants to buy such a vehicle, they would likely have to pay a
six-figure sum for it based on these profit expectations.
And yet when Musk confirmed Tesla fans have ‘a limited time” to buy a
relatively affordable Tesla, he certainly didn’t mean they have a year or
two. Transport regulations are still behind. Last year, the House of
Representatives passed
a bill setting uniform standards for autonomous vehicles, but that’s about as
far as legislative efforts in this respect have gone. The technology is
simply too new and untrustworthy for many, and legislators are not into the
habit of rushing regulatory changes that could end up blowing up in their
face.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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