Tesla raised Full Self-Driving (FSD) prices to $10,000 from $8,000 in 2020. The 20% price rise comes less than two years from the previous one. Musk tweeted:

“Tesla FSD price rising to $12k on Jan 17. Just in the US.”

The CEO also added that the monthly subscription price will rise when FSD goes to wide release. He tweeted:

“FSD price will rise as we get closer to FSD production code release.”

The company has been expanding the release of a test version of its upgraded FSD software. It’s a system of driving-assistance features like automatically changing lanes and making turns. However, the features do not make the vehicles autonomous.

The report said that the setback comes as Tesla is under regulatory scrutiny over the safety of its semi-autonomous driving technology, which it calls “FSD”. CEO Elon Musk said in a Twitter post on October 24:

“Seeing some issues with 10.3, so rolling back to 10.2 temporarily. Please note, this is to be expected with beta software. It is impossible to test all hardware configurations in all conditions with internal QA (quality assurance), hence public beta.”

Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside regular US business hours. The release of the new driving assist system to some owners of Tesla models, which the company said featured several improvements, had been announced for Friday, October 22. On October 23, Musk said the release would probably be delayed by a day. He had tweeted.

“Regression in some left turns at traffic lights found by internal QA in 10.3. Fix in work, probably releasing tomorrow.”

The Tesla vehicles with the latest 10.3 software repeatedly provided Forward Collision Warnings when there was no immediate danger, according to video postings of beta users. Some vehicles also automatically applied brakes without reason, users said on social media posts. Some users said they lost the FSD beta software entirely after having problems with the latest iteration.

As of October 24, there was no information about a possible new date for the release, either from Musk on social media or from Tesla.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in August opened a formal safety probe into Tesla’s Autopilot system in 765,000 US vehicles after a series of crashes involving Tesla models and emergency vehicles.

In a separate letter, NHTSA asked Tesla about its “Autosteer on City Streets” which the company also refers to as “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) released in October 2020, and raised concerns about limits on disclosure by drivers of safety issues. “Despite Tesla’s characterization of FSD as ‘beta,’ it is capable of and is being used on public roads,” NHTSA said. Some users have posted social media videos that showed apparent issues with the FSD system. NHTSA wants Tesla to disclose its “criteria and timeline for allowing access to customers who have requested consideration in Tesla’s FSD Beta Request.”

NHTSA added it was aware of reports that participants in Tesla’s FSD early-access beta release program “have non-disclosure agreements that allegedly limit the participants from sharing information about FSD that portrays the feature negatively. Even limitations on sharing certain information publicly adversely impact NHTSA’s ability to obtain information relevant to safety.”

NHTSA said its actions “demonstrate its commitment to safety and its ongoing efforts to collect information necessary for the agency to fulfil its role in keeping everyone safe on the roadways, even as technology evolves. … We will act when we detect an unreasonable risk to public safety.”

NHTSA asked about Tesla’s distribution last month of functionality to certain Tesla vehicles intended to improve detection of emergency vehicle lights in low-light conditions, and Tesla’s early October release of the “Full Self-Driving Beta Request Menu option.”

NHTSA noted that the law says automakers must issue a recall “when they determine vehicles or equipment they produced contain defects related to motor vehicle safety or do not comply with an applicable motor vehicle safety standard.”

The safety regulator said the updates were to help detect flashing emergency vehicle lights in low-light conditions “and then responding to said detection with driver alerts and changes to the vehicle speed while AutoPilot is engaged.”

Tesla must respond by Nov. 1 to NHTSA’s letter. Tesla did not immediately comment. Its shares were up slightly in mid-morning trading on Wednesday.

In February, Tesla agreed to recall 135,000 vehicles with touch-screen displays that could fail and raise the risk of a crash after NHTSA sought the recall, warning it could result in the loss of rearview or backup camera images, exterior turn-signal lighting, and windshield defogging and defrosting systems.

The score is tabulated using data collected by sensors on the driver’s Tesla, and considers instances of forward-collision warnings per 1,000 miles, hard braking, aggressive turning, unsafe following, and forced Autopilot disengagement. A Tesla’s Autopilot feature disengages after giving three visual and audio warnings, “when your Tesla vehicle has determined that you have removed your hands from the steering wheel and have become inattentive,” according to the safety score guide.

The guide doesn’t indicate what Tesla considers an acceptable safety score to access FSD but says most drivers will have a score of 80 out of a possible 100. The FSD beta software does not make a Tesla fully autonomous; the driver must keep control of the vehicle at all times. Tesla is opening access to the FSD beta early a year after it opened a limited beta of the software with a select group of customers.

Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, said last week that Tesla should address “basic safety issues” before expanding FSD, calling the company’s use of the term full self-driving “misleading and irresponsible.” Homendy said Tesla “has clearly misled numerous people to misuse and abuse technology.” The NTSB can conduct investigations and make recommendations but has no enforcement authority.

On Saturday, when a popular Tesla blog tweeted an editorial questioning whether the company had a “fair chance” after Homendy’s comments, Musk replied with a tweet that had a link to the editable version of Homendy’s Wikipedia page (which as of this writing has a paragraph titled “Tesla criticism” that links to news stories about her recent comments). Musk didn’t comment further on Twitter.

A request for comment to Tesla’s media email was not immediately returned Sunday morning. The company dissolved its press office and rarely replies to media queries. The NTSB also did not reply to a request for comment.