Tesla has spent years arguing that the most valuable part of its cars isn't the vehicle itself, but the software that underpins its autonomy. Now Tesla is crediting its self-driving prowess as the biggest contributing factor behind its largest vehicle order backlog in four years.

According to the automaker, Full Self-Driving is the secret sauce that makes its brand so desirable. In fact, it says that FSD is behind most of recent customer demand, with most new car buyers coupling their vehicle purchase with a paid subscription to FSD.

Tesla says that 75% of its new vehicle deliveries in North America included FSD last quarter. That number is up from 55% in Q2 and is an astonishingly high attach rate for a $99 per month add-on, especially when consumers as a whole largely reject automotive subscriptions.

That number shows that Tesla has been steadily increasing the number of subscribers contributing to software-based annual recurring revenue. It now reports 1.74 million FSD subscriptions across its fleet—that's up 67% year-over-year, and, no, that's not counting free trials.

"Every car that we are delivering comes with a month of FSD subscription," said Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla's VP of AI Software. "But still people are signing up even though they have that free [month] available."

Notably, that million subscriber figure also includes those who purchased FSD as a one-time purchase. However, Tesla also revealed that it finally crossed the 50% threshold for purchases versus subscriptions. 04 billion in revenue per year if the number of FSD subscribers doesn't decrease).

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