Cybertruck owners now need to pay for once-free Autosteer feature

People who bough the Cybertruck without the ‘Full Self-Driving’ (FSD) package were originally entitled to Tesla’s lane guidance systems, but now the company is moving it behind a paywall.

The ‘Autosteer’ lane guidance system keeps the truck between the lines and was traditionally a free Tesla feature as part of its basic Autopilot technology stack. Now, it’s being moved to the $11,000 FSD upgrade. Alternatively, you can pay $99 per month for the service if you don’t want to pay the upfront fee.

When you shop for a Tesla, traditionally, there are two choices: FSD for $11,000 or Autopilot for free. FSD lets you punch a destination into your GPS, and your Tesla will take you there. Legally, you must continue to pay attention to the road, but in ideal conditions, it’s a robust form of self-driving.

Regardless of its name, Autopilot isn’t full self-driving but a combination of adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping tech, and automatic lane changes. All of these features still come with Autopilot on Telsa’s crossovers and sedans, but for some reason, Autosteer is being moved to FSD on the truck.

This means there are a lot of Cybertruck owners (maybe, there weren’t very many sold in Canada) who bought their truck thinking that it would be helpful on long highway drives, but they are now getting nothing. Well, not exactly nothing. Tesla is offering all drivers affected a year of FSD for free. So they’ll be able to use the feature for a year, and then it will be taken away.

The notice specifically says, “As we improve our Autopilot technology, our feature sets will change. Accordingly, Autosteer will not be available for Cybertruck outside of Full Self-Driving (Supervised),” according to a report on Electrek. 

The only note I’ll add to that is that when the Cybertruck launched, FSD tech was delayed by almost a year. So while that doesn’t really pertain to this story that much, it does speak to the overall reliability of the Cybertruck’s software in general.

This makes me wonder if it will be removed from other Tesla vehicles going forward. The company seems to be betting a lot on its robo-taxi idea and self-driving technology in general. Therefore, if most people aren’t actually buying their self-driving tech because the default tech is so good, Tesla might be looking for more ways to incentivize shoppers to get the FSD package.

Overall, I don’t think that’s a good idea and I think with the public perception of Tesla decreasing due to Elon Musk’s crumbling reputation, the company should focus more on providing value and smart upgrades to its customers, instead of looking for sneaky ways to re-tool its subscription service.

Source: Electrek