Tesla will benefit from opening up its Supercharger network to all EVs
Tesla
Tesla's Supercharging network has been exclusive to Tesla owners partly due to the proprietary plug that's used in the U.S. and Canada. However, the company may have to make changes to access billions of dollars the U.S. government will spend to build more charging stations across the country.
Opening Up to Competition
Tesla's Supercharging network in the United States will have to become available to competitors due to a new requirement from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Reuters reports that the final provision will be announced next week, which will pressure Tesla to expand beyond its proprietary charging plug and include the CCS1 charging standard used by many of its competitors. Otherwise, Tesla will lose the chance to receive $7.5 billion in subsidies, which is part of President Joe Biden's plan to construct 500,000 electric vehicle chargers in the coming years.
Tesla's U.S. Supercharger network, with more than 40,000 chargers worldwide, is often regarded as the benchmark because of its reliability, speed, and availability. However, the network's exclusivity has led to non-Tesla owners being unable to use it. For example, Tesla drivers can buy an adapter to connect to CCS1 chargers, but non-Tesla owners cannot do the same with Superchargers.
Competition Among Companies
Chargers seeking to become part of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program will need to use the CCS standard, the U.S. charging system standard used in nearly all charging stations except Tesla's Superchargers. Companies such as ChargePoint Holdings and EVgo Inc are expected to compete for funding under the NEVI program.
Unfortunately, this move ends the idea that Tesla's charging system, which offers the most reliable hardware, will be the choice for North America charging stations. Tesla opened up its connector design for any competitor to use, but it appears EVs will be stuck with the bulky CCS system.
Tesla's Response
Tesla has already opened up some of its Superchargers in Europe and Australia to non-Tesla EVs, however, Teslas and Superchargers in those regions already use the CCS charging standard (CCS2 is used in Europe and Australia), making it easier.
Tesla has previously stated that it plans to allow other EVs to access their Superchargers in the U.S. as well, but that is still in progress. Tesla is expected to reveal updated Superchargers that will offer the CCS1 plug alongside Tesla's NACS plug.
Elon Musk met with the Biden administration a few weeks ago to discuss several topics, including the charging network. Last year, Tesla wrote the Federal Highway Administration, offering the Biden administration suggestions on how to shape the charging program. The company has also responded to a recent request from Ohio officials that companies submit charging proposals. In addition, in Arizona, Tesla said it was open to upgrading its chargers or building new ones to meet federal requirements, although a final decision was not made.
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Last week, Mark Ruber, an engineering YouTuber best known for his glitter bombs, released a video where he tested Tesla's Autopilot against various conditions - including the iconic ACME painted wall.
During this test, many people noted that Mark was using Autopilot rather than FSD, even though his video was titled “Can you Fool a Self-Driving Car?”. The Tesla on Autopilot went up against a vehicle equipped with Luminar’s LIDAR rig, running some sort of basic autonomy or safety software.
New Video Tests FSD
Many people were disappointed with Mark’s video and his testing methods, so several creators got to work to actually test out Tesla’s FSD.
Creator Kyle Paul over on X made a much better follow-up video, using both a HW3 Model Y as well as an AI4 Cybertruck. In a relatively unsurprising turn of events, the Cybertruck was successfully able to detect the wall, slowed down, and came to a stop. The Cybertruck was running FSD 13.2.8.
Kyle’s team did a fantastic job building the wall and testing this in a private area using FSD rather than Autopilot. On top of that - they re-tested the results several times and recorded the entire thing in and out. While Mark’s video was more for entertainment, Kyle really set out to prove what would really happen in this unlikely scenario.
Sadly, the HW3 Model Y was unable to detect the wall, and manual intervention was required in each test. While the Model Y was running FSD 12.5.4.2 rather than an FSD V12.6 build, we don’t expect this to have had a significant impact on the test - this is more of an issue with how computer vision analyzes the environment.
There are several major differences between HW3 and HW4. The first is obviously that the version that runs on AI4 is more advanced, as the hardware is capable of processing a lot more data. However, AI4 also features much higher-resolution cameras than HW3, and Tesla recently added the ability for the video feeds to be processed at full resolution on FSD V13. This could have made the difference, although it’s not entirely clear. Perhaps if HW3 gets a version of FSD V13 in the future, HW3 can be retested to see if it passes the “ACME wall” test.
Watch
Kyle’s entire video is below. It’s only 10 minutes long, so definitely give it a watch. Props to Kyle on the quick and thorough execution.
What Does This Mean for FSD?
We broke down Mark’s test - and examined all the little issues that we discovered after doing some in-depth research - you can read our analysis here.
Putting aside the issues with Mark’s testing and instead using the new results - it seems that if you were to have to fight against Wile-E-Coyote and his ACME tools with your Tesla, cartoon logic may win if you’re on an HW3 vehicle. If you’re on an AI4 vehicle, you’ll likely come to a safe stop.
Vehicle depth perception is definitely something that Tesla has been hard at work to improve - and some fairly drastic improvements came with FSD V13 that haven’t been entirely translated to FSD V12 just yet. Future versions of HW3 FSD may be able to determine that the wall is there successfully. So Kyle - if you’re reading this - don’t get rid of that wall. We’d love to see more testing in the future.
However, this entire test scenario is so out of left field… there is a good likelihood this same test would fool some human drivers as well. The most important part is that the future of autonomy will not fall for these tricks, so it's very unlikely for someone to weaponize this idea as it’d only possibly work on a small segment of vehicles.
If Wile-E-Coyote is after you, someone else may drive into the wall before your Tesla does.
Not a Tesla App
We’re not kidding, this really happened already. This isn’t a realistic scenario outside of someone trying to play an insane prank - but it’s good to know that FSD V13 is capable of dodging this.
Tesla regularly holds quarterly all-hands meetings for employees, but last night marks the first time Tesla has live-streamed the event for the public.
The meeting primarily focused on Tesla’s employees, recent achievements, and the future of Tesla. While it didn’t reveal much new information, it was interesting to see Elon Musk candidly engaging with his teams, who seem to genuinely enjoy working with him. Still, there were a few noteworthy takeaways.
As with Tesla’s Earnings Calls and other live events, we’ve put together a concise, easy-to-digest recap of everything discussed.
General Points
Work-related Injuries declined over time
Planning to expand to new markets
Cell Manufacturing
Continuing to invest in battery supply
Cheapest, lowest cost per kWh cell
The supercharger network continues to grow
Vehicle range and charging speed should match the needs of humans and their required time for breaks
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