- Tesla said on Friday it will discontinue its basic driver-assistance package, Autopilot, to push customers toward its self-driving options.
- Autopilot combined Traffic Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer; new cars now list only Traffic Aware Cruise Control as standard.
- It is unclear whether existing owners will lose access to Autopilot.
- CEO Elon Musk has recently tempered expectations for upcoming products, and discussed robotics and AI at Davos with Larry Fink of BlackRock.
- TSLA shares dipped about 0.5% on the news, remain up roughly 2% year-to-date, and trade near the top of their 52-week range and above the 200-day moving average.
Tesla announced on Friday it is discontinuing its basic driver-assistance system, Autopilot, saying the move is intended to increase adoption of its full self-driving technology. The company’s online vehicle configuration now lists new cars as including only Traffic Aware Cruise Control as standard, and the firm did not clarify whether current owners will be affected.
Autopilot combined Traffic Aware Cruise Control, which maintains speed and distance from vehicles ahead, with Autosteer, a lane-centering steering feature. Tesla’s update removes the bundled description; buyers will still see cruise control listed as standard on new builds.
The change follows a mixed week for the company. Earlier, CEO Elon Musk issued comments that appeared aimed at lowering expectations for the automaker’s upcoming cybercab launch ahead of fourth-quarter earnings and a scheduled conference call next week. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Musk spoke with Larry Fink and discussed topics including Greenland, AI and robotics, and Tesla’s Optimus robot.
Musk also reiterated confidence in Tesla’s self-driving roadmap, saying vehicles will eventually support what he described as “unsupervised” driving and that future Full Self-Driving updates will allow riders to “be on your phone or sleeping for the entire ride.” In December, he said a new FSD version permitted the former behavior.
At press time, TSLA shares were down about 0.5%, about 2% higher year-to-date, trading near the top of their 52-week range and above the 200-day simple moving average.
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