Tesla peddles FSD ahead of Robotaxi unveil with 50% subscription price cut to gain more miles of self-driving data

Tesla is on an autonomous driving data gathering spree ahead of the August 8 Robotaxi unveil, and is widening the market for its Full Self-Driving option any way it can.

After mandating an FSD trial with purchase and offering free FSD transfers, Tesla crossed the Rubicon of million miles driven with its autonomous driving option very quickly. It has now cut the FSD subscription price by 50% to keep gathering data beyond the trial and transfers, too.

Instead of $199/month, any Tesla owner in the US who wishes to use the world's most famous driver-assist system will now only have to pay $99/month. The actual uptake at this price remains to be gauged, but a 50% subscription price cut has way more potential to lure takers than the $12,000 price for an outright purchase that remained unchanged.

Last week, Elon Musk countered an article that competition from Chinese automakers has made Tesla put its affordable Model 2 vehicle plans on the back burner with the enigmatic "Tesla Robotaxi unveil on 8/8."   

Needless to say, Elon Musk's "unveils" usually materialize in launches at a much later date. Nevertheless, in order to make an autonomous Robotaxi work, Tesla will have to amass many more FSD miles of real-life data in order to convince regulators that an autonomous car is safer than a human driver.

Tesla knows this, and hasn't even applied for permits in the states that require them for robotaxi operations just yet, according to several regulators.

The need to gather more driving data might be one of the reasons behind Tesla's massive FSD accessibility push that saw it make free transfers from an exclusive perk to a regular occurrence, as well as offer 30-day trial and feature tutorials.

Still, an outright FSD price cut would rattle its already jittery investors, so lowering the cost of usage to $99/month is apparently Tesla's preferable option to bring FSD to the masses and their driven miles to regulators. 

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