Tesla Motors has raised the price of its driver-assist Autopilot option by 20 percent, or $500 (A$660) with the move hot on the heels of the company’s announcement that it has made a more capable battery pack available for its Model S sedan and Model X sport-utility vehicle.The new 100 kilowatt-hour batteries will allow the car
to roam as much as 315 miles on a charge and significantly increase
acceleration times. It also takes the price of the car to $134,500.
Analysts consider features like automatic braking or adaptive cruise control to
be among the most profitable components of a new vehicle sale when an auto
maker offers those features as options.
Tesla’s Autopilot now costs $3,000. Other auto makers charge a variety of
prices for active-safety packages, while some are beginning to include them as
standard in certain vehicle ranges.
