Tesla Discontinues Autopilot in New Vehicles to Boost FSD Subscriptions

In Focus

• Autopilot has been a standard feature in Tesla vehicles since 2019
• The EV maker plans to increase the FSD monthly subscription as capabilities improve
• Elon Musk says Tesla’s newer vehicles will be capable of unsupervised driving

Tesla is discontinuing Autopilot, its basic driver-assistance system. According to TechCrunch, this move is part of a wider strategy to boost Tesla’s FSD subscription adoption. Autopilot was first introduced in the early 2010s and became a standard feature in Tesla vehicles in 2019.

New Teslas Will Come With Cruise Control

Autopilot combined Traffic Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer capabilities. Cruise control capabilities allow Tesla vehicles to maintain designated speeds while observing distance with the cars in front. Autosteer featured a lane-centering feature that allowed the EVs to maneuver curves.

The company stated that new vehicles will only feature Traffic Aware Cruise Control. The EV maker did not state whether current customers would be affected by this change. Tesla removes Autopilot from new cars barely a week after the EV maker announced that it will shift to a monthly subscription model for its FSD (Supervised) software starting February 14, 2025.

This means that customers will no longer pay a one-time fee of $8,000 for lifetime access. Commenting about Tesla’s $99 per month FSD subscription this week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the price “will rise as FSD’s capabilities improve. The massive value jump is when you can be on your phone or sleeping for the entire ride (unsupervised FSD).”

Focus on Unsupervised Driving

According to Musk, Tesla’s newer vehicles will be capable of driving without supervision. The Tesla CEO says advancements in the FSD will enable drivers to either sleep or be on the phone throughout a ride.

Most U.S. states consider texting while driving to be illegal. However, last month, Musk claimed that an improved version of FSD allowed drivers to do so. Tesla introduced robotaxi versions that have no human supervision in Austin, Texas on January 23, 2026. The Model Y SUVs are operating on a more advanced FSD version, but are followed by another car for supervision.

Tesla’s beta version of the FSD launched in 2020. However, adoption of the advanced driver-assistance system has been slow. Achieving 10 million active subscriptions for the FSD is among the operational milestones in Musk’s $1 trillion pay package that was approved by shareholders in November 2025.

Mounting Regulatory Scrutiny Over FSD

Tesla is retiring Autopilot amidst rising regulatory scrutiny over the FSD. Last year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced a probe into 2.88 million Tesla EVs that use the advanced driver-assistance system to determine whether it violated traffic rules.

The EV maker also faces a one-month sales suspension in California over deceptive marketing that saw it overstate Autopilot and FSD capabilities for years. This includes stating that Tesla cars could “conduct short and long-distance trips with no action required in the driver’s seat.” The sales halt will hurt Tesla sales in the company’s largest U.S. market.