Soon you will no longer need an adapter to charge at Electrify America chargers
In an industry-leading move, Electrify America has announced plans to add Tesla's North American Charging Standard (NACS) connector to its fast charging network by 2025, strengthening the universal charging infrastructure.
The decision to incorporate the NACS connector, a Tesla-developed innovation, is fantastic news for both present and prospective Tesla owners. The expanded charging options mean greater convenience and ease, improving the EV ownership experience for Tesla drivers across North America.
NACS Adoption Trend Sweeps Across Charging Networks
Electrify America's move aligns with the current industry shift towards NACS connector adoption. Recently, several EV charging companies such as Blink, Kempower, ChargePoint, and automakers Ford, Rivian, and GM announced their plans to integrate the NACS connector into their systems. Even automaker Polestar is joining the trend, planning to adopt NACS.
Robert Barrosa, president and CEO of Electrify America, said, "Since our founding, we have focused on building an inclusive and open hyper-fast charging network to facilitate the adoption of electric vehicles." This strategy reflects Electrify America's commitment to fostering EV adoption by ensuring ultra-fast charging options for all EVs, now more inclusive with the NACS connector.
Collaboration with Powerhouses for an Enhanced Charging Experience
Electrify America is joining forces with key industry stakeholders like The Charging Interface Initiative (CharIN), SAE International, and the newly-formed National Charging Experience Consortium (ChargeX). These collaborations aim to enhance the national charging infrastructure, making EV ownership even more seamless and accessible.
Electrify America's commitment to continue supporting the Combined Charging System (CCS1) connector while simultaneously offering the NACS connector option ensures diverse and flexible charging options for all EV drivers.
This continuous embrace of Tesla's NACS connector highlights the more significant move towards standardization in the EV charging industry, benefiting Tesla owners and the entire EV community. With a more universal charging infrastructure, the accessibility and availability of charging solutions are set to improve substantially, painting a brighter future for the EV ecosystem.
As the NACS adoption trend continues to sweep across charging networks, Tesla drivers can look forward to more convenient charging options and a broader network to support their travels, marking a promising step forward in the electric vehicle revolution.
Tesla China has outlined some features in Tesla’s latest update in the region, which is version 2024.26.9. In the list of features, Tesla mentions many of the features we’re already aware of, including Automatic Emergency Braking Improvements, YouTube Music and more, but they also reveal one additional feature that’s exclusive to China. The new feature allows the new blind spot indicator to light up if there’s something in the way when you’re opening your door. The blind spot indicator is exclusive to the new Model 3 and Cybertruck, which features little red LEDs in the front speaker grills next to the mirror.
Blind Spot Door Warnings
With update 2024.26.9, Tesla says that if any vehicle door handle button is pressed on vehicles with a Blind Spot Warning Light (currently just the 2024 Refreshed Model 3 Highland and the Cybertruck), the blind spot warning indicator in the vehicle’s front speakers will illuminate.
This object detection includes cars, pedestrians, cyclists, and “other objects”. We’re not quite sure what fits into the “other objects” category, but likely things that FSD picks up on normally – including traffic cones, bollards, and other large obstacles.
According to Tesla’s description, there appears to only be a visual warning for the driver and front passenger, with nothing displayed on screen or an audible tone. We’re sure Tesla will continue to expand and refine this feature like they’ve done with various features in the past, but for now, it's only available in China. Blind Spot Door Warnings need to be enabled under Controls > Safety before this feature will function.
We’d love to see Tesla use the ambient light strip in the vehicle to warn passengers and drivers when their door is obstructed – it would be a fantastic use of a luxury feature for utilitarian safety – rather than just the single red LED inside the door speaker. Additionally, an audio warning would be excellent for those who may not see the red dot.
Tesla appears to be making progress on FSD in China, with the latest update available in the region now displaying the FSD button in the vehicle. Tesla makes no note of the change in the release notes, nor does it appear to be available in any other regions that are expected to receive access to FSD in the future.
FSD in the UI
In the Autopilot options in China, users could previously select Traffic-Aware Cruise Control or Auto Steer (Beta), however, as of 2024.26.9, the Full Self Driving (Supervised) button is now visible – but greyed out. Tapping on the option doesn’t do anything just yet, but the addition of the button could be a hint that Tesla is planning to enable the feature soon.
Underneath the Autopilot selection, Tesla also has a phrase that says, “Full Self-Driving (Supervised) needs to use an updated version of navigation maps. Connect to Wi-Fi to download” (Thanks, Luis Zhu). It’s possible the option is greyed out because the software needs updated maps to work. There are no reports yet of what happens when the navigation map is downloaded.
We previously reported that FSD was on hold in China, even after Tesla received approval to start testing FSD in China. This flip-flopping is interesting but could be due to regulatory issues between China and Tesla regarding data collection and where the data is stored. Now that the button is in the UI – Tesla is clearly confident that it either has received approval or will in short order.
It certainly appears that Tesla is going to be opening up FSD in the region fairly soon. It’ll be interesting to see if Tesla uses the same Safety Score feature they used in the U.S. when choosing drivers to beta test the program.
Elon Musk previously mentioned that FSD (Supervised) would be rolling out to global markets, including Europe and China, as Tesla received approvals from governments in those nations.
![Video Reveals the Cybertruck's Unique User Interface [Video]](https://www.notateslaapp.com/images/news/2023/cybertruck-ui-1_300w.jpg)
