The outfit has been installing the autonomous driver-assist hardware under the bonnet of its cars for a few years now and this has allowed Tesla to offer Autopilot and “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) systems as either a factory-installed or OTA-upgrade option.

If the car didn’t come with these features, you could pay Tesla to activate them which was $3,000 to install Autopilot and $5,000 for FSD. Autopilot enables the vehicle to perform lane keeping functions, like keeping up with traffic and avoiding pedestrians. FSD does all of that as well as autonomous parking and the summon feature that calls your car to you in a parking building.

In July, Tesla jacked up the price for FSD to another $1,000 if you install it after the fact and promised a price hike when version 10 of the vehicle software package, which included an enhanced summon capability, was available in September.

Then Tesla appeared to have an epiphany and reasoned that just increasing the price was not going to sell more products and those buying the Tesla second hand or didn’t spring for the FSD package were not going to pay seven grand for the technology.

So Musk took a tip from the software industry where companies have been selling ridiculously priced software on a subscription so that people never own it and often end up paying much more.

Musk said the subscription service will tip up towards the end of this year.

“It was to make available FSD as an option. In our view, buying FSD is an investment in the future and we're confident that his investment that will pay off to the consumer”, Musk said. “My guess is the FSD option is something people will not regret doing.”