Tesla gives owners a free 30-day trial of Enhanced Autopilot for the holidays
Tesla owners are starting to receive messages on their cars offering a free 30-day trial of Enhanced Autopilot, with the message “Happy Holidays!” from Tesla.
The messages started showing up on social media, posted by owners in Australia and New Zealand. Notably, this started happening when it was early enough for people to be awake in those countries, but while it was late night or very early morning in the US and EU.
So we don’t know yet if this is a global giveaway or only in the oceania region, but we suspect we’ll find out soon enough as the rest of the world wakes up and goes for a drive. We see no reason that it would be restricted to AU/NZ, so perhaps it just needs to propagate to the rest of the world as the day moves on.
The message reads “Happy Holidays! A complimentary trial of Enhanced Autopilot has been enabled for you to enjoy for 30 days.” It then describes to drivers how to enable various Autopilot features, which must be done while the vehicle is parked before the first time each individual driver profile attempts to use the system.
All Teslas come equipped with Autopilot, Tesla’s brand name for its driver-assist technology. Basic Autopilot includes traffic-aware cruise control, which follows the car in front of you, and autosteer, which keeps the car in its lane on highways.
Enhanced Autopilot is an additional package that adds more capabilities. Tesla has offered it as a separate package on and off over the years, and brought it back in June with its current price point of $6,000 (or $5,100AUD/$5,700NZD, in the countries we’ve seen this giveaway in so far).
Enhanced Autopilot includes these features, over and above Basic Autopilot:
- Auto Lane Change: Assists in moving to an adjacent lane on the motorway when indicator is engaged by driver
- Navigate on Autopilot (Beta): Actively augments Auto Lane Change by providing guidance to the driver to transit motorway’s on-ramp to off-ramp, including suggesting lane changes and navigating interchanges
- Autopark: Helps parallel or perpendicular park your car, with a single touch
- Summon: Moves your car in and out of a tight space using the mobile app
- Smart Summon: Your car will navigate more complex environments and parking spaces, manoeuvring around objects as necessary to come find you in a car park within your direct vicinity.
Then, beyond Enhanced Autopilot is Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving Capability,” which includes the above functions and also will start and stop the car for traffic lights and stop signs, and allows entry into Tesla’s “FSD Beta,” which comes with Autosteer on city streets.
All of these features still require active participation from a driver, and are considered “Level 2” autonomous driving systems, where the driver is primarily responsible for monitoring the driving environment. Thus they are not “full self-driving” yet, though Tesla has repeatedly claimed that cars with FSD will eventually be able to drive themselves without driver intervention.
Tesla does have a way for owners to “try out” FSD by purchasing an FSD subscription for $199/mo (assuming you have HW3.0, otherwise Tesla will charge you $1,000 for hardware you already bought, but you might be able to get that money back in small claims court). There is no similar subscription for Enhanced Autopilot, only the one-time purchase option.
But this trial comes at a somewhat awkward time. Currently, new Tesla owners are receiving cars without ultrasonic sensors, after Tesla abruptly removed them from new vehicles in October, saying they were redundant to Tesla’s all-vision sensing system.
As a result, Autopark, Summon and Smart Summon are all disabled on these new vehicles until Tesla upgrades their software to use vision sensors instead of the previous ultrasonics. This means that new cars won’t get to use three out of the five Enhanced Autopilot features during this trial period, unless Tesla pushes a vision update within the next 30 days.
Electrek’s Take
Since there is no other way to “try out” Enhanced Autopilot for most customers, this seems like an excellent way to show people what the system can – or can’t – do. Many owners are curious about whether the additional features would be worthwhile, but not a lot of people can toss several thousand dollars at something they don’t know will be worth it for them.
This will let those owners have a chance to try out the system for a pretty significant period of time – not just a couple days, but a whole month.
It doesn’t cost Tesla anything to activate this, and it might drive a few conversions if owners are happy with the system’s capabilities.
Personally, I don’t think EAP is worth the thousands of dollars being charged for it, at least not for me:
- Navigate on Autopilot is nice, but the main benefit it does is tell you which lanes to be in for highway interchanges, and possibly make those lane changes for you with auto lane change (though you still have to confirm the changes with the turn signal stalk).
- Autopark works really well, even in weird parking spots, and may be useful for people who are bad at or afraid of parallel parking.
- Summon is mostly a neat gimmick, but can be useful if you need to adjust your car in a parking spot and don’t want to get up and go to the car to do it. I’ve used it for this several times, which has been convenient in a pinch, in the right circumstances, and does impress people.
- And smart summon… well, I’ve never used it, because it has never worked in a situation where I’ve wanted to use it, but everything I’ve heard doesn’t make it sound all that smart (even CEO Elon Musk acknowledges that it hasn’t ever been very smart).
They’re interesting capabilities for a car to have, but I’d rather keep the thousands of dollars, myself. That said, the same may not be true for every other owner – and now everyone will have a chance to find out if it seems worth it to them or not.
Let us know in the comments below if you’ve gotten this message this morning, and where you are in the world. We’re curious if this is a worldwide giveaway, or only limited to AU/NZ.
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VW’s retro-tastic minivan hasn’t been the sales success the company might have wanted, and a lot of that has to do with the van’s sky high price tag. Now, VW is asking: will a $10,000 discount be enough to create some buzz for the ID.Buzz?
Volkswagen is offering $7,500 in Retail Customer Bonus cash this month – up from the $2,500 the company offered its Black Friday customers – that, along with an additional $2,500 unadvertised dealer cash incentive that CarsDirect is reporting absolutely, definitely exists, adds up to a stout $10,000 total discount on the all-electric VW ID.Buzz … and that’s before you start haggling with your dealer over the MSRP.
It’s a lot
As much as I like the the Volkswagen ID.Buzz, its starting MSRP around $61,545 (incl. destination) puts it at nearly twice what you’d probably expect a minivan to cost if the last time you shopped for one was at a Dodge store. Still, that hefty price tag is some $20,000 higher than the baseline Toyota Sienna hybrid or Honda Odyssey.
That 50% higher price is a lot to swallow even if you do buy into the nostalgia. Still, the ID.Buzz is capable enough, and with ~230 miles of range and 282 hp on offer from its battery/electric motor combo – plus Supercharger access – it’s at least able to keep up with the minivan competition.
So, while that $10,000 discount isn’t going to turn the ID.Buzz into the second coming of the affordable, family-hauling Caravan, it does bring VW’s electric people-mover a little closer to earth. In fact, with a $50K price tag, it’s right in line with the average transaction price of a new vehicles. So, if nothing else, that reduced price could finally gives electric minivan buyers something to buzz about (I tried so hard to work that in, you guys).
If you’ve been shopping for a family-hauler and dig the retro vibe over something like the (excellent) Kia EV9, click through the link below and set up a test drive at your local VW dealer.
SOURCE: CarsDirect; images via VW.
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Peterbilt has jumped into the MD truck ring with the launch three new medium-duty electric trucks that deliver zero-emissions power, ultra-fast 350 kW charging, and proven, versatile platforms for delivery, utility service, and vocational upfitting.
The new Peterbilt 536EV, 537EV, and 548EV medium-duty trucks slot into the same versatile medium-duty segments the company’s fleets already know, but swap diesel power for latest PACCAR ePowertrain, with up to 605 hp and 1,850 lb-ft of torque available at 0 rpm. That big motor draws power from a variety of LFP battery packs and be fitted with ePTO options rated for either 25 kW (two-battery option) or 150 kW (three-battery option), making them suitable for that can be sized for daily delivery routes, urban utility work, and municipal fleets looking to cut both emissions and maintenance costs.
What’s more, the new Peterbilt’s flexible architecture allows for integration with existing PACCAR suspension bits to make 4×2 and 6×4 configurations, and any wheelbase of 163 inches or longer, and up to 82,000 lbs. gross combined weight ratings possible.
“[The new trucks are] optimized for the demands of the medium duty segment, the next generation of Peterbilt electric vehicles deliver excellent efficiency, rapid charging and versatile configurations elevating customer productivity across a wide range of applications,” said Erik Johnson, Peterbilt assistant general manager, Sales & Marketing.
In addition to all those goodies, the PACCAR EV tech continues to be top-notch, with the previously-mentioned 350 kW charging, regenerative braking, and industry-leading ergonomics.
Peterbilt’s new MDEVs ship with a blue accented crown and grille for a distinctive exterior look, as well as EV-exclusive panels on the side of the hood. The interior design features laser-etched trim panels on the EV-exclusive Magneto Gray interior, just in case the driver in the quiet, smooth, and stink-free cabin forgets they’re in an electric truck.
Electrek’s Take
Ignore the headlines. The death of the commercial EV market simply hasn’t happened, and won’t happen any time soon.
If you believe the engineers and analysts at MAN Trucks and Orange EV (and, you should), an EV like this can pay for itself in reduced fuel and maintenance costs even without incentives, then you should already know what I’m about to say: the future of trucking is 100% electric.
SOURCE | IMAGES: PACCAR.
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Subaru’s smaller, more affordable Uncharted EV will be among the few electric vehicles with a starting price of under $35,000.
2026 Subaru Uncharted EV prices and range by trim
The 2026 Subaru Uncharted EV will join the Nissan LEAF, Toyota bZ, Hyundai IONIQ 5, and Chevy Equinox as one of the few new EVs on sale in the US for under $35,000.
It will be the most affordable electric vehicle in Subaru’s lineup, sitting below the Solterra and Trailseeker SUVs, starting at just $34,995.
The Uncharted will be available in three trims: Premium FWD, Sport, and GT. Subaru said the entry-level Uncharted Premium FWD variant will be “offered in limited numbers.” It draws power from a single 221 hp electric motor and 74.4 kWh battery pack, providing over 300 miles of range.
All trims use the same 74.7 kWh battery pack, but the Sport and GT models feature Subaru’s Symmetrical AWD, which slightly reduces driving range.
The Sport and GT variants deliver 285 miles and 270 miles of range, respectively. The AWD system packs a combined 338 hp, which Subaru boasted “is more than the Hyundai Kona EV and Kia Niro EV.”
Like the new 2026 Trailseeker and Solterra, the Uncharted EV has a battery preconditioning system that boosts charging performance in cold weather. With charging speeds of up to 150 kW, the electric SUV can recharge from 10% to 80% in around 28 minutes.
All 2026 Subaru Uncharted EV models will feature a built-in NACS port, enabling access to over 25,000 Tesla Superchargers across the US.
Although the Uncharted is nearly 7″ shorter than the Solterra, it still offers more than 25 cubic feet of cargo space behind the second row.
The interior features the brand’s updated design with a 14″ Subaru Multimedia System that includes wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
Starting at $34,995, the entry-level Premium FWD trim includes EyeSight driver-assist features such as Pre-Collision Braking, Front Cross Traffic Alert, Blind Spot Monitors, Lane Departure Alert, Emergency Stop Assist, Advanced Adaptive Cruise Control, and a distraction mitigation system.
| 2026 Subaru Uncharted EV trim | Starting Price* |
| Uncharted Premium FWD | $34,995 |
| Uncharted Sport | $39,795 |
| Uncharted GT | $43,795 |
Eco and Snow drive modes are standard, plus an All-Weather Package is included with heated front seats, heated power exterior mirrors, and windshield wiper de-icer.
Upgrading to the Sport and GT variants, starting at $39,795 and $43,795, respectively, adds an uprated powertrain and Subaru Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive.
The 2026 Subaru Uncharted EV is expected to begin arriving at dealerships across the US in early 2026. It will join the new 2026 Trailseeker and Solterra as the lowest-priced EV in Subaru’s lineup.
With the new Uncharted and Trailseeker SUVs coming soon, Subaru is offering closeout prices on 2026 Solterra models with 0% APR financing on all trims and leases as low as $299 a month. If you’re looking to test drive one for yourself, you can use our link to find Subaru Solterra models in your area.
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