Tesla FSD (Supervised) Rolls-Out to Owners in Australia and New Zealand

By Ben McKimm - News

Published: 18 Sep 2025

ShareCopy Link0

Readtime: 4 min

Every product is carefully selected by our editors and experts. If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Learn more. For more information on how we test products, click here.

Tesla Full Self-Driving (Supervised) is now available to owners in Australia and New Zealand via an “over-the-air” update. This article will discuss prices (including the planned subscription model), compatibility, and more. First, let’s start with the fun stuff, the caveats.

Tesla FSD (Supervised) is currently only available to owners of HW4-equipped Tesla Model 3s and Model Ys, meaning those with older-generation vehicles will sadly miss out.

Customers who purchased FSD can update their cars this morning (Thursday, 18th of September 2025). Those who want to upgrade and gain access to FSD (Supervised) can purchase the FSD Capability in full for AUD$10,100. Furthermore, the brand plans to release a subscription package for Tesla FSD in Australia soon, with monthly prices set at AUD$150 (NZD$159). With an annual cost of AUD$1,800 via subscription, it would take you nearly six years to break even if you were to purchase FSD in full. Of course, FSD-equipped vehicles will likely become more expensive on the used market, so it would likely be sooner than that.

If you want to try FSD (Supervised), Tesla will make test-drive vehicles available at locations around Australia and New Zealand from Tesla Stores from Thursday, September 18th, 2025. Details regarding the 30-day free trial have not been confirmed, but that would make sense.

The announcement that Tesla FSD (Supervised) is being rolled out to customers is significant for the future of transport in Australia and New Zealand. We’re the first RHD markets in the world to get access to this technology.

I was lucky enough to be among the first journalists to test the software on public roads in Australia. It was shockingly impressive, but I had many questions from readers and followers online in the days and weeks that followed. The tricky part was that I could not answer them, as I (and others) never encountered a situation where the car was stuck, confused, or otherwise, and only on two or three rare occasions did I have to intervene and take control of the vehicle.

Thankfully, the brand has addressed some of these questions in a release shared during the announcement. Here are some notes that might clear things up:

• If the cabin camera doesn’t have clear visibility of the hand and arm location:
  • It will display a message on the screen 
  • It will remind the driver to apply a slight force to the wheel
• If the driver repeatedly looks away from the road (e.g. to look at their phone) the touchscreen displays a warning.
• If you ignore these warnings, a warning sound is played.
• If you ignore additional warnings, it will disable FSD (Supervised) for the drive.
• If you don’t take back control of the wheel, it will continuously sound, bringing the car to a stop with hazard lights on.

If FSD (Supervised) is suspended five times, the driver “strikes out,” and use of the technology is suspended.

Should you be nervous about Tesla FSD (Supervised) vehicles being “driven” on public roads? No, I don’t think you should after using it extensively around Brisbane highways, streets, and roads.

It’s the best advanced driver assistance system I’ve ever used (by a long margin), and Tesla constantly reminds us that this does NOT make the vehicle autonomous. Of course, they’re legally required to say these things if they want the technology to stay around and keep the regulators happy. My experience is that while this is the closest we’ve ever seen to autonomous vehicles, it’s not perfect. Until it is perfect, a human must be behind the wheel, “maintaining control,” and monitoring everything that is going on around them.

We are at the very early stages of this rollout. We know early adopters will be out in force to test this technology on public roads, and many already have. However, it’s still a prohibitively expensive piece of software for most owners, and with a seismic shift away from subscription services as prices rise across streaming entertainment platforms, it’s unlikely that every person behind the wheel of a Tesla will be doing so hands-free.