Yesterday was a big news day for Tesla, with several things hitting the newsfeed all at once. A lot of new stuff for Canadians, who are all quite pleased to see the return of the referral program to Canada, as well as 1.99% Financing for the Model Y.
There’s also some interesting news on the Actually Smart Summon front.
Canadian Referrals
The Tesla Referral Program, which recently launched in the United States, has now arrived in Canada just a few short days later. There aren’t any differences in terms of reward availability or anything else, but there are some conversions of funds to look at.
Referrers in Canada will earn $650 CAD ($480 USD) per referral while providing a discount of $1300 ($964 USD) CAD for those being referred. That’s slightly less than the USD equivalent, but that’s just the conversion rate fluctuation.
We’re happy to see the referral system launch in Canada so quickly after it launched in the United States – this is also good news for other markets like Europe and China, which may also get similar programs soon.
1.99% Financing in Canada
Another big win for Canadian Tesla customers is the arrival of 1.99% financing for the Model Y in Canada. For those who have been waiting on the edge to get a good deal to buy a Model Y, now is your chance.
1.99% financing is available for all terms of 60 months and under. 72 months has a special term of 2.99%, 84 months at 3.49%, and 96 months at 3.99%. This is a huge bonus in comparison to other rates, which have regularly been at or above 5% for all interest rate terms in Canada.
These special financing terms are only available on the Model Y but are available on any variant, including the Rear-Wheel Drive, Long Range, and Performance models.
Smart Summon Code
The last item, but one of the most exciting nevertheless, is that new Smart Summon code strings have appeared in the latest version of the Tesla app. One of the most important things that was noticed by @Tesla_App_iOS on X was that there are no new debugging strings – meaning we could be receiving Actually Smart Summon in a beta format sometime soon.
In addition, the app contains new strings such as “autopark_summon_reversing_for_forward_visibility”, which may be tied to the upcoming reverse capabilities of FSD.
We expect the new version of Summon to be first available in an upcoming FSD release, such as FSD 12.6 in the next few months.
Tesla’s upcoming Home Wireless Charging Pad – the so-called “Project Garfield,” will get special Autopark support. Vehicle backup cameras will be able to locate the Wireless Charging Pad and then Autopark the vehicle in the best spot for the charging session to begin.
This information comes from Gizmodo China, who found this information from a reputable local source. We previously looked into Tesla’s Wireless Charging Patents in-depth and how Tesla intends to make this a simple and easy-to-use system, but one that’s also fairly high performance.
Automatic Docking
Similar to your robotic vacuum automatically docking to charge, eventually, your Tesla will be able to automatically locate your Home Wireless Charging Pad, and then maneuver itself into the perfect spot to take advantage of the highest charging speeds with the least energy leakage.
Automatically docking the vehicle is a fantastic solution to the woes of Wireless Charging, where even minor misalignment creates heat and wastes lots of energy. This fixes that issue at the vehicle level, so owners won’t have to move their wireless charging pads under the vehicle or move their vehicle around to find the perfect spot on their own.
In combination with Tesla’s patent to automatically adapt to variations in wireless charging layouts and systems, it seems that Tesla will be able to adapt to most circumstances that previous wireless EV charging companies were having difficulties with. Tesla will be able to vary the coil induction across its Wireless Charging Pad to “steer” or aim the wireless charging at different parts of the inductive coil inside the vehicle, enabling them to reduce heat, reduce waste energy, and accommodate variances in how vehicles line-up with the Wireless Charging Pad.
This feature may be limited to owners or subscribers of Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving, which come with AutoPark as a standard feature. It could also be a software-level feature that’s enabled when a Home Wireless Charging Pad is detected nearby—which could also be an excellent option. We don’t know how Tesla plans to implement this just yet, but it will be very cool.
While we expect Tesla’s upcoming Robotaxi to feature the first Wireless Charging tech inside an EV, the Cybertruck already has the connectors for it and is ready to be retrofitted with the induction coils in a future update. The upcoming Model Y Juniper may also bring Wireless Charging en-masse to EVs.
We’re super excited to hear more about Tesla’s Home Wireless Charging Pads, as they’ll add even more convenience to owning a Tesla.
Rendering of what Tesla's integration could look like
@dkrasniy
Tesla is adding support for Smart Child Seats in an upcoming update. Greentheonly, who typically decompiles and analyzes Tesla’s software updates, found references to smart car seats in update 2024.32. Tesla will sometimes release code in a software update that isn’t exposed to end users. There could be various reasons for this, such as Tesla wanting to collect data and running the feature in shadow mode, which is often the case with features like Park Assist, Autopark, or Autopilot changes.
Tesla also has the capability to turn on a certain feature in a remote configuration, letting them enable or disable the feature at their discretion. Whatever the case, Tesla appears close to releasing support for these new car seats that help alert parents of potential dangers.
Smart Child Seats
The Smart Child Seat in the preview image is the Babyark Convertible Car Seat, which retails for approximately $1,200 USD. In the code of Tesla’s update, they specifically refer to an “ISOFIX” base. ISOFIX is a standardized car seat fitting system that automatically locks onto a car seat.
The Babyark comes with a slew of smart features, including real-time notifications, buckle alerts, status notifications, and approximately how much time your baby has spent in the seat. Additionally, the Babyark can remind owners of reconfiguring the seat as your child grows. One of the key features of Babyark is a forgotten child alert – which prevents parents from leaving their child in the car.
At this point, we’re not quite sure exactly how many of these smart features will be integrated into Tesla’s UI, but most likely the forgotten child alert will be integrated, as well as possibly a means to automatically recognize when an ISOFIX style seat is installed. Currently, child seats need to be manually marked in the UI – which will dismiss the seatbelt indicator for that seat.
Tesla has time and time again placed a huge focus on safety features, and this upcoming support for smart child seats is another interesting integration to help ensure that parents can keep their children safe. And when they grow up – you can use Tesla’s parental controls to ensure that they drive their Tesla in a safe manner.
