Future Fund’s Gary Black Says Tesla Must Lower FSD Subscription Costs To Increase Take Rate

• Earlier on Friday, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration granted Tesla extended time until Feb. 23, 2026, to review potential traffic violations involving its vehicles equipped with FSD. 
• Musk on Wednesday said that the EV giant would stop selling its full self-driving driver assistance technology for a one-time charge and will make it available solely on a subscription basis instead.
• FSD currently requires active driver supervision but Tesla is optimistic it would allow for complete vehicle autonomy in time.

The Future Fund LLC managing partner Gary Black on Friday opined that Tesla (TSLA) must now lower the monthly subscription cost for its full self-driving (FSD) technology to boost takers.

“IMO $TSLA should use FSD to sell more Teslas,” Black said in a post reply on X to a user who posed whether the company should lower the monthly subscription cost.

FSD Subscription Only

Musk on Wednesday said that the EV giant would stop selling its full self-driving driver assistance technology for a one-time charge and will make it available solely on a subscription basis instead. The change will kickstart on Feb. 14, Musk added.

Currently, Tesla allows its EV owners to purchase FSD (Supervised) for a one-time payment of $8,000 or a subscription of $99 per month in the U.S.

Decision Linked To Musk’s Pay?

The fund manager initially pinned Tesla’s decision to make FSD subscription-only to its CEO Elon Musk’s 2025 compensation plan.

Under Tesla’s 2025 compensation plan for Musk, the CEO will receive no salary but will be awarded up to 423.7 million shares of Tesla in installments over 10 years when the company meets certain milestones, including an increase in earnings, vehicle deliveries, robotaxis, and humanoid robots.

The new package is designed to deliver approximately 12% more voting power to Musk in exchange for driving performance growth, including by taking the company’s total market capitalization to $8.5 trillion.

Black noted on Friday that 10 million active FSD subscriptions is one of the milestones listed in Musk’s compensation plan. While the fund manager initially pinned the decision to make FSD subscription-only to this pay package milestone, he later clarified that a Tesla executive confirmed that FSD sales also count towards the milestone.

Regulatory Concerns

FSD currently requires active driver supervision but Tesla is optimistic it would allow for complete vehicle autonomy in time. Earlier on Friday, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration granted Tesla extended time until Feb. 23, 2026, to review potential traffic violations involving its vehicles equipped with FSD as part of a probe initiated in October.

The NHTSA opened the probe  into approximately 2.9 million Tesla (TSLA) vehicles in October due to concerns about traffic safety law violations involving vehicles equipped with FSD. The regulator stated that its Office of Defects Investigation identified several incidents where FSD-induced vehicle behavior violated traffic safety laws, including scenarios where a vehicle operating with FSD proceeded into an intersection despite a red traffic signal. The regulator then stated it is aware of a total of 58 incidents, including 23 injuries and 14 crashes or fires that may be related to the potential defect.

How Did Stocktwits Users React?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around TSLA fell from ‘neutral’ to ‘bearish’ territory over the past 24 hours, while message volume remained at ‘low’ levels.

TSLA stock has gained 6% over the past 12 months. 

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