Automotive subscription services are a hot topic as much of the economy seems to be leaning in that general direction. Now, Tesla, one of the companies that were first to market with a big monthly feature subscription is adding another. New buyers will have to pay for a subscription to get standard connectivity after eight years.
Tesla has two different connectivity packages on offer across its four-vehicle lineup. The Standard connectivity package includes integrated navigation and nothing else. The Premium package adds live traffic visualization, music streaming, an internet browser, video streaming, and the very useful Sentry Mode that we’ve seen catch criminals repeatedly.
While the Standard package has always been free for the vehicle’s lifetime, the Premium package costs $9.99 plus tax per month or a discounted $99 per year fee. While Tesla hasn’t released pricing on the Standard package when the eight years run out, we now know that buyers will be required to pay something for it if they want to keep that navigation feature.
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Of course, buyers might not be inclined to do so since modern smartphone navigation systems already do a great job. At the same time, Tesla might migrate some Premium features into the standard package over the course of the next eight years which would inevitably make it more attractive. Either way, used-Tesla owners don’t have much to fear at the moment.
Those who purchased on or before July, 20, 2022, will still get Standard Connectivity for free for life. First spotted by Teslarati, the specific statement on Tesla’s website is as follows.
“All new Tesla vehicles ordered on or before July 20, 2022, will have Standard Connectivity features at no cost for the lifetime of the vehicle (excluding retrofits or upgrades required for any features or services externally supplied to the vehicle – e.g. telecommunications network). As additional features and services become available in the future, you will have the opportunity to upgrade your connectivity plan.”
This isn’t dissimilar to the vehicles with Premium Connectivity that were purchased on or before July 30th, 2018. Those models will keep it as a free service. What do you think of this change? Would you pay on a subscription basis for integrated navigation? Let us know in the comments below!
