Elon Musk announces a price hike for Tesla's self-driving system. Check here

Tesla Chief Elon Musk took to Twitter to announce that the price of Tesla's Full Self-Driving System (FSD) will increase to $15,000 in North America. Musk informed that the price increase would be in effect from September 5. Orders for the self-driving software made prior to this date will be taken for the current price of $12,000 though it will be delivered later. This is the second hike carried out by Tesla for its FSD this year.

The self-driving software of Tesla has been under scrutiny for quite some time now. The Autopilot system has been under the scanner of federal and California regulators who have been investigating it to detect if it has an error or not. According to a report by Bloomberg, the Federal National Traffic Safety Administration stated last month that it had reviewed almost 200 crashes involving vehicles that used the Autopilot mode.

Most recently, a report stated that the state transportation regulator in California accused Tesla of incorrectly advertising its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving as features that give autonomous electric vehicle control. California's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) stated in a complaint that Tesla misled potential buyers with an advertisement exaggerating how well its advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS) functioned. The department stated, “Tesla made or disseminated statements that are untrue or misleading and not based on facts."

Since 2016, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has registered 38 cases that investigate crashes involving Tesla electric vehicles. It is suspected that while these accidents took place, the ADAS system of the Tesla EVs was in use. Nineteen deaths have been ascertained in these crashes so far. It also includes the death of a motorcyclist who was killed in Utah in July.