Within the car market, the democratization of technology is often taken for granted. Although the prices of cars might be rising, the premiums for some of the most advanced safety tech reliably and incrementally shrink following a technology?s introduction?to the point at which that technology might get packaged as an even better deal, or rolled into standard-equipment lists. That?s apparently not the case at Tesla. The California automaker just increased the price of one of its most desirable safety-tech features, the controversial Autopilot system, from $2500 to $3000.
It?s all the more surprising because Autopilot uses a set of hardware that?s already on board and installed: Every Model X, as well as every Model S built since September 2014, was built with the hardware needed for Autopilot. The suite of features is merely enabled by software. Additionally, the cost of enabling it after taking delivery also has gone up by $500 to $3500. Tesla?s Autopilot suite includes a traffic-aware cruise-control system and an Autosteer feature that will allow the driver to take his or her hands off the steering wheel?officially for short stints, but for far longer than in any other model from a major automaker fitted with a similar system. It harnesses inputs from cameras, radar, and ultrasonic sensors, and navigation data to help steer, and it will change lanes if you flick the turn signal lever.
The system hasn?t been without controversy, though. A Florida man driving a Model S in...