Aside from dropping the price of its vehicles even further, or perhaps offering discounts on the Model S and Model X, it doesn’t seem there’s much more Tesla can do to entice people to buy before 2022 comes to an end. However, it’s certainly trying, with yet another holiday bonus: complimentary Enhanced Autopilot for 30 days.
Offering discounts, free Supercharger miles, and now Enhanced Autopilot ought to help Tesla sell more cars in the coming days. In fact, reports already suggest that the incentives are causing a notable drop in inventory, especially in some areas where EVs are very popular.
That said, providing a free 30-day trial of Enhanced Autopilot could also convince new Tesla owners to eventually pay the $6,000 for the feature once the trial expires. Or, they could up the ante and splurge for Tesla’s Full Self-Driving beta ($15,000).
On the other hand, the trial could prove to some owners that Enhanced Autopilot is good enough for now, and they may not be willing to pay the big bucks for FSD. However, they could simply subscribe to FSD on a monthly basis in the future.
At any rate, according to Teslarati, Tesla owners in Australia and New Zealand took to Reddit to share that they got the free trial of Enhanced Autopilot, along with a “Happy Holidays!” message from Tesla. We’re not yet sure where else in the world Tesla is offering the holiday gift, but reports should begin to surface online.
As you can see from the tweet above from @techAU, Enhanced Autopilot is a suite of advanced driver-assist systems that goes beyond the capabilities of standard Autopilot, though it doesn’t offer all the features you get with Tesla’s FSD beta.
Enhanced Autopilot features Navigate on Autopilot, Auto Lane Change, Autopark, Summon, and Smart Summon. Spending the extra $9,000 on FSD beta gets you Traffic Light and Stop Sign control, in addition to all the features found in Enhanced Autopilot. Tesla’s website notes that FSD beta also has Autosteer on City Streets coming soon.
What’s your take on Tesla’s current “generosity”? Is the automaker in trouble, struggling with demand issues, and about to disappoint the people on Wall Street? Or, is this just another way for the US electric automaker to ensure an incredible quarter? Scroll down and leave us your insight.
