【Australia】

Elon Musk wasn't kidding. Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) set of features has become more expensive,Australia increasing from $8,000 to $10,000.

Musk announced this a few weeks ago, but the price hike actually happened a week later than anticipated. The company has been steadily increasing the price of FSD throughout the years; in April 2019, it went up from $5,000 to $6,000; in November it went up to $7,000, and in May of this year, the price was hiked by another $1,000.

Musk has long held the view that FSD will become far more valuable (more than $100,000 eventually) as full-self driving features get regulatory approval. The idea is that once the car can drive itself, it can join a fleet of "robotaxis" that could earn its owner money while they aren't using it.

For most users, the Full Self-Driving package currently does not bring fully autonomous driving. Instead, it consists of features such as automatic highway driving, lane changes, and parking, as well as the ability to summon a car in a parking lot, and assisted stops at traffic-controlled intersections. 

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But for a chosen few, this changed in mid-October, when the company released a limited FSD beta to "a small number of people who are expert & careful drivers." This release brings near-autonomous driving, meaning the car can drive itself on city streets, automatically steer and break, make stops at stop signs and make turns, all on its own. The drivers still need to be alert and keep their hands on the wheel at all times, though.

There's no telling when regulators will approve truly autonomous driving (meaning the car can drive itself without the driver intervening), but one thing is certain: the feature is getting more expensive fast.

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