Musk states that Tesla's final piece of the FSD puzzle will be AI vehicle control
Not a Tesla App
Elon Musk stated that Tesla is now closing in on the 'final piece' of its FSD technology. This game-changing piece of the puzzle is none other than the AI-based 'vehicle control' - the driving force behind how the car navigates in its environment.
A large portion of our readers said "two weeks" when reading that opening paragraph. Undoubtedly, Musk has been promising fully autonomous driving is close for years. However, he also admitted two years ago that he didn't realize how difficult autonomous driving would be when he stated, "Generalized self-driving is a hard problem… I didn’t expect it to be so hard." That acknowledgment makes this latest bold statement even more compelling. Are we really at the final stages? It would line up with Musk's earlier statement that the next version of FSD would be out of beta.
Simplifying the Complex: An Evolution in Vehicle Control Coding
The role of vehicle control in the FSD system is paramount. It enables the car to execute critical operations such as steering, accelerating, or braking based on decisions informed by the surrounding environment. It's like the final act of an orchestra, where the car translates all the data collected from sensors and AI processing into movement.
Musk's latest tweet (or X?) suggests a massive leap forward in this respect. He stated that Tesla will "drop >300k lines of C++ control code by ~2 orders of magnitude". In layman's terms, Tesla plans to significantly simplify the complexity of the vehicle control code - by nearly a hundred times. This suggests a significant evolution in Tesla's approach to vehicle control, transitioning from traditional coding to more advanced machine learning or neural network approaches.
Training the Tech: Limitations and Future Prospects
Such a simplification doesn't just mean less code but also signals a massive boost in efficiency and reliability. It's as if Tesla is cutting out the unnecessary noise in the conversation between the car and its driving environment, enabling a smoother, safer, and more intelligent drive.
Even as Tesla strives towards this vision, Musk, who recently said that v12 of FSD is mind-blowing, acknowledges that progress is not without its bottlenecks. In the same tweet, he remarked, "Our progress is currently training compute constrained, not engineer constrained." While this highlights the intensive computational demands of training these sophisticated AI systems, it also subtly nods toward Tesla's dedication to overcoming these hurdles.
The path to full self-driving is filled with complex challenges, and it's clear that Tesla is tackling them head-on. With vehicle control being hailed as the final piece of the FSD puzzle, it seems that Tesla may be closer than ever to realizing its goal of a fully autonomous driving future. And as Musk has hinted, the only roadblock is computational resources, which Tesla has repeatedly shown it's more than capable of overcoming.
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A rendering of what the Tesla app may look like with the Tesla Diner added
Not a Tesla App
Tesla has been planning to create its own drive-in diner with Superchargers since at least 2022, when it filed paperwork for the one-of-kind supercharger location. In 2023, Tesla’s then Senior Director of Charging Infrastructure, Rebecca Tinucci, said during a presentation that you "can't forget to do cool s***."
The slide presentation showed off an illustration of a retro-looking Tesla Diner restaurant with a rooftop patio and an old-school drive-in movie screen behind it. People could be seen lining up to get inside, hinting that whatever the restaurant serves is worth the wait.
Since then, Tesla has begun and practically completed the construction of its Tesla Diner project. The location includes two 45-foot outdoor LED screens that will play short films, and it’ll also serve food up to 77 guests while their vehicle is being charged.
As the completion of the diner approaches, Tesla has now revealed several other bits of information in the latest Tesla app update. Thanks to a decompile by Tesla app iOS, we see that Tesla’s diner will closely tie in with the Tesla app itself.
Integrated With the Tesla App
Several phrases were found in Tesla’s latest app update, which includes things like show_diner, Diner Home Screen, profile_settings_diner_description, and View menu & amenities. It sounds like you’ll be able to view the diner’s menu directly from the Tesla app, but if we had to guess, there will be a lot more to it than that.
Following Tesla’s seamless integration with Superchargers, we expect the diner experience to be similar. You may soon be able to order food directly from the app and have it charged automatically to your card on file, letting you skip the payment portion completely.
Since Tesla knows which Supercharger stall you’re connected to, we also expect Tesla to take full advantage of this and bring the food directly to your vehicle without you needing to specify your location. So imagine this, you’ll pull up to a Supercharger and plug it in.
Tesla Diner UI
An image was also found in the app update that hints at where the Tesla Diner options will be located. The image found is the same ratio and similar size to other images found in the main menu of the Tesla app. In addition, the phrase “profile_settings_diner_description” could be the string used for the text that will show up in this menu. Since this menu is used to guide users to Tesla pillars such as products, charging, referrals and more, we expect the diner menu to only show up if you’re geographically near the Tesla diner.
What’s round and shiny but still not yet open? Tesla diner
Supercharger stalls, landscaping, and more are already in place at the Tesla Diner. The fact that Tesla is now including code related to the diner in the Tesla app indicates that Tesla may be ready to open up the diner to the public very soon.
For now, the location remains quiet, but it will soon become a 24-hour diner with a steady flow of traffic as Tesla owners visit to enjoy a unique charging and dining experience.
Tesla has been working to expand Cybertruck production, and with the Foundation Series ending only a few short months ago in the United States, it's time to begin looking at the next phase. And that is making the Cybertruck more affordable by offering a Rear-Wheel Drive (RWD) config.
The Cybertruck, as it stands, has quite the repertoire of features, from the relatively unique rear-wheel steering, the rigid power tonneau that slides away seamlessly, steer-by-wire, 48V low-voltage and 800V high-voltage architectures, and an air suspension. Of course, it's also the only Tesla with Powershare, enabling it to stand in as a home backup energy source. In addition, the 120V and 240V ports in the bed make it a fantastic truck for getting work done on the go.
Making the Truck More Affordable
In order to hit that more affordable target - something has got to give - and it won’t just be the motors and range. In the recent decompile of the Tesla app by Tesla App iOS, we saw some new flags that indicated which features Tesla may be looking to trim.
Manual Tonneau
The app hints at the removal of the automatic sliding tonneau cover, with the flag: hasAutomaticTonneau, meaning that not all trucks will be available with the feature. The Cybertruck’s vault cover can slide away neatly without taking up room on the bed like a traditional tonneau cover, making it even more useful.
If Tesla is looking to remove the powered tonneau cover from some truck configurations, the cheaper, RWD variant makes the most sense. That leaves some room for speculation - will the powered tonneau cover be an option, or would you need to upgrade to the AWD version to receive it? The cover provides a considerable range boost to the truck when it's closed, so we can only imagine that Tesla will keep a manual tonneau as a standard feature.
We expect Tesla to remove the pair of electric motors that drive the vault cover, as well as the electronics for the buttons. Perhaps they’ll add a strap or handle to the tonneau to make it easier to push and pull manually - but this just speculation for now.
AC Outlets
Another change caught in the decompile, it seems that the AC outlets in the RWD variant won’t be standard. It looks like they could be an optional upgrade, given the flag name: OPTIONAL_HAS_AC_OUTLETS_NOT_SET. It really seems like Tesla will remove one of the Cybertruck’s most useful features - and one of the things that makes it one of the best work trucks in the light-duty class - the 120V and 240V outlets.
We’re hoping that the outlets are, at the very least, optional on the RWD variant. They’ll serve a much-needed purpose for people who need to run tools or equipment off of their Cybertruck. If the outlets aren’t an option, it could impact the sales of the RWD Cybertruck - which many have been waiting for as a “work truck.”
Either way, we’re looking forward to finding out more details on the RWD Cybertruck, including an updated price, updated range specs, and an updated feature set. The RWD Cybertruck can become a fantastic electric work truck as long as Tesla keeps the key features that businesses and professionals are looking for.
