So, You Want to Drive Yourself? That’ll Be Monthly.
Because now, if you’re talking about a Tesla, that whole “ownership” thing is getting a little… blurry. Like, “did I really buy this or am I just renting it forever?” blurry. We’re talking about Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) software, which, for a cool $12,000 upfront (and let’s be real, that’s like, a down payment on a decent used car), used to be a one-time purchase. You bought it, it was yours. For life.
But nope. Not anymore. Now, if you want FSD, you can still drop the $12k (for now, anyway), or you can pay a monthly subscription. We’re talking $199 a month, or $99 a month if you’d already bought the “Enhanced Autopilot” package. And look, I get it. Businesses gotta make money. Recurring revenue is the holy grail. But this? This feels different. This feels like your car, the thing you bought, is now just another streaming service.
The thing is, it’s not just FSD. We’ve seen other carmakers try to nickel-and-dime us for heated seats, for remote start, for stuff that used to just be in the car when you bought it. It’s an alarming trend, if you ask me. You fork over tens of thousands of dollars for a vehicle, and then they want to charge you extra, every single month, to use features that are already physically installed in the damn thing. It’s like buying a house and then having to pay a monthly fee to use the master bedroom closet. It’s absurd.
Remember When You Just… Owned Stuff?
I mean, people who bought FSD back in the day, when it was a one-time purchase, they thought they were set. They paid their premium, they were early adopters, they got the bragging rights. And now? What happens if they sell their car? Does the new owner suddenly have to start paying monthly for a feature that was ostensibly “bought” with the original car? It’s murky, it’s confusing, and it feels like a bait-and-switch to a lot of folks who shelled out serious dough.
So, Is Your Car a Product or a Service Now?
This isn’t just about Tesla. It’s a bigger philosophical shift, isn’t it? From owning a product to subscribing to a service. And honestly, it’s a brilliant business move for companies. Think about it: steady, predictable income. No more big one-off sales and then crickets. Just a constant drip-drip-drip of cash from every single customer, every single month, for the life of the product.
“Customers lament Tesla’s move toward monthly fees for self-driving cars: ‘You will own nothing and be happy'” – A Reddit user, summing up the general vibe pretty perfectly.
And that quote, man, that quote hits hard. “You will own nothing and be happy.” It’s chilling, because it feels like we’re already there, or at least, sprinting towards it. We subscribe to music, movies, software, clothes (yes, really), and now… our cars? What’s next? Your fridge? Your washing machine? (Don’t laugh, I bet someone’s already prototyping a subscription for the “extra spin cycle” on your smart washer.)
The Erosion of Ownership
Here’s the real kicker: when you subscribe to something, you don’t own it. You’re just paying for access. That means the company can change the terms, raise the price, or even pull the plug on the service whenever they want. Poof. Your “feature” is gone. What happens to the resale value of a car if its coolest features are locked behind a paywall that the next owner has to pick up? It makes things incredibly complicated.
It also gives the manufacturer immense power. They control access. They control updates. They control, basically, what your car is. And if you stop paying? Well, then your fancy, futuristic car is suddenly just… a car. Maybe even a less capable one than it was when you bought it, if they decide to de-activate features you once had. That’s a pretty dystopian vision of car ownership, if you ask me. It strips away the autonomy of the owner. It turns a significant personal asset into a continuous liability.
What This Actually Means
Look, this trend, it’s not going away. It’s too profitable for companies to ignore. And we, the consumers, we’re slowly getting conditioned to it. We complain, sure, but then we often just pay up because we want the convenience, the new features, the status.
But we should be pushing back. Hard. Because if we don’t, everything we buy, everything we “own,” is going to turn into a never-ending bill. We’ll be renting our lives, piece by piece, from corporations. And while I love my Netflix and my Spotify, I really don’t want my car to become another line item on my monthly subscription statement. It just feels wrong. It feels like they’re taking something fundamental away from what it means to actually own something of value. And honestly, that’s a future I’m not really looking forward to. Not one bit.
