Tesla could Cybertruck next year. Elon Musk calls $12,000 Full Self-Driving feature ‘ridiculously cheap’

The Cybertruck had a chance to be the first electric pickup truck on the market, having been announced as early as 2019, but in the meantime big-name companies like Ford and start-ups like Rivian have managed to bring alternatives to market before Tesla. Tesla’s priorities in recent years have been new factories in China, Germany and Texas, but Elon Musk says an official launch for the pickup could happen as early as next year. Musk also says that Full Self-Driving, the yet-to-be-launched autonomous driving feature, is currently “ridiculously cheap.”

Cybertruck delayed until 2023

Those who placed a pre-order for the Cybertruck more than three years ago may not get their silver, pointy-shaped pickup truck until next summer, according to Elon Musk’s recent statements at the company’s Q2 2022 financial statements:

“We expect to have the Cybertruck in production in the middle of next year. We’re very excited about this product. It might actually be our best product yet.”Tesla CEO said.

But Musk says Cybertruck production will be very efficient and simple, as lessons learned throughout the production of the company’s other electric cars will be applied:

“We’re going to bring a new level of simplicity and improvements to Cybertruck production and future products that we’re not ready to reveal right now, but that I think will be very exciting to reveal in the future.”, Musk continued.

Full Self-Driving will be even more expensive

The autonomous driving feature, Full Self-Driving, has been sold on Tesla cars for many, many years, and it initially started out at a low price, which has kept rising in recent years. Recently, it has become a $12,000 option, but it doesn’t add any hardware to Tesla cars. Basically, customers are buying access to this software for when the feature is officially available. Full Self-Driving has only been in “beta” testing on a few US cars for a few months now, but the results don’t look impressive, as the system is still incomplete, problematic in some situations, and unable to operate 100% without driver involvement.

Currently, the FSD feature is available on 100,000 cars in beta, and has recently been updated to version 10.13, which can only now make correct left turns, detect animals, and adjust speed to the limits of the road. But Musk believes that Full Self-Driving is actually the most important product for Tesla.

He says the autonomous driving feature could spell Tesla’s true success, and that at $12,000, the capability is “ridiculously cheap.” He suggested that a new price tag is coming, but didn’t mention how much the new autonomous driving package will cost. Currently, you can buy the option when you first set up your car, or you can purchase it later, but Tesla has also started offering the monthly subscription option at $199 per month. It’s unclear if the subscription price will also increase.

Musk says the autonomous driving feature will be “fixed” by the end of the year and that the price will increase before the beta is expanded.