--- title: "Tesla Bets on Self-Driving Subscriptions as BYD Takes the EV Crown" description: "With its car sales eclipsed, Tesla is leaning on 1.7 million Full Self-Driving subscribers to carry its growth plan." author: "rews desk" published: 2026-10-26T14:30:27Z modified: 2026-10-26T23:24:06Z url: https://rews.cc/a/tesla-bets-on-self-driving-subscriptions-as-byd-takes-the-ev-3238c8 language: en tags: ["tesla", "autonomy", "funding", "spacex", "evs", "tech"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # Tesla Bets on Self-Driving Subscriptions as BYD Takes the EV Crown *With its car sales eclipsed, Tesla is leaning on 1.7 million Full Self-Driving subscribers to carry its growth plan.* By rews desk · October 26, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/tesla-bets-on-self-driving-subscriptions-as-byd-takes-the-ev-3238c8 ## In brief - Tesla reported 1.7 million active Full Self-Driving subscriptions, up 67 percent from a year earlier - Tesla said it had its largest car order backlog in four years at Wednesday’s earnings briefing - Musk said Tesla and SpaceX were exploring a merger to accelerate autonomous driving - BYD passed Tesla as the world’s largest EV maker last year; Tesla delivered 1.6 million cars - A delayed EU member-state vote on wider FSD approval is expected in December Tesla’s Full Self-Driving subscriptions have grown 67 percent in a year to 1.7 million active accounts, the company said at an earnings briefing on Wednesday, as Elon Musk shifts the automaker’s bets from selling cars to selling autonomy, [the Financial Times reported](https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/tesla-wants-ai-and-software-to-be-its-next-profit-engine/) on Monday. The pivot comes with fresh numbers. Tesla said it had its largest car order backlog in four years, and that more than 75 percent of new Teslas sold in North America now carry the supervised version of Full Self-Driving, priced at $99 a month in the United States. Despite the name, the software still requires a human in the driver’s seat, paying full attention. The shift has a showman’s side. This month a Roadster fitted with compressed-gas thrusters from SpaceX, Musk’s rocket company, jumped and flipped through the air in a stunt that went viral worldwide. Five days later, Musk disclosed that the two companies were exploring a merger that could accelerate his push into autonomous driving. “You’re going to see the results of what happens when you have a collaboration with the world’s best car company and the world’s best rocket company,” he said at the Roadster event. Cars remain the cash engine, generating 75 percent of Tesla’s revenue, money the company needs for heavy AI spending against Big Tech rivals. But the market has changed since Tesla launched its first battery-powered Roadster in 2008. Chinese manufacturers now lead the electric-vehicle race while pouring money into software and autonomous driving of their own, and BYD passed Tesla as the world’s largest EV maker last year. Tesla delivered 1.6 million cars last year; Musk’s old goal of 20 million a year by 2030 has been scaled back to 5 million. Analysts say the near-term road to 5 million runs through FSD. “The biggest driver for demand is Full Self-Driving,” Musk said at the briefing. “And today, there’s really no competitor for FSD in any car that you can buy.” Dan Ives, a tech analyst and partner at the merchant bank Yorkville Ives, called software the industry’s “golden goose” and said FSD is already Tesla’s highest-margin business, with the potential to “transform the whole financial model” if it reaches roughly half the customer base, up from about 10 to 15 percent now. “For every dollar of FSD revenue, the market rewards it 50-70 percent more than that dollar they would generate from selling an actual car,” he said, arguing it would count for more than selling an extra 50,000 to 100,000 cars a year. The catch is permission. Tesla has yet to win approval anywhere for the fully autonomous version of FSD. Its supervised version is approved in the Netherlands and several other European countries, and American regulators have been [reviewing claims that Tesla robotaxis sped through active school zones](https://rews.cc/a/nhtsa-opens-review-of-claims-that-tesla-s-robotaxis-sped-thr-e6d0b8). Competition is closing in. Xpeng, the Volkswagen-backed Chinese maker, is working with German authorities and aims to win EU clearance for its XNGP system once the bloc adopts rules on advanced driver assistance and autonomous driving, expected early next year. “We aim to be one of the first,” said Zheng Yeqing, Xpeng’s general counsel. A merger with SpaceX would give Tesla more firepower for that fight, creating a combined company that could speed research into materials, AI and manufacturing while cutting costs and easing access to parts such as chips. Jed Dorsheimer, an analyst at William Blair, said the tie-up, if shareholders and regulators approve it, could leave Musk controlling 50 percent or more of the merged entity. One top-15 Tesla shareholder said he supported the deal, citing “all the AI-related innovations now happening at SpaceX.” Others see the risks multiplying. “I think Elon Musk is playing a dangerous game,” said Max Willson, an industry observer and Tesla enthusiast. “SpaceX’s success should be protected, not used to bankroll an ever wider set of ambitions.” Traditional carmakers are moving too. General Motors last year hired Sterling Anderson, a former Tesla executive, to build a new generation of fully autonomous personal cars, and BMW and Mercedes-Benz have partnered with Qualcomm and Nvidia on “Level 2 plus” driver assistance. “Tesla is probably leading the development in the West,” Håkan Samuelsson, Volvo Cars’ chief executive, told the Financial Times, while insisting Volvo still leads in software. The next test of Musk’s European push comes in December, when a delayed vote of EU member states is expected to decide whether Tesla’s supervised self-driving system can roll out across the bloc.