Tesla has introduced Automatic Collision Evasion, a feature that can activate Full Self-Driving to avoid imminent collisions. A CleanTechnica columnist argues that only owners paying $99/month for FSD V14 get it, leaving most customers without access.
Tesla owner and CleanTechnica columnist Arthur Frederick (Fritz) Hasler says Full Self-Driving V14 swerved his 2026 Model Y away from a pickup truck that pulled out in front of him in Northern Wisconsin. His account frames a wider complaint about who can use Tesla's new safety automation.
What Automatic Collision Evasion does
The article says Tesla has introduced a feature called Automatic Collision Evasion, which can autonomously activate FSD to avoid imminent collisions even if the driver has not engaged the system.
Hasler writes that the feature requires a $99/month subscription for FSD V14, switched on in the menu. It also works only on Teslas with Hardware 4 running FSD V14, which have been built since mid 2023.
A paywall for most owners
Hasler claims that only 15% of Tesla customers pay the $99/month, so 85% of owners, millions of them, lack access. He estimates that Tesla has sold about 5 million cars since mid 2023.
He also says the 85% who do not pay for FSD no longer get automatic lane assist, which he describes as a standard feature for all Tesla customers since 2012 until recently. In his view, Tesla treats FSD as a cash cow and uses the change to push customers toward the subscription.
Hasler argues that Tesla could make Automatic Collision Evasion available to all customers, and suggests a required safety fee of, say, $500 on each new vehicle to replace the subscription income. These are the columnist's opinions and estimates, not figures from Tesla.
Source: CleanTechnica
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