Tesla Makes Changes to Referral Program; Adjusts FSD Transfer and 0% Financing Offers

By Not a Tesla App Staff
Not a Tesla App

Tesla has once again adjusted its buyer promotions, including its FSD transfer offer and 0% financing. To accompany these changes, Tesla has also made some changes to its referral program.

FSD Transfer Now Includes Cybertruck

The FSD transfer window is available for orders placed after October 9th and delivered before the end of the year. Initially, the Non-Foundation Series Cybertruck was excluded, while the Foundation-Series Cybertruck came with FSD. However, the FSD transfer offer now applies to every Tesla model with the exception of the Tesla Semi.

Keep in mind that you do not need to trade your car in for this offer. You may simply remove FSD from your current Tesla and put it on your new one. Your older Tesla will simply revert to Basic Autopilot, or you can use the monthly FSD subscription.

0% Financing Without FSD Purchase

Tesla is continuing its enticing 0% financing deal but with a few changes. Initially, this deal was tied to purchasing FSD, but the latest update removes that requirement. This offer is only available for buyers of the Model 3 and Model Y in the U.S. However, the terms vary slightly between the two models:

  • Model Y: 0% financing is available for up to 60 months. If buyers prefer to extend their loan, they can opt for 0.99% financing on 72-month loans. Either option requires a 20% down payment.

  • Model 3: 0% financing is available for 36 months. For longer loans, buyers can get 0.99% for 48 months or 1.99% for 60 months. The Model 3 also requires a 20% down payment.

While this offer is similar to the 0% financing available before, it’s great that it's no longer tied to the purchase of FSD. Users can instead choose to subscribe to the $99/month FSD plan. A 20% down payment is about $10,000, depending on the exact model and trim.

Changes to the Referral Program

With the changes to these offers, Tesla has also adjusted its referral program. Referrers will still receive a $500 shop credit for every referral, but buyer incentives have changed. Buyers will now only receive $500 off a Model 3 or Model Y instead of the previous $1,000 when using a referral code.

Buyers of the Model S and Model X will receive $1,000 off the vehicle’s purchase price, which remains unchanged. For now, the Cybertruck is excluded from the referral program.

Tesla started some of these aggressive incentives at the end of the previous quarter, but surprisingly, they’re continuing them into the last quarter of the year. Given all of its incentives, this may end up being a very good quarter for Tesla.

Tesla to Add Apple Watch Support; App 4.38 Reveals Watch Support, Banish and More Coming

By Karan Singh
Naher94/Reddit

Tesla’s latest iOS app update reveals several upcoming features that we’re sure everyone has been looking forward to. As usual, the Android update is likely a few days out.

As usual, Tesla App Updates (iOS) has kindly provided a breakdown of the decompiled app update, which reveals three key things: watch support, Banish, and a new way to onboard FSD users.

Tesla Watch App

People have been requesting a Tesla app on their watches for ages. Smart watches have become fairly ubiquitous today, and third parties have been providing Tesla functionality for both Android and Apple’s signature wearables for years.

However, using the Tesla API has some limitations, making a third-party solution less ideal. In addition, Tesla plans to charge developers for API calls in the near future, which means some wearable apps have moved to subscription-based services while others charge a large up-front fee.

However, the wait for an official watch app may soon be over. This latest version of the Tesla app, v4.38.0, reveals that you’ll need to select a vehicle to show on the watch, hinting that the UI will show a single vehicle at a time, which is to be expected.

We’re not sure whether you’ll be able to use the Apple Watch as a key for the vehicle, but Tesla app update 4.38 adds the ability to perform offline commands as long as the vehicle is within Bluetooth range. So even if Tesla doesn’t add key support, you should be able to unlock or start the vehicle even if you don’t have your phone or an internet connection.

Back in March of this year, a fan asked Musk if Tesla could add support for the Apple Watch. Musk replied, “Sure.” While not all of Musk’s yes replies result in a feature being implemented, a large percentage of them do, even if they’re a year or two later. Given this previous post and now this new watch code found in the latest update, it seems all but certain that we’ll get Apple Watch support soon.

We’d guess that Apple Watch support will be included in Tesla’s big Christmas update later this year (a look back at previous holiday updates).

Given Tesla’s propensity to launch features on iOS before Android, expect support for the Apple Watch before Android’s Wearables, but hopefully, Tesla is working on both.

Apple Watch concept created by a fan
Apple Watch concept created by a fan
@niccruzpatane

Banish (Reverse Smart Summon)

As part of Tesla’s FSD Roadmap, they mentioned that Park Seek and Banish (Reverse Smart Summon) will arrive in October. Banish will allow users to get out of their car in a parking lot, and the car autonomously find a parking spot (Park Seek) and park itself using Autopark. 

Overall, it's a necessary system for Robotaxi and Cybercab, and it's been one of the most anticipated features for FSD for a long time. The sheer convenience of being able to get out of your car at the mall entrance while the vehicle locates its own parking spot and then comes back to pick you up using Actually Smart Summon - that’s just next level.

In the recent app update, Tesla revealed a few phrases related to Banish - namely some information about “Parking Map,” “Parking Occupancy,” and “Parking Details.” It seems that Banish will map the parking lot while it drives around, looking for a parking spot. Once it finds one, it’ll park and then relay that information back to the user, so that you know where the vehicle parked.

It seems that you may also be able to direct Banish to a specific parking area. Once it arrives, it’ll let you know if there’s a spot, and if not, it'll keep searching.

New User FSD On-Boarding

The final new feature tease is an interesting one. Tesla has recently put out another free trial for FSD, but many people trying it out for the first time (or the first time in a while), may not know what to expect. While Full Self Driving is a fantastic piece of software - it's still something that users have to supervise today.

We’ve recently been hoping that Tesla would address the user knowledge gap for new-to-FSD owners, and it seems like they’ll be adding some tutorial information for how to use FSD in an upcoming app update. Personally, the author has found people tend to panic when they see the steering wheel turn, jiggle, or the car accelerate hard—all things that happen on a day-to-day drive with FSD. While most FSD users are well-conditioned to the quirks, new users could be scared away.

We’re excited to see what kind of tutorials Tesla adds for users. We hope they’re in-depth and explain what certain FSD visualizations, like black or blue cars, signify.

The Top Investor Questions for Tesla's Upcoming Q3 Earnings Call

By Karan Singh
Not a Tesla App

It’s that time of year once again when Tesla hosts a Q&A for its shareholders at its quarterly earnings event.

If you’re interested in seeing what people have asked or would like to submit your own question, you can do so at the link here. Submissions and voting ends on this Wednesday, October 23, at 4 PM EDT.

Earnings Q3

Third-quarter earnings are coming up on October 23, 2024. As usual, it will take place at around 5:30 PM. Tesla Investor Relations will stream the event live, and we’ll have links available for you a little closer to the event. 

Voting and Submissions

Voting and submissions are done through Say, a third-party company that validates share ownership. Once your ownership is validated, you’ll be able to use your shares to vote - your vote weight is equivalent to the number of shares you have.

If you submit a question, your question will have an initial number of votes equivalent to your number of shares.

Top Questions

The current top questions are pretty interesting - and we’re excited to see the answers. Let’s take a look at what people have asked so far.

Here are the top ten questions currently:

  1. Is Tesla still on track to deliver the more affordable model next year, as mentioned by Elon earlier, and how does it align with your AI and product roadmap?

  2. When can we expect Tesla to give us the ~$25K, non-robotaxi, regular car model?

  3. What is Tesla doing to alleviate long waiting times on service centers?

  4. When will Tesla incorporate X and Grok in all of the Tesla Vehicles?

  5. What’s going on with the Tesla Roadster?

  6. 🚨Please provide an update on the Semi. What will the next stage of growth look like and when will FSD be ready?

  7. What’s the plan for 2025?

  8. Will Hardware 3 be capable of level 5 FSD?

  9. Can we get more details surrounding the Robotaxi including how will Tesla deploy the fleet, will it start with Robotaxi than move onto a subscription model if you own your own Tesla

  10. When will Optimus begin shipping?

If you find these questions interesting, tune in! If not, we’ll recap all the key points as usual.

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