Is the Mach-E really 7 years behind Tesla?

[Nak]

Elon has already said that FSD would be "Over $100K" once the system is fully functional. That's going to be a bit much for most people to afford. For a taxi or delivery business, it would be well worth the price.

If Tesla succeeds, current Teslas that have FSD now will be fully autonomous. That's the real benefit currently. Your car could be worth triple what you paid for it. If Tesla doesn't succeed, You overpaid for FSD by a couple of thousand dollars depending on how early and how cheap you got in. It's a gamble. For me, it was an excellent gamble already. I bought a 3, a Y and stock. I sold some stock after the split and the gains after taxes paid for both of my Teslas. So, I'm pretty happy with Tesla right now. FSD wasn't much of a gamble at all for me. If it pays off, I'll be ecstatic. It'll be nice to have a car that will drive me around when I'm old and feeble. Or I may buy an E and put both Teslas to work. If FSD never becomes autonomous, I still have two free cars.

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[dbsb3233]

They might, but it costs significant $$ and I don't think most many drivers will have much use for it. I just don't see much demand for it in private vehicles. If it were cheap, sure, people would say "heck, why not" and throw it in. But it's likely to cost many thousands. I just don't see much demand for it in vehicles that people buy to actually drive.

When FSD gets perfected, it'll open up a whole new industry of AV taxi-pods. For the people that don't want to drive, they'll just summon an AV pod from Yellow AVTaxi or something. Many won't even buy $50k vehicles anymore.

 

[jlauro]

It's currently $8000, and so the risks are more than a few thousand over pay.
Part of what that $8000 buys you is hardware upgrade protection. If they decide it needs newer hardware, you get a free upgrade by buying early.

 

[Nak]

In point of fact, nobody is offering it right now. Until someone actually starts selling a fully autonomous vehicle, we just don't know what they'll cost. GM can "say" what they're planning, but do they really know, and if so are they telling the truth? Or are they posturing? (Almost certainly IMHO.) TBH, I doubt anyone here is actually qualified to have an informed opinion on what will actually shake out in the end; I know I'm not. It's all conjecture and guesses. Fun, but that's about all.

What's interesting is that Tesla Just started selling "Enhanced Autopilot" for 1/2 the cost of FSD. It does everything that FSD does except for stopping at red lights and stop signs. So Tesla must be planning for FSD to make some pretty big strides soon. The AP software is being rewritten from the ground up and is due to be released "by December" to all Tesla vehicles with the latest hardware. (2017 and later are being upgraded at no cost if FSD was purchased.) If this software release is underwhelming you'll know where FSD is heading. If it's the 1000% improvement that some ex-Tesla engineers--yes "ex"--are claiming, that'll be very cool.

 

[Nak]

It's currently $8000, and so the risks are more than a few thousand over pay.

Depends. It's worth probably $4K to me as it sits now. I paid $6K, so It's a couple of grand extra gamble for me. For people buying now, it depends on what it's worth to them. Some find the $8K price well worth it for what it is, some think $2K is what it's worth, some find zero value in it. What it's really worth is what the buyer is willing to pay, no more and no less.

 

[Nak]

Zero. Every Tesla built has the FSD hardware. The cost for FSD is the billions spent in development; all of the cost is up front. How much do Apple and Microsoft make off software? That incremental cost is near or at zero as well.
Because it will be worth it to commercial ventures. And some well off consumers. The value of anything is how much someone is willing to pay for it, not what it costs you to make.

 

[jlauro]

What's interesting is that Tesla Just started selling "Enhanced Autopilot" for 1/2 the cost of FSD. It does everything that FSD does except for stopping at red lights and stop signs. So Tesla must be planning for FSD to make some pretty big strides soon. The AP software is being rewritten from the ground up and is due to be released "by December" to all Tesla vehicles with the latest hardware. (2017 and later are being upgraded at no cost if FSD was purchased.) If this software release is underwhelming you'll know where FSD is heading. If it's the 1000% improvement that some ex-Tesla engineers--yes "ex"--are claiming, that'll be very cool.

More likely because the standard autopilot is behind Ford and may others include free with the Mach E and other vehicles. They needed something to compete for those not willing to spend $8000 for vaporware.

 

[Nak]

Absolutely. If others can achieve full autonomy, competition will drive the price down. It seems to me that Ford isn't even close to getting there, but I have no idea, really. Time will tell.

 

[Nak]

They needed something to compete for those not willing to spend $8000 for vaporware.

That makes sense.

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