Over the past couple of days, Tesla hit not one but two remarkable milestones, marking a significant chapter in its rapidly evolving story. If you spent the weekend engrossed in the new Elon Musk biography by Walter Isaacson, you can perhaps fully appreciate the magnitude of these accomplishments: the production of Tesla’s five millionth car and the installation of its 50,000th Supercharger.
Five Million Vehicles Strong
On its official Weibo account, Tesla unveiled its five millionth vehicle, a pearl white Model 3, freshly rolled off the production line at the Shanghai Gigafactory. This notable milestone embodies Tesla's journey “from a blank canvas to today’s five millionth vehicle,” a path characterized by simplicity and efficiency. Through their message, Tesla conveyed deep gratitude towards their global community of owners and supporters, urging everyone to "power up together" for a greener and brighter future. This celebratory announcement follows a series of production landmarks, the most recent being the four million car milestone reached in March, highlighting the company's exponential growth.
50,000 Superchargers: Painting the World Ultra Red
The weekend's festivities extended beyond the production line, with Tesla celebrating a Supercharger network milestone: the 50,000th installation. The Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley shared a video (below) showcasing Tesla's latest landmark in action. This special unit, distinctly colored Ultra Red, is located at Living Spaces at 1851 Freedom Way, Roseville, California. Since introducing just six Superchargers in 2012, Tesla has demonstrated its commitment to facilitating widespread electric vehicle use.
The Supercharger network, a pillar in Tesla's strategy to foster electric vehicle adoption, offers convenient and rapid charging solutions worldwide. This recent installation is a firm pledge to a global ethos where electric vehicles (EVs) can flourish.
Factory Tours for Referrals
Tesla is not only escalating its production but also opening doors for enthusiasts to witness where the magic happens. Tesla is introducing tram tours of its factories in Fremont, California, and Austin, Texas, as a part of its referral program. This exclusive peek can be redeemed using referral credits, ushering Tesla account holders and up to three guests into the production sanctuaries that have revolutionized the automotive industry.
However, while the immersion into Tesla’s world is facilitated, travel and accommodation expenses are the responsibility of the attendees. The company maintains a stringent no-media policy during the tours, underscoring the confidentiality preserved in these powerhouse spaces. Tesla aims to bolster engagement with its customer base through this initiative, enticing them with an insider’s view while encouraging more referrals despite moving away from the previous tradition of complimentary Fremont factory tours.
The electric vehicle pioneer isn't slowing down as Tesla gears up for an exciting future with the much-anticipated Cybertruck launch, which already boasts over 2 million unofficial pre-orders. Analysts anticipate that the existing production pace could potentially herald the creation of six million Tesla vehicles in early 2024.
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Tesla software update 2024.44.3 has started rolling out to customers in larger waves recently and it brings several new features - including Actually Smart Summon to Europe and the Middle East, as well as improvements to Autopark. But that’s not all, it also adds a new Blind Spot Monitoring feature to the new Model 3, and potentially the Cybertruck, but that’s still to be determined.
We previously covered the Blind Spot Warning While Parked as part of our preview notes for update 2024.44, but now that it's going out to customers, it's time to see it in action.
If the vehicle’s door open button is pressed, and a vehicle or object is near or incoming, the vehicle’s Blind Spot Warning Light (2024 Model 3 and Cybertruck) will illuminate, an audible tone will ring and the door won’t open. A message will also be displayed on the center displaying, letting driver’s know why the door didn’t open.
Pressing the button a second time will allow you to override the warning and open the door normally, providing a way to get out in case you just parked close to a nearby vehicle or obstacle.
The object detection for this new feature includes cars, pedestrians, cyclists, and other objects - like things including traffic cones, bollards, strollers, and other large obstacles that FSD and vision-based Autopark detect during normal operation. Of note - this only works for the front two doors. Thanks to X user Max, who did some testing for us, It does not work for the rear passenger doors.
Optional Feature
The feature is optional - it’ll be enabled by default for safety, but if you need to enable or disable it, you can do so under Controls > Safety. For now, the feature is only available on the 2024 Model 3, but we expect it to roll out to the Cybertruck at least. However, there’s no reason why it can’t be added to other vehicles as well, minus the small red dot. We expect Tesla to eventually add this feature to all Tesla vehicles, but it’s currently not a part of update 2024.44.
Enhauto’s S3XY Buttons & Commander
If that’s not enough safety and vision for you, Enhauto, the makers of the popular S3XY Buttons and Commander recently put out a new software update for the 2024 Model 3, which makes some fantastic use of the ambient lighting.
With Enhauto’s solution, users are able to tie their ambient lights to Autopilot use, turn signals or even if a vehicle is their blind spot. Check out the video below for this awesome implementation, where the ambient lights turn red when another vehicle approaches.
Maybe Tesla will integrate something like this into a future update? We’ve been hoping for more customizability with their ambient lighting - it's an easy safety win and a demonstration of Tesla’s do-more-with-less attitude.
I look forward to @enhauto updates more than Tesla...
Ambient light effects....
I set default color to white. Blinks green on turn signals Turns blue on FSD activation Yellow if someone in blind spot Blinks red if turn signal on and blind spot activity detected.
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.
This morning, in response to Dan Burkland, Wes shared that Tesla had significantly rewritten the backend portion of Trip Planner. These improvements, made by several engineers, were designed to improve Trip Planner’s accuracy and open the door to future features.
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.
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