Tesla's Safety Score 2.1 update adjusts its evaluation criteria, particularly focusing on the Late-Night Driving metric. At the same time, the broader community continues to express concerns over other aspects of the system, notably the Forward Collision Warning.
Tesla has specifically addressed the Late-Night Driving metric, shifting the impactful driving window from 10 PM - 4 AM to 11 PM - 4 AM. This change directly responds to feedback regarding how late-night driving affects Safety Scores and, consequently, insurance premiums.
Addressing Concerns Beyond the Update
DriveTeslaCanada posted the story, which became quite a topic on Reddit. While the Late-Night Driving metric adjustment has been well-received, the Tesla community remains vocal about other system aspects, particularly the Forward Collision Warning’s sensitivity. Reports of frequent false alerts highlight a potential area for further improvement. Users suggest implementing a feature for manual incident reporting, using dashcam footage as evidence, to help refine the system's accuracy. Additionally, there's a call for Tesla to leverage such data to train its neural networks, aiming to reduce false positives.
Insurance and Safety Scores: Discussions extend to the implications of the Safety Score on Tesla Insurance premiums, with drivers sharing how updates and system sensitivities affect their scores and, subsequently, their insurance costs.
Reflecting on Safety Score 2.0
The introduction of Safety Score 2.0, almost one year ago to the day, marked a significant milestone, adding new safety factors like Excessive Speeding and Unbuckled Driving to Tesla's driving assessment tool. These factors, alongside the updated Late Night Driving metric and existing metrics like Hard Braking and Aggressive Turning, leverage Tesla's vast fleet data to encourage safer driving habits.
Tesla's Safety Score, evolving through versions from 1.0 to the current 2.1, serves as a personalized driving coach. Assessing driving behavior against a set of safety factors provides drivers with actionable feedback to improve their habits. This enhances road safety and offers the potential for lower insurance premiums, aligning financial incentives with safer driving practices.
The Safety Score's utility extends beyond individual feedback; it aggregates millions of miles of driving data to inform Tesla's safety feature development. This ongoing analysis helps identify trends and patterns in driving behavior, shaping the evolution of vehicle safety features and contributing to Tesla's reputation for producing some of the safest vehicles on the road.
As Tesla continues to refine its Safety Score system, incorporating driver feedback and advancing technology, the dialogue between the company and its community is vital. The adjustments in Safety Score 2.1, especially the revised Late-Night Driving metric, reflect a positive step towards balancing safety assessments with real-world driving experiences. Meanwhile, the ongoing discussions about FCW sensitivity underscore the importance of continuous improvement and innovation in vehicle safety systems.
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Three months after launching the Refreshed Model Y in North America, Tesla has finally ended the Launch Edition of the new vehicle. In addition, Tesla has also launched a new paint color for North America.
April has been the month of a lot of positive news, and it is great to see Tesla going beyond the Launch Edition of the Model Y and making it available to more customers immediately.
Launch Edition
The Launch Edition of the Model Y included the following extra features, bundled into the package cost.
Any paint choice (up to $1,500 USD value)
20” Helix 2.0 wheels ($2,000 USD)
Tow package ($1,000 USD)
Any interior color ($1,000 USD)
FSD ($8,000)
Acceleration Boost ($2,000)
The Launch Edition Model Y also included some other subtle changes like Launch Edition badging and trim, which you can read about here. Everything but the badging and Launch Edition trim can be bought for other Model Y trim levels.
Updated Pricing
The pricing has changed quite a bit from the Launch Edition, and it turns out the Launch Edition was also a pretty good deal if you were planning to buy most or all the extra features, which could save you almost $5,000 US. This is in sharp contrast to the Foundation-Series Cybertrucks, where there was very little to no difference in terms of price between a Foundation-Series truck and the AWD version with all the paid extras. Of course, not everyone may be interested in all features of the Launch Edition, so waiting for the AWD Model Y will save most people some cash.
Here’s a chart with the launch pricing and the updated pricing. Of note, the Refreshed Model Y Long Range AWD is $1,000 USD ($1,000 CAD as well) more expensive than the first-gen Model Y.
Model Y LR AWD
Price (USD)
Price (CAD)
Launch Edition
$59,990
$84,990
AWD Model Y
$48,990
$69,990
AWD Model Y With Paid Options
$64,490
$90,790
Interestingly, at least for now, Tesla is still including the Mobile Connector with the Model Y. We’re not sure how long that will last, but that’s a pretty nice little boost since Tesla stopped including the Mobile Connector with vehicles back in 2022.
New Paint Color
Last, but not least, Tesla has brought a brand new paint color into the fold. Last month, we heard Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla’s Chief Vehicle Designer, discuss paint colors - and the possibility of a new paint color on the horizon.
This has materialized with the launch of the brand new Diamond Black color option, which is replacing the old standard Black that Tesla used to offer. Diamond Black is a premium paint option and will cost $1,500 USD.
Diamond Black is a multicoat black paint with embedded sparkles and flakes, giving it a very fresh and unique look. We’re excited to see it in person, as it looks like a big step up from the solid black paint that Tesla was previously using. Several years ago, black was the standard color included in most new Teslas, so it’s also fairly common.
Paints like the new Diamond Black tend to glimmer and slightly shift colors based on the angle, so this one will be an eyecatcher, just like Quicksilver.
For now, Diamond Black is only available in the United States - it isn’t available in Canada or Mexico just yet. Since both countries receive vehicles from Giga Texas and Fremont, we expect this color to be made available in the coming days.
Tesla has been making steady progress on adding the second of FSD’s “senses” — hearing. Since some FSD updates in late 2024, Tesla has been collecting audio input to help FSD recognize and respond to emergency vehicle sirens. Tesla’s VP of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, previously confirmed that improved handling of emergency vehicles would be coming to a future FSD update.
Now, it looks like Tesla is also introducing a feature to alert drivers when the vehicle detects an emergency vehicle. This change was found by @greentheonly in a production version of update 2025.8, which means that it may not be long before it’s enabled for everyone.
Emergency Siren Detection
In a future update, Tesla will enable the vehicle to alert the driver whenever it detects an emergency vehicle, either through sirens or visually. This is assuming the owner has given the vehicle permission to use the internal microphone. While the new Model Y features multiple internal microphones for better noise isolation, most Teslas only feature a single internal microphone, which is used for features such as voice commands and talking through Bluetooth.
Since the vehicle can see in all directions and is actively paying attention, it will likely detect an emergency vehicle even before the driver, so this is much more than a feature for FSD.
According to Green, Tesla included text in the vehicle software that describes the new emergency vehicle detection as:
“Automatically detects and alerts the driver to nearby sirens, helping you or Autopilot recognize and yield to approaching emergency vehicles. When a siren is detected, the media volume lowers, and an alert appears on the display. Sound detection data stays within the car and is not saved or transmitted unless data sharing is enabled.”
While on FSD, the in-vehicle microphone can help to detect and allow the vehicle to yield to approaching emergency vehicles. In addition, whether you’re using FSD or not, your media volume will be lowered, and an alert will be displayed on your vehicle’s display.
We’re not exactly sure what this alert will look like, but it could look similar to today’s “Keep your eyes on the road” alert, which displays over the center of the display with a blue hue over the screen to catch your attention.
This is an eye-catching alert, and in combination with the media volume being lowered, this should help to grab the attention of a driver in a safe and unobtrusive way.
We love these types of updates that not only improve FSD but also improve safety when drivers don’t have Autopilot enabled.
While Tesla hasn’t enabled this feature just yet, we should expect it soon since it lies dormant in update 2025.8. It could be enabled through a server-side configuration or in Tesla’s upcoming 2025 Spring Update.
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