Tesla is entering the next phase of autonomous driving in Europe. A significant development regarding regulation on driver control assistance systems (DCAS) at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) paves the way for Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta program on the continent.
BREAKING NEWS The new UNECE DCAS regulation was adopted a few minutes ago. Once it enters force later this year, Tesla will finally be able to expand its FSD beta to Europe and other parts of the world! 🎉
The information was shared by Scrais on X, who tagged Not a Tesla App. The X user was the first to alert us of DCAS being added to the March meeting agenda in Geneva.
The Dawn of a New Era
Scrais had been listening to the UNECE meeting and posted: "The new UNECE DCAS regulation opens doors for @Tesla's FSD beta in Europe! … With this significant milestone, let's accelerate discussing Tesla's expansion across Europe. The future of mobility awaits.”
It seems the process has accelerated, as the provisions were a late addition to the 192nd session of the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations, which hinted at an accelerated timeline for discussions around autonomous driving technologies in Europe.
The DCAS regulation aims to standardize advanced driver assistance technologies, ensuring safety and reliability while fitting within the SAE level 2 automation category. This aligns perfectly with Tesla’s FSD system, which requires constant driver supervision while providing advanced control of the vehicle through complicated road situations.
What Will FSD be in Europe
Adopting the DCAS regulation is a green light for Tesla to start planning to get FSD beta rolling on the streets in Europe, a process the company has been engaged with for an unknown length of time. A few days ago, a Tesla Model X was spotted in Germany equipped with what appears to be equipment to prepare for autonomous driving.
Tesla FSD Validation Vehicle seen in Munich, Germany 👀
But this won’t happen tomorrow. As we know, it takes time for government regulations to move through. Scrais explained that “the Secretary-General of the United Nations needs to communicate the agreement. Once this happens, we have to wait six months until the regulation enters force. Considering the timeline and required waiting period, late September or early October is realistic.”
Tesla’s FSD beta, under the new DCAS guidelines, will provide clear interfaces and guidelines to keep drivers informed and engaged at all times. This will address concerns about overreliance and misuse of autonomous driving systems. This strategic move could also enable the re-enablement of certain Autopilot features previously restricted in the region.
A special thanks to Scrais for sharing this crucial update, highlighting a hopeful leap forward for Tesla and the automotive industry.
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Tesla has added the Acceleration Boost option to the Tesla store for owners of the 2024 Model 3 Long Range - specifically owners in Australia and China. Acceleration Boost is an upgrade that provides a significant performance boost, drastically narrowing the performance gap between the Long Range and Performance versions of the same model.
This upgrade will likely become available in Europe, Canada, and the United States in the next few days as Tesla updates its shops globally.
Acceleration Boost
This new Acceleration Boost is retailing for $3,000 AUD, or approximately $2,000 USD. That’s the same price for current owners of older Model 3 or Model Y Long Range vehicles, which all have the option to purchase Acceleration Boost through the shop.
The boost provides improved 0-100km/h (0-60mph) performance, bumping the 2024 Model 3 LR from 4.4s to 3.8s. The 2024 Performance version comes in at a blazing fast 2.9 seconds, so while it isn’t equivalent to just buying a performance variant in the first place, it is still a noticeable and significant upgrade.
Performance variants also come with a different front fascia vent for cooling, performance drive units, sport seats, adaptive suspension, 20-inch wheels, and Track Mode V3. That’s a significant number of additional features in the $10,000 USD price difference between the Long Range and Performance versions.
Should You Buy It?
If you’ve purchased a Long Range model and are itching to go just that little bit faster at every red light, this is the upgrade for you. It previously came with the cost of slightly reducing vehicle range, but the Tesla store doesn’t make a note of reduced range this time around. The 2023 Model 3 and Model Y Long Range models had an efficiency loss of about 5% due to the additional always-available acceleration and cooling.
You could drive in Chill mode to mostly negate that efficiency loss, but what’s the fun in driving in Chill when you just got Acceleration Boost? Anyhow, the shop listing for the 2024 variant doesn’t include this detail, so it's possible Tesla may have worked some more engineering magic.
Overall, if you’ve got the $3,000 AUD burning a hole in your pocket, some Tesla referral credits sitting around, or just want to go faster, it's definitely an upgrade many users find valuable.
As December approaches, Tesla’s highly anticipated Holiday update draws closer. Each year, this eagerly awaited software release transforms Tesla vehicles with new features and festive flair. If you’re not familiar with Tesla’s holiday updates, take a look at what Tesla has launched in the Holiday update the past few years.
For this chapter in our series, we’re dreaming up ways Tesla could improve the charging experience and even add some additional safety features. So let’s take a look.
Destination State of Charge
Today, navigating to a destination is pretty straightforward on your Tesla. Your vehicle will automatically let you know when and where to charge, as well as for how long. However, you’ll likely arrive at your destination at a low state of charge.
Being able to set your destination state of charge would be an absolute game-changer for ease of road-tripping. After all, the best EV to road trip in is a Tesla due to the Supercharger network. It looks like Tesla may be listening. Last week, Tesla updated their app and hinted at such a feature coming to the Tesla app. A Christmas present, maybe?
Battery Precondition Options
While Tesla automatically preconditions your battery when needed for fast charging, there are various situations where manually preconditioning the battery would be beneficial.
Currently, there is no way to precondition for third-party chargers unless you “navigate” to a nearby Supercharger. If you need to navigate to a Supercharger that’s close by, the short distance between your location and the Supercharger will also not allow enough time to warm up the battery, causing slower charging times.
While we already mentioned Live Activities in the Tesla app wishlist, they’d be especially useful while Supercharging. Live Activities are useful for short-term information you want to monitor, especially if it changes often — which makes them perfect for Supercharging, especially if you want to avoid idle fees.
Vehicle-to-Load / Vehicle-to-Home Functionality
The Cybertruck introduced Tesla Power Share, Tesla’s name for Vehicle-to-Home functionality (V2H). V2H allows an EV to supply power directly to a home. By leveraging the vehicle’s battery, V2H can provide backup power during outages and reduce energy costs by using stored energy during peak rates.
Tesla Power Share integrates seamlessly with Tesla Energy products and the Tesla app. We’d love to see this functionality across the entire Tesla lineup. Recently a third party demonstrated that bidirectional charging does work on current Tesla vehicles – namely on a 2022 Model Y.
Adaptive Headlights for North America
While Europe and China have had access to the Adaptive Headlights since earlier this year, North America is still waiting. The good news is that Lars Moravy, VP of Vehicle Engineering, said that these are on their way soon.
Blind Spot Indication with Ambient Lighting
Both the 2024 Highland Model 3 Refresh and the Cybertruck already have ambient lighting features, but they don’t currently offer a practical purpose besides some eye candy. So why not integrate that ambient lighting into the Blindspot Warning system so that the left or right side of the vehicle lights up when there’s a vehicle in your blind spot? Currently, only a simple red dot lights up in the front speaker grill, and the on-screen camera will also appear with a red border when signaling.
Having the ambient lighting change colors when a vehicle is in your blind spot would be a cool use of the technology, especially since the Model Y Juniper Refresh and Models S and X are supposed to get ambient lighting as well.
Tesla’s Holiday update is expected to arrive with update 2024.44.25 in just a few short weeks. We’ll have extensive coverage of its features when it finally arrives, but in the meantime, be sure to check out our other wishlist articles:
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