Active full self-driving subscriptions at Tesla reached 1.48 million at the end of the second quarter, up 56.0% year on year and 15.6% in three months, the company said on Wednesday.
The quarterly addition of about 200,000 was the largest on record.
Tesla said penetration kept growing, with “more customers opting for subscription at the time of vehicle purchase.”
A conference call with chief executive Elon Musk and other members of management follows the results at 5:30 p.m. Eastern time, with further details expected to be announced.
Attach rates
More than 55.0% of new deliveries in North America included a subscription, which the company described as a record attach rate for the region.
Higher ancillary sales driven by subscriptions were listed among the positive contributors to both revenue and operating income in the quarter.
The subscription figure is a defined metric under the 2025 CEO Performance Award, counting upfront payments and monthly subscriptions while excluding free trials. That award sets a goal of 10 million.
Growth has run at 850,000, 950,000, 1.04 million, 1.10 million, 1.28 million and now 1.48 million across six quarters.
Outright purchase of the software ended on February 14, leaving a subscription at $99 a month in the US as the only route for most buyers. Pricing had peaked at $15,000 in September 2022.
Software
Tesla began delivering version 14 Lite to customers with AI3 hardware in the US and, in July, South Korea.
The build distils driving behaviour from the AI4 version 14 series into the camera and compute configuration of the older computer, adding destination options covering parking in a lot, on the street, in a driveway or at the curbside, along with speed profiles.
Improvements cover navigation handling, merges and forks, pedestrian interactions, traffic lights and vehicle cut-in.
That release reached a wider group of Hardware 3 owners this week, as EV reported, after first going to early-access customers on June 29, as EV reported at the time.
Roughly four million vehicles worldwide run the older computer, which Musk has confirmed cannot achieve unsupervised operation as built, citing memory bandwidth around one-eighth that of the newer hardware.
A shareholder question carrying 239 votes asked what the company owes owners who paid for that capability. No accrual figure appeared in the deck.
Europe
Approvals now cover five countries. Building on the Dutch decision, Tesla said it received further approvals in Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark and Belgium.
Customers in those markets had driven more than 50 million kilometres, or 31 million miles, on the software as of July. EV reported that milestone earlier this month, when European mileage crossed 50 million kilometres.
The company said it is “seeing elevated interest in our vehicles in markets with FSD approval.”
Lithuania became the second European country to receive the software in May, as EV reported.
France set out a cabinet-level objection hours before the results.
Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said the safety trade-offs are not yet sufficient to authorise the system, and that it is not a self-driving system, citing speeding and driver attention in urban settings.
Musk responded hours later, saying that delaying approval in France will cost lives.
Bloc-wide recognition requires a qualified majority at the Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles.
The June 30 meeting produced discussion but no vote, pushing the next opportunity to October.
Germany, France and Italy together carry enough weight to determine the outcome, and none has approved nationally.
Hardware and infrastructure
Construction and equipment procurement continued for the company’s semiconductor fabrication plant in Austin, which Tesla said is critical to securing long-term supply of logic and memory chips.
Onsite AI training compute in Texas more than doubled in megawatt terms during the first half. Cortex 1 is listed at more than 90 MW and Cortex 2 at more than 115 MW, both in production.
A summer software release began rolling out in July, adding shareable self-driving statistics, expanded Grok functionality covering phone calls, music and climate controls, and automatic navigation to destinations beyond home and work.
Liability and insurance
Two of the highest-ranked shareholder questions concern who carries responsibility once supervision is removed.
One asked when unsupervised operation will launch for customers in states such as Texas, whether Tesla will cover accidents once enabled, and how police would establish who was driving.
Another asked why Tesla Insurance remains unavailable in most states, and whether the insurance arm is a prerequisite for the company assuming liability in customer vehicles.
The top voted questions will be answered by the management at the conference call scheduled for 5:30 p.m Eastern Time.
Musk told investors on the first-quarter call that unsupervised operation would probably reach customers in the fourth quarter, adding that he was guessing.
He had earlier said unsupervised vehicles were already running without occupants or safety monitors in three Texas cities, and predicted the service would be widespread across the US by year-end, as EV reported in May.
Cumulative miles driven on the software approached 12 billion by the end of the quarter, according to the chart in the deck, with almost all of that accumulated on version 12 and later.
Financial context
Operating income fell 57.0% to $398 million for a margin of 1.4%, with operating expenses up 47.0% on artificial intelligence and research spending.
Automotive gross margin excluding regulatory credit sales fell to 16.3% from 19.2%.
Capital expenditure reached $5.79 billion, up 142.0% year on year.
Full self-driving drew 76 tagged questions among 429 submitted through the Say Technologies platform, more than any other topic, as EV reported.
Rivals have begun direct comparisons, with XPeng‘s chief executive saying his company’s system outperforms the Tesla software on narrow roads, as EV reported in May.
