Tesla Australia moves to subscription-only model for Full Self-Driving

UPDATE, 13/02/2026 2:30pm: Tesla Australia has clarified that customers can still take delivery after March 31, 2026 of vehicles with FSD Supervised paid for up-front, provided the vehicle is ordered before this date.

Tesla Australia will soon drop the ability to pay for Full Self-Driving (Supervised) up-front, as it shifts to a subscription-only model like in the US.

If you want to pay up-front for FSD Supervised, which costs $10,100 and is only available for vehicles running Hardware 4, you’ll need to order and take delivery of a new Tesla by March 31, 2026.

Tesla hasn’t confirmed when vehicles running the earlier Hardware 2 and Hardware 3 systems will be able to upgrade to FSD Supervised.

From April 1, 2026, your only option will be a subscription. This will continue to be priced at $149 per month (NZ$159 in New Zealand).

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That means this sophisticated system will be available for vehicles as affordable as the base Model 3 Premium ($54,900 before on-roads) and the Model Y Premium ($58,900 before on-roads).

These models come standard with Basic Autopilot, which includes adaptive cruise control and lane centring. It appears Tesla Australia won’t follow the US market in dropping standard Autopilot.

The company is currently offering the ability to transfer Enhanced Autopilot or FSD Supervised to a new vehicle, but this too will end on March 31, 2026.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced on February 14, 2026 that the company would stop offering FSD as an up-front purchase, though at the time Tesla Australia said this was a US initiative.

FSD Supervised was switched on for Australia and New Zealand in September 2025, and was initially only available as an up-front purchase shortly before the subscription was introduced.

Tesla did local testing of its fully autonomous driving system, ensuring it could handle uniquely Australian driving scenarios like Melbourne hook turns.

It’s a Level 2 driver assistance system, capable of negotiating curves, intersections and roundabouts, and detecting and reacting to pedestrians, cyclists, motorcycles and other vehicles on the road.

It will work without your hands being on the steering wheel, though Tesla makes it clear the system still requires full driver control and supervision.

The feature is powered by Tesla Vision. That means vehicles are using only cameras to detect their surroundings, unlike the advanced driver assistance systems offered by rival brands, which may additionally use sensors, radar and LiDAR.

Use of FSD (Supervised) will also be suspended once the driver of the vehicle receives five “strikeouts” – ie: when the system disengages for the remainder of a trip after issuing several audio and visual warnings for inattentiveness.

A camera inside the cabin monitors the driver while the feature is engaged, and can’t be disabled.

Tesla says it doesn’t require full visibility of the driver’s eyes in order to monitor attentiveness, but will sound warnings if it doesn’t have clear visibility of the driver’s hands and arms.

If you ignore all of the system’s warnings, the car will eventually sound a continuous chime, turn on the hazard lights, and slow to a complete stop.

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