Don't you think that's actually telling of the same gating Tesla is doing, but perhaps to an even more extreme limit? For instance on the F-150 you already *have* to get the high end trims to get the 360 degree camera option (Lariat, King Ranch, etc.). Then you have to get the Technology Package, then had the Luxury Package. Combined that's a $7,000 add on an already $40,000+ truck. The Terrain is the same way. You're gated into having to get the Denali first, then you get the option of adding the Birds Eye Camera. So after all that, you end up in a $35,000 SUV with just those two options added.
At the end of the day, I'd like to see it addable without FSD, but I certainly don't know about making the feature standard. They aren't a charity, and as it stands now, their pricing is not really out of the realm of all the other vehicles with this feature (once you actually add all the gated features needed to get access to it).
When / If they actually hit that $25K price point they're espousing, they're definitely going to have to gate features.
So I had to go educate myself on the FSD differences, because it was my understanding that there was no change in hardware, that it's all software. I do see the HW2.5/HW3.0 controversy for the model 3 deliveries, so it would seem that pre-COVID it was supposed to operate under my assumption; that it's just a gating a software key. Obviously since 2.5 is still floating around, I see it can possibly involve more than that, depending on if you got a non-FSD HW2.5 car or not. You'd need to cover the cost for TESLA to manufacture and install the HW3.0 computer.
On the above examples, there's a (albeit small) bill of materials between the vehicles. On the pre-2020 F-150, that came with an entirely different steering rack. You've got to add the cameras. In the case of both above vehicles, that's different and larger mirror housings with cameras, a different front fascia and a support that holds the nose camera, and in the case of the F-150, the radar equipped tail light housings and body mounts, radar equipped skirts for the Terrain. Different harnesses all around. They are built differently from the lower end models, and that's why you see a lot of trim gating. They don't want to build a tail light harness for incandescent and no BLIS, incandescent and BLIS, LED and no BLIS, LED and BLIS.
In terms of comparing MSRP, I would be wary of comparing pricing directly like that. I agree 7K on 40K is steep, but truck economics don't play out like car economics. People pay more for less, for whatever reason, in the truck market. There's a reason why cybertruck is 70K. That would buy you an F-250 with adaptive cruise, surround view etc and the 6.7 diesel. Likewise, we're talking about a 35K SUV in top trim versus a 50K SUV in lowest trim, that can't self park. It has other features that make up for it. But for those I've shopped with, there's a basic level of features to be guaranteed when you move from 20-30, 30-40, 40-50, and 50-70 (60K tends to blur out in the minds of those that shop the higher MSRP vehicles).
To round out, my comment wasn't in regards to gating at the price tag, it's more the fact that a Tesla is cameras. A Tesla would be a Leaf or a Volt if it wasn't for the cameras. So use the cameras already there, and offer the same (comparatively for Tesla since it's cameras and hardware are capable of far more than the ICE car systems) functionality. None of the ICE cars that offer self park etc have surround cameras and radar hardware in their basic build. Those are all addon hardware that are typically trim gated for ease of limiting manufacturing lines and build batches. I would agree that there would be an upcharge for the software, as at the end of the day that's what Tesla is selling. But I do not think you should be required to get the FSD package to get the features that any ICE car on the market today with that hardware available, already provides.
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