The Tesla Model Y will feature an improved rear seat
Chris Zheng/Twitter
Tesla is now manufacturing non-performance Model Y and Model 3 vehicles with an upgraded suspension, alongside other improvements for 2023.
CEO Elon Musk responded to Twitter user @rhensing’s comment about the Model Y’s suspension being “stiffly sprung and handles more like a car than an SUV.”
“Standard (non-performance) 3 & Y suspension in production now has improved comfort, without affecting handling,” Musk says.
The Model 3 and Model Y’s suspension is arguably not one of the most comfortable, so these upgrades are very much welcomed. My 2021 long-range Model 3’s suspension is not what I expect from a $60,000 vehicle. I feel every rock, pebble, and crack while driving it.
Tesla is also rolling out additional changes for their 2023 model year starting at their Fremont and Shanghai factories.
Back Seat
The 2023 Model Y contains two improvements, among others. According to Chris Zheng, the back seat will now extend out 30mm (1.2 inches) for the left and right passengers, while the middle seat will remain at the same depth. This change appears to be starting in Shanghai with other factories coming later.
Rear Doors Emergency Release
Tesla improved the rear doors emergency release
Tesla
Tesla has also updated the emergency rear door release for the Model Y. Unfortunately, the emergency release is still not readily accessible like the front doors, however, it is now more easily reached.
Getting to the new emergency release requires removing the rubber mat from the rear door pockets and lifting a flap. This will reveal a cable with a handle that when pulled will mechanically unlatch the door.
This change is now in place for the Model Ys produced in Fremont and Shanghai, while other factories are expected to follow suit soon.
It's expected that these two changes will eventually carry over to the Model 3 as well.
Tesla continues to make safety improvements across their models.
Tesla recently announced that it will be pushing an OTA software update to implement Emergency Safety Solutions’ HELP functionality, which stands for Hazard Enhanced Location Protocol. Tesla will be the first automaker to implement the HELP system into their vehicles.
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Tesla’s FSD V13.2.2 continues its rollout to the HW4 fleet, now complete with holiday goodness that makes it available to all HW4 vehicles. While FSD V13 is capable of some incredible feats, such as three-point turns, there are some additional capabilities Tesla hasn’t talked about yet.
Emergency Vehicle Handling
First up, better handling for emergency vehicles. While Tesla works on gathering audio data to make emergency vehicle detection even better, Tesla improved how it handles emergency vehicles with FSD V13.
FSD previously had issues handling emergency vehicles - sometimes pulling over and stopping on V12, other times requiring driver intervention to do the job. This led to lots of user interventions when an emergency vehicle was detected. Ensuring you’re out of the way of an ambulance can save precious seconds - which is enough to save lives.
V13 now does a much better job of pulling overly safely to the side for emergency vehicles. Check out the video below of FSD pulling the vehicle over to the side of the road.
Another issue that FSD had trouble handling previously was school buses. Previously, FSD would ignore the stop sign and flashing lights and attempt to drive around the bus.
School buses often required driver intervention, but it seems Tesla has dedicated time to training FSD V13 to handle them properly now. Check out this post of FSD now successfully stopping and waiting for a school bus.
FSD v13 stopped for a school bus! Waited till the stop sign folded in and then proceeded forward! pic.twitter.com/ReU4enxnNB
Reduced speed zones, including school zones, have had mediocre handling by FSD in previous versions. Now, some initial speed zone handling has arrived in V13.2. However, while it does handle some speed zones with blinking signs, it doesn’t necessarily handle all speed zones. For now, while Supervising, drivers will need to make sure their vehicles don’t exceed the speed limit, especially in school zones. In the meantime, look at this speed video of the vehicle handling a speed zone with FSD V13.
Slightly better video of FSD V13 responding appropriately to flashing yellow lights indicating it’s temporarily a 20mph zone. It didn’t exceed 25 despite being set to a much higher max speed
As part of V13, Tesla included some interesting features addressing hardware - namely camera cleaning, The initial changelog was slightly vague: “Improved Camera Cleaning” and nothing else.
It turns out this actually refers to the camera heating elements around the vehicle, including those around the B-Pillar. According to FSD engineer Yun-Ta Tsai, this is far more complex than just heating the camera up.
The system integration team does a lot of energy and thermal optimization across the entire vehicle, to optimize autonomy.
This is just one example. The heating is actually more complex than just heating it up.
Yes, real world AI cares about these things, a lot!
The Cybertruck features an automatic tonneau that lets you lock in valuables. It rolls back and forth along a track and is somewhat water-resistant. Tesla never said that the tonneau would be waterproof, but many owners have encountered a lot of water flowing into their tonneau covers.
The place where the glass roof meets the plastic strip - the aero flap- seems to be the location where most of the water gets in, and this has been noted by many as a constant source of leaks - while the rest of the bed stays mostly dry.
Tesla has attempted to fix this by adding additional slats to the tonneau, which ensures that there are slats left over underneath the aero cover, thereby providing some additional water resistance. However, it looks like they’re doing more now to prevent these leaks.
New Rubber Seals
Tesla intends to issue a service code - the term they use for service bulletins to fix common problems - for this particular issue. This service code will include the removal of the old aero flap and the installation of a new aero flap that has additional rubber seals - similar to the ones used on windows. Thanks to theMONK11 on Reddit for catching this and providing the photo.
The service code hasn’t gone live yet, so it looks like Tesla is only testing this new part for owners who have complained about excessive water intrusion. We’ll likely see this new flap, with the additional rubber seals, become a standard part on newly built trucks to resolve this issue.
For everyone else, you’ll need to put in a service ticket with Tesla, but we would recommend waiting a few weeks before doing so. That will give them time to finalize the process and have the new part sent around to service centers across North America. Given that this isn’t a critical issue to the functionality of the vehicle, Tesla likely will not issue a recall for this - so it’ll be up to owners to create a service ticket and have the new applique installed.
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