Tesla has incrementally increased the price of its Full Self-Driving software with CEO Elon Musk regularly touting its long-term value. Today, it’ll cost owners $15,000 to enable the feature. Now, one customer’s interaction with Tesla itself during a potential trade-in discussion has sparked debate about its value.
That owner, Alex, was considering trading in his 2020 Tesla Model Y Performance. In addition to FSD, it has a white interior and red paint as well. Despite those nice features, Tesla offered Alex just $37,700 for his vehicle. For all we know though, this EV has a lot of miles, mechanical issues, damage, or a combination thereof – or it could be in perfect working condition.
Regardless of why Tesla offered such a low price on a car that would today cost in excess of $70,000, Alex held Tesla’s feet to the fire about how much of that value was tied to FSD. “$37,700 with FSD, $33,800 without FSD,” replied a Tesla employee in a direct-message chat with Alex.
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That’s quite the dip in value over just a few years. Back in 2020, Elon Musk famously said that he personally thought FSD was worth “in excess of $100,000.” At that time, FSD cost $7,000 before it went up to $8,000 later that same year. Accounting for that price, offering $3,900 doesn’t feel like as much of a dip in value.
It’s worth noting though that Musk has also claimed that Full Self-Driving would be an appreciating asset. That means that those who buy in early should be able to reap the rewards later on. Clearly, that’s not what’s happening here. Even if Alex did buy the software right away at $7,000, he’s still losing $3,100 on that proposition.
The Drive also pointed to other instances of Tesla not valuing its own FSD software with the same price tag that it asks from buyers. In May, DriveTesla Canada exposed an email where a Tesla rep specifically stated that “FSD does not change the value of the car.”
Before that, in 2021, Musk himself responded to a complaint about this sort of situation by saying “No question that FSD should be viewed as reasonably valuable when doing a trade-in.”
Proponents of Tesla are saying that this is fair for a number of reasons. Tesla itself pays almost nothing to enable the software in the car so why would they be willing to pay much of anything for it? It’s worth noting that while FSD itself is software, it needs hardware in good condition to do the job too. What version of hardware does this vehicle have? What condition is it in? These factors could play a role.
Regardless of how Tesla values its own FSD software, this isn’t a great look. It would seem to indicate that used Tesla vehicles in similar condition with FSD aren’t selling anywhere near $15,000 above those without it. Where do you fall in this debate? Is Tesla in the right to offer so little after charging so much more for the feature? Let us know in the comments below.