Tesla Launches Supercharger Contest: A Race for the Mysterious Prize

By Kevin Armstrong
Time for a road trip
Time for a road trip
Not a Tesla App

Tesla is engaging with its community by launching a fun competition. The challenge? To visit the most Supercharger locations in the next month and a half.

Tesla's official competition adds a formal structure to this widespread pastime. The rules are straightforward: unique Supercharger visits count towards your total, encouraging owners to broaden their horizons and explore new locations. Tesla simplifies participation by automatically tracking visits, freeing drivers to focus on the joy of the journey.

Supercharger Safari: A Tesla Owner's Hobby

For many Tesla owners, exploring the vast network of Superchargers has become more than just a necessity; it is a road trip on its own. How many have tried out the special 50,000 Supercharger? The lure of the open road and the quest to discover new charging spots have fostered a hobby among the Tesla community. Some enthusiasts have turned this pursuit into an art, mapping out elaborate road trips to include as many unique Superchargers as possible.

As predicted, Superchargers will be the best and most significant news for Tesla for the next several months. We’ve been warned of a slowdown, or “between two growth waves,” and no new vehicles are on the horizon. That said, expanding the network is vitally important to the growth of Tesla and electric cars.

The Prize: An Enigmatic Reward

What could motivate Tesla owners to embark on this grand tour? The details of the prize remain a mystery. However, when asked, “What’s the prize?” Tesla responded, “It's an Easter egg." The winner of this electrifying challenge will be unveiled on March 31, 2024.

This new contest not only celebrates the widespread and growing network of Tesla Superchargers but also taps into the unique culture of Tesla ownership — a blend of innovation, exploration, and environmental stewardship.

Tesla Updates FSD From V12.3.6 to V12.5 on Update 2024.44

By Karan Singh
Not a Tesla App

Tesla maintains two primary software branches: the main feature branch and the FSD branch. In general, the FSD branch lags behind on new features pushed to the main branch but provides a more recent FSD version.

However, now Tesla is updating the main branch to a much more recent version of FSD.

Current FSD Build & Shadow Mode

Nowadays, the main branch always includes an older but stable build of FSD. It’s been on FSD V12.3.6 since July 2024. So, if you subscribe to FSD in North America, this is the FSD version you’ll receive until you get added to the FSD track.

Even if you don’t subscribe to or have purchased FSD, your vehicle has v12.3.6 on it. That includes vehicles in regions where FSD isn’t available for general use, such as Europe and China. In those cases, FSD runs in Shadow Mode, providing training data to Tesla if you’ve agreed to their data privacy policies. So Tesla is always analyzing what the vehicle would do compared to what the driver does. When there are contradictions, these are the clips and data Tesla will want to analyze.

FSD V12.5.4.2 on Main Branch

For the first time in five months, Tesla has now updated the baseline version of FSD in the main branch. The new version included with 2024.44 updates is FSD v12.5.4.2. This Tesla is updating the baseline FSD version to FSD V12.5.4.2

FSD 12.5 includes many features for a much smoother experience compared to FSD 12.3.6. Many users will appreciate that it gets rid of the steering wheel nag and instead relies on the cabin camera to provide real-time driver monitoring. This version also includes support for sunglasses with driver monitoring. It’ll be a big upgrade for anyone coming from FSD 12.3.6.

It's always a good thing when Tesla updates the baseline FSD version—that means that Tesla is confident that this new baseline is considerably safer and will continue to train the fleet against it.

What Update Am I Getting?

If you’re already on FSD V12.5.4.2, you’ll likely remain on that FSD build unless V13.3 manages to make its way to the public as Tesla originally planned, but that’s unlikely to happen before the Thanksgiving holiday. In all likelihood, you’ll be getting update 2024.44, which will give you some additional Tesla features while keeping you on the same FSD version.

For those who are already on 2024.44 - if you subscribe now, you’ll have V12.5.4.2 enabled on your vehicle.

If you have a Cybertruck, then you’ll receive update 2024.39.5 with FSD V12.5.5.3. They’re on a unique build for the moment, and this will likely be the case until Tesla acquires enough training data from the Cybertruck fleet.

What About FSD V12.5.6? V13?

FSD V12.5.6 is currently the build being provided to early access testers who have AI4 vehicles. It has new features like Driver Profiles, better lane change decisions, improved Max Speed Offset, and a few others. Tesla last pushed an update to FSD 12.5.6.2 in early November with some improvements to Driver Profiles.

That build is likely going to be deprecated as Tesla gets closer to releasing FSD v13, which they showed off at the We, Robot event back in October. The AI4 Model Ys and Cybercabs at We, Robot were running an early V13 build/ 

The updated FSD roadmap provided at the end of October mentioned that V13.3 will be the build that will make its way to customers sometime around Thanksgiving, but so far, no employee vehicles have been spotted with FSD v13.

Tesla Cybertruck: Puddle Lights, FSD/Powershare, Mars? [Update: FSD Now Available in Canada]

By Karan Singh
Not a Tesla App

The Cybertruck is having an eventful November. Just last week, we shared the news that Tesla isn’t offering their in-house wrap service for the Cybertruck anymore; the Foundation Series is now available in inventory in select US locations, Crossbars have arrived, and faster charging is around the corner. Now there’s even more to discuss about the stainless steel beast.

Projection Puddle Lights

Like the recently launched puddle lights for the Model 3 and Model Y, Tesla has introduced a set of add-on Projector Puddle Lights for the Cybertruck. These Cybertruck-specific ones go for $75 USD, or $105 CAD and are available in both the Canadian and US Tesla stores.

However, these don’t have the Tesla wordmark - instead, they feature the iconic Cybertruck symbol and, in our opinion, look even nicer. Here’s to hoping Tesla also introduces a set with the graffiti-style Cybertruck wordmark.

Powershare in Canada

While the Foundation Series Cybertruck has been getting delivered in Canada since November 7th, there was no news on Powershare being supported due to regulatory constraints. On the 20th, Foundation Series owners in Canada began to receive emails to get their Powershare installs started through Tesla’s official installer - Qmerit.

More to follow on pricing and the process as we receive our Canadian quote from Qmerit soon.

FSD in Canada

The Cybertruck Program Manager, Siddhant Awasthi, confirmed that with Powershare now becoming available, FSD for the Cybertruck in Canada will also become available soon. Canadian trucks shipped with a factory software build that didn’t include FSD, but did include TACC and stoplight/traffic control.

Early this morning Tesla began rolling out a new version of FSD 12.5.5.3 for the Cybertruck, which is update 2024.39.5. Will this be the version that rolls out in Canada?

Update: Yesterday, Tesla started rolling out FSD on the Cybertruck in Canada for the first time. The update being rolled out is update 2024.39.5, which not only features the latest FSD available on the Cybertruck, version 12.5.5.3, but it also includes all the features update 2024.38, which includes the huge Sentry Mode improvements that reduce power consumption by about 40%.

Update 2024.39.5

FSD Supervised 12.5.5.3
Installed on 0.3% of fleet
0 Installs today
Last updated: Nov 25, 6:00 am UTC

First Mars Payload

Following Integrated Flight Test 6 for SpaceX’s Starship, Elon Musk confirmed that uncrewed Starships are likely to begin making their way to Mars in about 2 years. You’re probably going to ask what’s going to be in those Starships - that’s what Brett Winston on X asked as well. Elon confirmed that Cybertrucks and Optimus robots will be among some of the first items landing on Mars.

That’s a ton of awesome news for Cybertruck, and there’s absolutely going to be more around the corner, especially as we await the big Tesla Holiday Update. While you wait, why not take a look at our Holiday Update Wishlists?

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