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Regular readers of this publication, or the crap posts I make on Bluesky, know that I’m not a fan of General Motors eventually removing Apple CarPlay and Android Auto from its vehicles. I think customers should have a choice, and it’s yet to be seen how customers react when their current GM has the feature, but their next GM does not.
To the General’s credit, this functionality is more a convenience than a safety feature. Tesla, on the other hand, has decided that basic safety should be hidden behind a paywall.
Originally reported by InsideEVs, Tesla has completely removed the Autosteer functionality from all new Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles. Autosteer is the company’s name for lane centering, and it’s something that comes standard on practically every new car on sale in 2026.
When the company announced the standard, de-contented versions of these cars, it also said that these versions wouldn’t have the feature. But now the decision to remove it has been made for all versions, including the most expensive Performance variants.
Don’t worry, you can still get the feature. You just have to shell out for “Full Self Driving.” Which is no longer available for a one-time purchase. Which is now $99 per month. Which will likely go up in price, according to CEO Elon Musk.
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I wouldn’t take this as an indicator that the rest of the industry will follow suit. While companies are certainly looking for ways to create recurring revenue, any non-Tesla automaker would get absolutely blasted by literally everyone for putting basic safety behind a paywall.
This indicates how cooked Tesla is right now. Tesla quietly laid off 1,700 at its Berlin plant. The federal EV tax incentive is gone, and along with it, Tesla's ability to sell regulatory credits (because those no longer exist). The company won a small victory with Canada allowing Chinese-built EVs back into the country at a reasonable tariff rate, but even that doesn’t guarantee a flood of new sales.
💡Do you have information about Tesla? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me on Signal at chadkirchner.1701, or with another secure communication method.
There is a cooling in the idea of electric vehicles right now, but there’s no indication it will last forever. Tesla appears to be inflicting permanent damage on itself in an attempt to show positive progress toward the benchmarks required for Musk to receive his massive pay package.
This move reeks of desperation and not intelligence. People want fewer subscriptions, not more. But Musk has been detached from reality for a while now, and any chance of Tesla being run like a successful car company has long passed.
Maybe another public salute will help?