Tesla $TSLA ( ▼ 2.83% ) is officially done selling Full Self-Driving as a one-time upgrade.
CEO Elon Musk announced early Wednesday that Tesla will stop offering FSD as a one-off purchase after February 14, meaning starting Valentine’s Day, FSD will only be available as a monthly subscription.
The stock initially popped on the news, then slid back, and was down around 0.6% as of early Wednesday morning.
Tesla Is Killing the One-Time FSD Purchase
Musk’s statement was simple: Tesla will stop selling FSD after Feb 14.
After that, if you want Full Self-Driving, you will have to subscribe.
Right now, Tesla owners can either buy FSD outright for around $8,000 or subscribe for $99 per month. That permanent purchase option is what is about to disappear.
The Bull Case: FSD’s Value Is About to Explode
The generous interpretation is that Tesla is making a smart move ahead of a major leap in autonomy.
If FSD improves to the point where Teslas can actually drive without human intervention and gain regulatory approval, its value could rise dramatically. In that world, selling it once for a fixed price would leave money on the table.
Musk has long pushed that angle. Back in 2020, he said the FSD price would keep rising and claimed that with real autonomy, the value of FSD could be more than $100,000.
If Tesla truly believes that, forcing everyone into a recurring subscription model is exactly what you would expect.
The Bear Case: This Is a Demand Problem Disguised as Strategy
The less generous read: Tesla is pivoting because too few people were buying FSD in the first place.
Tesla disclosed in October that only 12% of existing drivers pay for FSD either via outright purchase or subscription, which is a low adoption rate for what has been positioned as a signature feature of the brand.
And Tesla has already been discounting aggressively:
FSD purchase price was cut to $8,000 from $12,000 in 2024
monthly subscription was cut to $99 from $199
That looks less like pricing power and more like Tesla trying to make the feature affordable enough that people actually use it.
FSD Still Isn’t Fully Self-Driving
This shift also comes with an uncomfortable reality: by most accounts, Tesla’s technology is not actually at the level of true full self-driving.
Even Tesla’s robotaxi fleet, which uses a more advanced version of the software, has missed its own timeline to remove safety drivers.
In Austin, Tesla’s roughly 30 robotaxis have been involved in eight crashes since June, according to NHTSA data cited in the report.
Why Tesla Needs Subscriptions Right Now
This pivot is also happening at a time when Tesla needs higher-margin, more predictable revenue streams.
In recent years, Tesla’s growth has increasingly come from energy generation and services, a category that includes FSD.
In Q3 2024:
services revenue rose 25%
automotive sales rose 8%
And with Tesla’s fourth-quarter deliveries disappointing, the next earnings report could make the slowdown in core vehicle sales look even more obvious.
So high-margin subscription revenue starts to look less like a nice bonus and more like a necessity.
Bottom line: Tesla $TSLA is turning Full Self-Driving into a subscription-only product starting February 14, a move that either signals confidence that autonomy is close, or confirms Tesla is leaning harder into software because vehicle growth is cooling.