Tesla goes to the UAE to perform extreme heat testing
Tesla
Tesla released a new video (posted below) that features the Tesla team conducting field testing on a black Model X and Model Y in the extreme heat of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The testing took place outside of Dubai and aimed to ensure the vehicles' reliability and safety in various challenging climates.
Field Testing in Dubai Service Center
The Tesla team chose the UAE for its unique, consistently hot climate, which provides an excellent environment for testing vehicle performance in extreme heat. The primary focus was on mileage accumulation, hot weather-related tests, and product launch testing. The team also conducts similar tests in Norway during the winter to cover the full range of extreme conditions.
Driving 250-400 Kilometers per Day
To thoroughly stress test the cars, the team drove between 250 and 400 kilometers daily, charging the vehicles using superchargers and pushing the air conditioning and cabin overheating protection features to their limits. By parking in the sun for extended periods and frequently charging at superchargers, the team aimed to identify any potential issues from bumper to bumper.
Challenging Climate Conditions Perfect for Testing
The UAE's climate poses unique challenges for vehicles, with temperatures soaring to 51 degrees Celsius and humidity reaching up to 80-90%. These extreme conditions test the vehicles' ability to keep the battery, drive units, and passengers cool. The Tesla team chose black cars for the tests, as black absorbs more heat, adding an extra layer of challenge to the process.
During the testing, the team encountered various other challenges, such as navigating steep inclines, twisty turns, and mountain roads, which put additional strain on the powertrain, cooling systems, and air conditioning. These conditions proved ideal for assessing the vehicles' thermal systems and overall performance in extreme heat.
The Tesla team's dedication to conducting these tests during the hottest time of the year in the UAE demonstrates their commitment to ensuring their vehicles' reliability and safety in even the most challenging environments. While most people would avoid the UAE's scorching summer heat, Tesla embraces it as an opportunity to refine their cars and ensure a superior driving experience for customers worldwide.
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The feature is now possible thanks to what Wes Morrill, Cybertruck’s lead engineering, points out is a huge rewrite of Tesla’s Trip Planner, which not only makes it much more accurate but will now allow users to choose their arrival charge percentage.
More Accurate Trip Planner
When you navigate to a destination, your Tesla will automatically calculate when, where, and how much you need to charge. While the process seems straightforward, Tesla deserves a lot of credit for creating a simple user experience because a lot goes into accurately determining this information.
Tesla has to calculate many moving pieces in order to accurately predict when and where you should stop. First, it needs to consider your driving efficiency and wind direction, terrain elevation, traffic, vehicle speed, and ambient temperature. It also needs to predict the best Superchargers to stop at, taking into account congestion and charger speed.
Now, according to Wes’ post this morning, Tesla has made backend improvements to the Trip Planner, thanks to a rewrite by several engineers, that bring even more accurate predictions to Trip Planner.
It sounds like these changes are mostly server-side, so thanks to their OTA connection, more accurate predictions should be available to all vehicles—no vehicle update is required.
Arrival State of Charge
Along with Tesla’s improvements to Trip Planner, Wes also stated that these improvements allow for a popular feature request — the ability to select your desired charge level at arrival.
Up until now, Tesla’s Trip Planner tried to get you to your destination as quickly as possible, which usually meant arriving with a low state of charge.
While this was fine if you have a charger at your destination, it’s not great if you don’t, or it could be even worse if there are no chargers nearby.
Max de Zegher said on X that he has heard the requests for a selectable arrival state of charge. Wes later clarified this by saying that these improvements to Tesla’s Trip Planner now allow for additional features to be added, such as “desired arrival charge.”
Actually trip planner got a huge rewrite on the back end. I had a great conversation with one of the engineers working on this over a morning run a few weeks back, it's pretty neat. The rewrite also unlocks additional features, like desired arrival charge.
Given that Max de Zegher’s comments came last night and Wes Morrill commented this morning, this feature request likely won’t arrive with the upcoming Holiday Update. Tesla actually hinted at such a feature being added in their last app update, so it does seem like they’ve already planned for it.
Although ‘Arrival State of Charge’ was on our wishlist for the Holiday Update, it looks like it may arrive soon after the holidays.
As Tesla update 2024.44.3 continues to roll out, we’re seeing more features in this update. While the update doesn’t include many new feature, it either improves existing features or rolls out a feature to new regions. Actually Smart Summon is rolling out to Europe, although with more strict restrictions. AutoPark is also rolling out to the UK and several other countries for the first time, and we’re now seeing improvements to Autopark arriving in North America and Europe.
As Tesla’s 2024.44.3 update continues to roll out, more features in the update are being revealed. While this update doesn’t introduce many entirely new features, it does refine existing features or expand the reach of others.
Notably, Actually Smart Summon is now rolling out in Europe, albeit with stricter regulations. Vision-based AutoPark is debuting in the UK and several other countries, while North America and Europe are receiving updates that further improve Autopark’s functionality.
Improvements to Autopark
As part of the same update, Tesla is making a batch of improvements to Autopark in Europe and North America. In the release notes, Tesla states that Autopark is receiving performance and visualization improvements. Unfortunately, Tesla doesn’t go into more detail here, but it sounds like these improvements could be the faster and more accurate Autopark enhancements Ashok Elluswamy talked about earlier this year.
Those improvements are expected to make Autopark more reliable, let it pick spots faster, move faster into them, and also shift between forward and reverse faster. The improvements would also let the vehicle park in tighter spots than before, with more accurate vision.
We’ll have to wait and see how this improved Autopark compares to the current version.
Your vehicle's Autopark performance and visualizatons have been improved.
Autopark in the UK and Other Countries
Countries in Europe that previously didn’t have access to Vision-Based Autopark, including the UK, will now have access to the new Autopark for the first time with update 2024.44.3 and later. This includes countries such as the UK, Ireland and Malaysia.
While these countries are receiving Autopark, it’s not clear whether it includes the Autopark improvements that other regions are receiving. The release notes don’t include the Autopark Improvements section in these countries, but that could be due to Tesla simplifying the release notes for these countries that are receiving Autopark for the first time.
With Autopark finally introduced in these regions, it’ll be the first time vehicles without ultrasonic sensors are capable of Autopark. Vision-Based Autopark is far more reliable, faster, and easier to use in more situations than the older USS-based solution.
