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Ford Mustang Mach-E, Tesla Model 3 to join NYPD, NYC agencies for Gov’t use

To demonstrate that a vehicle with an electric powertrain can deliver strong performance and stand up to demanding police duty cycles, the company is submitting an all-electric police pilot vehicle based on the 2021 Mustang Mach-E SUV for testing as part of the Michigan State Police 2022 Model Year Police Evaluation on Sept. 18 and 20. Graphics on vehicle not available for sale. (Credit: Ford)

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Update: The New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services also confirmed to Teslarati that it will purchase 250 Model 3 units for the New York City fleet. The contract for the Mustang Mach-E has been finalized. The contract for Model 3 sedans is undergoing the approval process, but has not yet been finalized. This is why the Model 3s were not included in the press release.

The New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) announced today that it will order 184 Ford Mustang Mach-E vehicles and 250 Tesla Model 3s to join the City’s law enforcement and emergency response teams for regular use.

The New York City DCAS only confirmed the purchase of the Mach-E vehicles in its press release. The Model 3 purchase order was confirmed to Teslarati by the NYC DCAS. It was initially reported by DriveTeslaCanada.

“Today, the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services announced that it is placing an order for 184 all-electric Ford Mustang Mach-E Sport Crossover Utility Vehicles for law enforcement and emergency response use,” the DCAS wrote in a press release. “The new electric crossovers, purchased as part of the City’s largest electric vehicle (EV) purchase to date, are slated for use by the New York City Police Department (NYPD), the New York City Sheriff’s Office, the Department of Correction, the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Department of Environmental Protection, NYC Emergency Management, DCAS Police, and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.”

Credit: @Brian4NY | Twitter

The 184 Mustang Mach-E vehicles will replace current gas-powered cars that are still used in the City’s fleet. The City expects to take delivery of all 184 units by June 30, 2022, it said.

“Smart investments in fleet electrification will help New York City break its dependence on fossil fuels, “Dawn M Pinnick, Acting Commissioner of the NYC DCAS, said. “We are working successfully toward achieving the ambitious goal of an all-electric City vehicle fleet by 2035 by taking steps to fight the climate crisis every day.”

The NYPD utilizes over 6,200 light-duty vehicles for law enforcement, which is the largest group of vehicles in the City fleet, which consists of almost 30,000 cars. It will be the largest order of all-electric plug-in vehicles in law enforcement history and will pave the way for New York City to fully electrify its fleet by 2035.

Ford Mustang Mach-E captures KBB’s EV Best Buy of 2022

“Law enforcement vehicles are the largest and most visible part of our City’s fleet,” Keith Kerman, Deputy Commissioner for DCAS and NYC Chief Fleet Officer, said. “This order of all-electric Mach-Es will enable our law enforcement agencies to put electric models to the full test and work out maintenance, lights and sirens, charging, and other operational issues. It is a critical step towards our goal of a fully electric fleet.”

The NYC DCAS signed the contract and registered it on December 22nd. The process for finding and commissioning these vehicles was not easy, as the DCAS sought information in June 2017 for the first time regarding the City’s process of bidding for vehicles, equipment, and fuel. The City will spend $11.5 million on initial orders, and its contract with a Minority and/or women-owned business enterprise vendor will remain intact for five years.

The NYC DCAS did not immediately respond to our request for comment.

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I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Tesla makes big Full Self-Driving change to reflect future plans

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tesla interior operating on full self driving
Credit: TESLARATI

Tesla made a dramatic change to the Online Design Studio to show its plans for Full Self-Driving, a major part of the company’s plans moving forward, as CEO Elon Musk has been extremely clear on the direction moving forward.

With Tesla taking a stand and removing the ability to purchase Full Self-Driving outright next month, it is already taking steps to initiate that with owners and potential buyers.

On Thursday night, the company updated its Online Design Studio to reflect that in a new move that now lists the three purchase options that are currently available: Monthly Subscription, One-Time Purchase, or Add Later:

This change replaces the former option for purchasing Full Self-Driving at the time of purchase, which was a simple and single box to purchase the suite outright. Subscriptions were activated through the vehicle exclusively.

However, with Musk announcing that Tesla would soon remove the outright purchase option, it is clearer than ever that the Subscription plan is where the company is headed.

The removal of the outright purchase option has been a polarizing topic among the Tesla community, especially considering that there are many people who are concerned about potential price increases or have been saving to purchase it for $8,000.

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This would bring an end to the ability to pay for it once and never have to pay for it again. With the Subscription strategy, things are definitely going to change, and if people are paying for their cars monthly, it will essentially add $100 per month to their payment, pricing some people out. The price will increase as well, as Musk said on Thursday, as it improves in functionality.

Those skeptics have grown concerned that this will actually lower the take rate of Full Self-Driving. While it is understandable that FSD would increase in price as the capabilities improve, there are arguments for a tiered system that would allow owners to pay for features that they appreciate and can afford, which would help with data accumulation for the company.

Musk’s new compensation package also would require Tesla to have 10 million active FSD subscriptions, but people are not sure if this will move the needle in the correct direction. If Tesla can potentially offer a cheaper alternative that is not quite unsupervised, things could improve in terms of the number of owners who pay for it.

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Tesla Model S completes first ever FSD Cannonball Run with zero interventions

The coast-to-coast drive marked the first time Tesla’s FSD system completed the iconic, 3,000-mile route end to end with no interventions.

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A Tesla Model S has completed the first-ever full Cannonball Run using Full Self-Driving (FSD), traveling from Los Angeles to New York with zero interventions. The coast-to-coast drive marked the first time Tesla’s FSD system completed the iconic, 3,000-mile route end to end, fulfilling a long-discussed benchmark for autonomy.

A full FSD Cannonball Run

As per a report from The Drive, a 2024 Tesla Model S with AI4 and FSD v14.2.2.3 completed the 3,081-mile trip from Redondo Beach in Los Angeles to midtown Manhattan in New York City. The drive was completed by Alex Roy, a former automotive journalist and investor, along with a small team of autonomy experts.

Roy said FSD handled all driving tasks for the entirety of the route, including highway cruising, lane changes, navigation, and adverse weather conditions. The trip took a total of 58 hours and 22 minutes at an average speed of 64 mph, and about 10 hours were spent charging the vehicle. In later comments, Roy noted that he and his team cleaned out the Model S’ cameras during their stops to keep FSD’s performance optimal. 

History made

The historic trip was quite impressive, considering that the journey was in the middle of winter. This meant that FSD didn’t just deal with other cars on the road. The vehicle also had to handle extreme cold, snow, ice, slush, and rain. 

As per Roy in a post on X, FSD performed so well during the trip that the journey would have been completed faster if the Model S did not have people onboard. “Elon Musk was right. Once an autonomous vehicle is mature, most human input is error. A comedy of human errors added hours and hundreds of miles, but FSD stunned us with its consistent and comfortable behavior,” Roy wrote in a post on X.

Roy’s comments are quite notable as he has previously attempted Cannonball Runs using FSD on December 2024 and February 2025. Neither were zero intervention drives.

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Tesla removes Autopilot as standard, receives criticism online

The move leaves only Traffic Aware Cruise Control as standard equipment on new Tesla orders.

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Credit: Tesla Malaysia/X

Tesla removed its basic Autopilot package as a standard feature in the United States. The move leaves only Traffic Aware Cruise Control as standard equipment on new Tesla orders, and shifts the company’s strategy towards paid Full Self-Driving subscriptions.

Tesla removes Autopilot

As per observations from the electric vehicle community on social media, Tesla no longer lists Autopilot as standard in its vehicles in the U.S. This suggests that features such as lane-centering and Autosteer have been removed as standard equipment. Previously, most Tesla vehicles came with Autopilot by default, which offers Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer.

The change resulted in backlash from some Tesla owners and EV observers, particularly as competing automakers, including mainstream players like Toyota, offer features like lane-centering as standard on many models, including budget vehicles.

That being said, the removal of Autopilot suggests that Tesla is concentrating its autonomy roadmap around FSD subscriptions rather than bundled driver-assistance features. It would be interesting to see how Tesla manages its vehicles’ standard safety features, as it seems out of character for Tesla to make its cars less safe over time. 

Musk announces FSD price increases

Following the Autopilot changes, Elon Musk stated on X that Tesla is planning to raise subscription prices for FSD as its capabilities improve. In a post on X, Musk stated that the current $99-per-month price for supervised FSD would increase over time, especially as the system itself becomes more robust.

“I should also mention that the $99/month for supervised FSD will rise as FSD’s capabilities improve. The massive value jump is when you can be on your phone or sleeping for the entire ride (Unsupervised FSD),” Musk wrote. 

At the time of his recent post, Tesla still offers FSD as a one-time purchase for $8,000, but Elon Musk has confirmed that this option will be discontinued on February 14, leaving subscriptions as the only way to access the system.

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