Welcome to the era of subscription based services for your auto. Owners that either ordered on, or after, July 1st 2018 will now have a pay option for their connectivity services. They will, however, have the option to try this premium package for free for 30 days. After that it’s $10 a month or $120 for the year.
The good news is that the difference between the tiers isn’t that big and if you could afford a Tesla then another $120 per year probably won’t be much to consider. Live traffic visualizations and satellite maps will be missing from the basic package. Additionally, you’ll need to use WiFi in order to access various streaming functions.
In an age where just about anything can consume data it’s no big surprise that something like this could happen. Data usage is costly and we can only imagine how much is being used by Tesla owners or their vehicles.