I think the title of this submission should be changed to 'Tesla removes 35k Model 3 option' or similar. Their cheapest option is now a bit under 40k USD because they're including autopilot as standard.
Out of all of the people I know who own tesla, I have yet to meet anyone who bought one without autopilot. I don't understand why would you decide to purchase tesla over other electric cars if it was not for autopilot. If you want electric without autopilot - there are better options than tesla, so maybe the reason why they removed it was because a vast majority of people were purchasing the autopilot model, and offering the lower priced version was slowing down their prodution somehow (adding options is always time consuming).
> If you want electric without autopilot - there are better options than tesla
Please do tell me these better options as I had been considering a Model X but do not want to be forced to buy autopilot. I just looked into Audi eTron after reading this update and it only has 200 miles of range. Everything else about Tesla is the best - range, UI updates, supercharger. What other electric car is a “better option?”
Is 90 miles more range and a second better 0-60 worth 25 grand to you? If so, yeah, Model X is it. Otherwise, Audi has a great UI (wireless Car Play, even) and a quickly expanding fast-charge network.
I have a friend who bought a Model X without autopilot, I was stunned because it is probably the single most important feature of my Model S. In fact I think that features of Teslas like traffic aware cruise control, autosteer, radar controlled emergency braking, could be ported to pretty much any modern drive by wire automatic and would be very beneficial. But Mercedes who have had much of the necessary hardware for decades make it a premium option on cars that are already very expensive so it hasn't happened and VW has emergency braking on some models but I think it is still optional.
