Tesla tops 40,000 Superchargers; new site to have four solar canopies

Tesla's Quartzsite Supercharger will have four solar canopies

Tesla

Tesla now has 40,000 Supercharger stations worldwide, and more are in the works, including a massive 88-stall facility in a small town in Arizona. @MarcoRPTesla, who has a knack for finding Supercharger plans, tweeted the detailed construction project. The drawings show 20 prefabricated Supercharger units, two trailer-friendly stalls, and four solar canopies.

Quartzsite, Arizona, with a population of 2,413, is the location of the huge Supercharging station. Incredibly, it is being built right across the road from a 36-stall Supercharger. So why is there now one Supercharger for every 20 people in Quartzsite? Interstate 10 runs through the small town, which is at the intersection of U.S. Route 95 and Arizona State Route 95 with I-10.

Tesla's Quartzsite Supercharger will have four solar canopies

Tesla

This location is approximately three and a half hours away from Las Vegas, Nevada, San Diego, California, and Los Angeles, California. It is also two hours from Phoenix, Arizona. Tourism is the main economic driver of the small town.

Tesla recently asked followers of its @TeslaCharging Twitter account to submit locations where Superchargers are needed. This location makes sense with the amount of traffic going through the area. It also has very little precipitation, which means those solar canopies will be powered up by the sun. That is another long-term vision of the company, to have solar and battery packs at Supercharging locations.

Also, the company plans to allow non-Teslas at its Supercharger locations. That alone will increase the demand at hubs like Quartzsite.

It’s hard to believe the Supercharger network was launched in 2012. A decade later, they are turning into a more common sight around the world. According to the company: Superchargers can add up to 200 miles (322 kilometres) of range in just 15 minutes.

In September, 420 Tesla projects were announced, including a 164-stall Supercharger hub on the I-5 corridor located in Coalinga, California. That will be the world’s largest Tesla Supercharger location. But that is nothing compared to reports of the largest EV charging location in the world, located in China’s hi-tech city of Shenzhen. There is an electric taxi charging station with a total of 637 fast chargers.

The largest EV charging location in the world with 637 stalls

@DKurac/Twitter

Tesla Updates FSD Package, Can Now Only Buy FSD Supervised

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Tesla has changed how they advertise and sell Full Self-Driving on their website. Although the text changes are small, this change could have greater implications in the future.

Previously, customers were offered the option to purchase “Full Self-Driving Capability,” with text saying that FSD will “continuously improve”. This specific text is no longer offered, and instead, customers can now only purchase “Full Self Driving (Supervised),” which no longer mentions continuous improvement.

You can view the old text on the Web Archive page (photo below) for the Model Y. This change comes right before the upcoming Robotaxi event, so we’re not quite sure what to make of it. Let’s look at what else has changed on Tesla’s website on FSD before we dive into the wording changes.

This news comes hot on the heels that Tesla recently pulled its blog pages for Elon Musk’s Masterplan Part II, which mentioned that all future Tesla vehicles would be Robotaxi capable. However, this has since turned out to be part of regular website trimming and maintenance. However, this FSD change is more intentional.

The previous FSD option you could buy from Tesla (left), and the new one (right)

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Definition Changes

These text changes are pretty broad, but that’s not all. There are a few other items that changed, including the removal of the following text:

The activation and use of these features are dependent on achieving reliability far in excess of human drivers as demonstrated by billions of miles of experience, as well as regulatory approval, which may take longer in some jurisdictions. As these self-driving features evolve, your car will be continuously upgraded through over-the-air software updates.

This has now been changed to say:

The activation and use of these features are dependent on development and regulatory approval, which may take longer in some jurisdictions.

That’s a pretty big difference overall, so let’s dig in.

Can Only Buy FSD (Supervised)

Tesla is now only offering the purchase of “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)”, instead of “Full Self-Driving Capability." This has a bit of an implication for the many people who have paid for FSD in the past, expecting their vehicles to become fully autonomous, without supervision being required. With the specific terms on Tesla’s website today, that promise doesn’t seem to be in place for future sales of Full Self-Driving.

Instead, future customers should expect that they may only receive Full Self-Driving (Supervised), which will always require some form of supervision. Tesla no longer states full autonomy on this page, but on the other hand, the Autopilot/FSD Support Page still contains the text for full autonomy.

This seems to be a legal wording change to prevent Tesla from making promises it may not be able to fulfill. On the other hand, Tesla has recently had a fantastic spate of updates this year, with the huge upgrade from FSD V11 to FSD V12. However, they’ve more recently had more trouble with moving on from FSD V12.3.6, which is what most vehicles are still on today. Tesla initially pushed FSD V12.4 and its subversions to early access testers but quickly halted that push. They moved on to FSD V12.5, and V12.5.3 with Actually Smart Summon will begin going out wide sometime next week, to both Hardware 3 and AI4 vehicles.

What Does This Mean for Customers?

For future customers, this likely means that Tesla is intending on only offering Full Self Driving (Supervised), rather than Full Self Driving. This could mean that Tesla will launch a new package for Full Self Driving (Unsupervised) for commercial entities or that it could only be available for Robotaxi vehicles.

For older customers – those who have purchased “Full Self-Driving Capability”, as the feature was previously called, we’re not quite sure whether Tesla will include you in this new ‘Supervised’ description, or if you’ll be offered Full Self-Driving (Unsupervised) when that ultimately becomes available. As for subscribers, Tesla can change their offerings at any point since you’re only paying for what’s available for that month.

Today, we’re not quite sure what to make of this change, especially since that same change hasn’t been reciprocated elsewhere on Tesla’s website. The changes could be anywhere from a protective legal change, to Tesla offering a new FSD (Unsupervised) package in the future, or fully autonomous FSD being something that Tesla will not commit a date or price to.

Let us know what you think on the forums.

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Tesla Introduces Hands-Free Frunk Opening in Update 2024.32.3

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In Tesla’s upcoming update, 2024.32.3, Tesla has added hands-free support for opening the vehicle’s frunk. This follows the Spring Update (2024.14), which added Hands-Free Trunk support for certain vehicles.

When hands-free trunk support was added earlier this year, it was supported on vehicles that include an ultra wideband chip, which includes the refresh Model S, new Model X, and the 2024 Model 3. Due to the hardware requirement, these will be the same vehicles that support the new Hands-Free Frunk feature. Legacy vehicles without UWB will unfortunately not support either feature due to the hardware requirement. UWB enables far more accurate tracking of the phone key, allowing Tesla to pinpoint its exact location relative to the vehicle.

The Cybertruck interestingly also includes an ultra wideband chip, however, it didn’t include the automatic opening of the gate earlier this year. However, we expect the Cybertruck to also receive the hands-free frunk opening in this 2024.32.3 update or relatively soon afterward.

Update: The Cybertruck is receiving hands-free frunk support in the 2024.32 update as well.

Hands-Free Frunk

The Hands-Free Frunk works similarly to the trunk feature – with an iPhone 11+ and a recent version of the app, you’ll be able to stand in front of your vehicle, and the Frunk will unlatch after sounding a chime. On some vehicles, the frunk will immediately open after being unlatched, however, you’ll need to manually close it.

This new feature isn’t enabled by default – you’ll need to go to Settings > Locks > Hands-Free Frunk to enable it.

At this time, Tesla doesn’t support UWB on Android devices, though both the Hands-Free Trunk and Hands-Free Frunk support will come to Android users in a future app update, according to Tesla.

Exclude Home

With the addition of the hands-free frunk opening, Tesla has also added a new option. You can now choose to disable the automatic opening when your vehicle is located at home to prevent you from accidentally opening. This will apply to the automatic frunk and trunk. In addition, in the Model X, you’ll also be able to disable the self-presenting doors at home. This is a great addition as many people have kept the hands-free feature disabled due to it awkwardly opening in the garage.

In the 2024.32.3 update, Tesla also mentions that they’ve improved the detection of the phone key, which should make the feature more reliable and faster when approaching the vehicle from the front or rear.

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