Tesla on Saturday slashed the price of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) driver assistant software to

$8,000 from $12,000 in the United States, as CEO Elon Musk reaffirms his commitment to self-driving technology.

Musk is betting the technology will become a major source of revenue for the world's most valuable automaker.

But he has for years failed to achieve the goal of self-driving capability, with the technology under growing regulatory and legal scrutiny.

Earlier this month, Musk said Tesla will unveil its robotaxis on Aug. 8, after Reuters reported Tesla had scrapped its inexpensive, mass-market car in favour of robotaxis.

Tesla subsequently cut the U.S. monthly subscription price for the feature from $199 to $99.