I paid $6K for FSD, I wouldn't do it again knowing what I know now. The idea of paying $12K for something that doesn't work and might never work is crazy. I bet their uptake on FSD is going to drop to near zero after this price increase. Does anyone feel that FSD is worth $12K, now or if even if they achieve Level 4 (note that Elon said Level 4 on is annual by the end of next year it will work tweet, in the past he always said Level 5 so he's losing confidence).
Musk's past predictions and leverage of FOMO do not inspire confidence. I consider myself bullish with FSD in that I believe that Musk will get to where he wants to be eventually, likely years away still. But it's hard for me to think anyone except people who can afford to throw money away would entertain 12k. Well, I thought that about 10k too, and there were still takers.
So it feels to me like Musk actually wants to stop/slow a growing number of FSD customers in the fleet. The other alternative is to pull FSD from the purchase step. But that seems like a huge loss of face given all the hype of a half-decade. (I do vaguely remember FSD being pulled for a very short time in the past).
With a smaller FSD fleet, the risk of pushing FSD beta to all FSD purchasers is minimized.
So in summary, I think Musk is using the FOMO argument as a cover for the true intent of slowing FSD adoption for the short term. When FSD is actually good, either the current price is justified, or they will adjust the price accordingly.
Another way to look at it is from the safety angle. Musk frequently tauts AP saving lives, and that it's morally irresponsible not to have AP on the roads if these systems are already safer than a human. If FSD according to their internal data is safer than a human, morally, Musk should be getting FSD into as many customers' hands as possible. Raising the price would be counter to this 'mission.' So I would conclude that at the time of the first wide release, FSD will not be safe enough to make the moral argument, and so the price increase serves mainly as a deterrent.
Or I could be completely wrong