Currently, Tesla’s Autopilot Full Self-Driving (FSD) add-on costs a cool $10,000 USD. But that add-on follows the car and not the owner who paid for it.
What about if you purchased FSD and then want to trade in your Tesla for a newer model? It would make sense for FSD to be considered as part of the car’s value. But current Tesla policy says FSD value isn’t considered for trade-ins.
Pierre Ferragu didn’t think this policy was fair and tweeted on the weekend, “@elonmusk I paid FSD for my Model 3 in November. I now want to upgrade to model Y and your team tells me you don’t value FSD in your trade-in offer because you can do the software upgrade for free. Want me to pay again full price for FSD again? That’s not fair, change that!”.
Ferragu heads up the Global Technology Infrastructure research team at New Street Research, and has long been a Tesla ‘bull’.
Looking into this. No question that FSD should be viewed as reasonably valuable when doing a trade-in.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 18, 2021
Surprisingly (or not), Musk caught wind of the reply and agreed. “Looking into this. No question that FSD should be viewed as reasonably valuable when doing a trade-in,” responded the Tesla CEO.
Numerous Tesla owners sounded off to note they want FSD to be transferrable to new cars, since it’s just a software upgrade. Others note legacy automakers don’t allow the transfer of software features from one car to another.
Nonetheless, with the steep upfront cost of FSD at $10,000 USD, it’s a tough pill to swallow if the value isn’t considered when trading in. It’s even more painful to have to pay for FSD again for your new Tesla.
