Earlier this year, Tesla released a update for its Beach Buggy Racing 2 game in update 2024.20, which brought a new leaderboard feature to the game.
Grab your wheel, and step on the accelerator, because it's time to take a look at Tesla’s updated Beach Buggy Racing 2 – Supercharger Edition.
Supercharger Leaderboards
Tesla introduced Supercharger Leaderboards to the game, which means anytime you’re at or near a Supercharger site, you can open up Beach Buggy Racing, and compete against other real people in a local leaderboard. Leaderboard are time-based, so that you’re able to compete against other drivers even if there’s no one else currently at the Supercharger.
Leaderboards are available for each track and are location specific, meaning that all Supercharger locations have their own unique leaderboard.
When you arrive at a Supercharger Tesla will prompt you to play Beach Buggy Racing and take a stab at the Leaderboards, but you don’t actually need to be charging to play. All the game requires is that your vehicle is physically at the Supercharger location.
So far, there are no global leaderboards, but competing with fellow Tesla owners at your local Supercharger offers a fun way to pass the time during a 15-minute charge.
Vehicle Colorizer
Not a Tesla App
One lesser known feature of Beach Buggy Racing is that changing your vehicle’s on-screen color through Tesla’s Colorizer will also change the way your vehicle looks in Beach Buggy Racing. It’s a neat little easter egg, but it's all the small details that count. The paint style options apply as well – so Solid, Matte, and Metallic also all reflect in the game.
How to Play Beach Buggy Racing
There are a few ways to play Beach Buggy Racing, and Tesla has thought of everything for this specific game.
You can open up the game from Tesla Arcade when the vehicle is in Park. You have three control options – using the touchscreen, using a Bluetooth or USB controller, or using your vehicle’s steering wheel.
If you’re using the steering wheel, keep in mind that unless you’ve got a Cybertruck with Steer-by-Wire, your actual wheels will also turn. This can add some flat spots to your tires if you play excessively. We recommend using a controller or the touchscreen. Keep in mind that if you’re playing with the vehicle’s steering wheel, you actually use the Brake pedal to accelerate, not the real accelerator pedal.
The author recently took first place at the Leaderboards for the Supercharger in Scarborough, so if you’re in Toronto anytime, feel free to challenge my score! If you’re a leaderboard holder, come let us know where you took first place in the forums.
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As Tesla update 2024.44.3 continues to roll out, we’re seeing more features in this update. While the update doesn’t include many new feature, it either improves existing features or rolls out a feature to new regions. Actually Smart Summon is rolling out to Europe, although with more strict restrictions. AutoPark is also rolling out to the UK and several other countries for the first time, and we’re now seeing improvements to Autopark arriving in North America and Europe.
As Tesla’s 2024.44.3 update continues to roll out, more features in the update are being revealed. While this update doesn’t introduce many entirely new features, it does refine existing features or expand the reach of others.
Notably, Actually Smart Summon is now rolling out in Europe, albeit with stricter regulations. Vision-based AutoPark is debuting in the UK and several other countries, while North America and Europe are receiving updates that further improve Autopark’s functionality.
Improvements to Autopark
As part of the same update, Tesla is making a batch of improvements to Autopark in Europe and North America. In the release notes, Tesla states that Autopark is receiving performance and visualization improvements. Unfortunately, Tesla doesn’t go into more detail here, but it sounds like these improvements could be the faster and more accurate Autopark enhancements Ashok Elluswamy talked about earlier this year.
Those improvements are expected to make Autopark more reliable, let it pick spots faster, move faster into them, and also shift between forward and reverse faster. The improvements would also let the vehicle park in tighter spots than before, with more accurate vision.
We’ll have to wait and see how this improved Autopark compares to the current version.
Your vehicle's Autopark performance and visualizatons have been improved.
Autopark in the UK and Other Countries
Countries in Europe that previously didn’t have access to Vision-Based Autopark, including the UK, will now have access to the new Autopark for the first time with update 2024.44.3 and later. This includes countries such as the UK, Ireland and Malaysia.
While these countries are receiving Autopark, it’s not clear whether it includes the Autopark improvements that other regions are receiving. The release notes don’t include the Autopark Improvements section in these countries, but that could be due to Tesla simplifying the release notes for these countries that are receiving Autopark for the first time.
With Autopark finally introduced in these regions, it’ll be the first time vehicles without ultrasonic sensors are capable of Autopark. Vision-Based Autopark is far more reliable, faster, and easier to use in more situations than the older USS-based solution.
Tesla has finally released Actually Smart Summon for Europe and the Middle East, albeit with several major restrictions. However, it's definitely a first step towards unlocking autonomy in Europe.
Europe’s autonomy laws are governed under UNECE regulation R79, which regulates autonomous features and is extremely restrictive in how autonomy can be used and applied. For example, the previous revision (Rev 4) of R79 required drivers to approve, with physical action, every decision made by an Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) feature.
Limited Actually Smart Summon
Under Rev 5 of UNECE R79, Actually Smart Summon can actually function, but only to a limited degree. Owners have to be within 6 meters (19.5 feet) of the vehicle at all times, making it barely more usable than Dumb Summon (can we coin the term Dummon?).
In addition, you can only travel a total distance (under the regulation) of 100 meters (328 feet) - which means you’d have to run beside the vehicle or be inside it, rendering it mostly useless. However, Tesla has, for some reason, limited the total summon distance to 15-20m (50 to 65 feet) of travel. These limits are in sharp contrast to the distance limits of A.S.S. in North America.
Getting UNECE R79 Updated
Tesla has been hard at work getting R79 repealed or updated to allow for further autonomy after running demos for senior politicians earlier in the year. Back in March, we reported that updating DCAS regulations in Europe would help get FSD approved - but that covered driver assistance, not autonomy. In fact, Tesla was testing FSD with validation vehicles as far back as February of this year, hinting that Supervised FSD may be getting close.
Tesla FSD Validation Vehicle seen in Munich, Germany 👀
While FSD has a clear path forward in Europe, semi-autonomous features like Actually Smart Summon and Banish don’t just yet. The updated DCAS regulations do not cover semi-autonomy or autonomy and require clear interfaces, guidelines, and controls for drivers to be informed and engaged at all times.
It’ll take another big swing for Tesla to get autonomy regulations changed to allow for more semi-supervised autonomy like Actually Smart Summon - much less fully autonomous products like the Robotaxi Network, Cybercab, and Robovan.
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