Tesla’s FSD continues to expand and learn, and V13 won’t be any slouch on this. V12 implemented end-to-end AI, and V13 brings a host of new features to help it reach feature completeness.
Today, FSD relies almost entirely upon visual data acquired from the vehicle’s cameras. Of course, it does pull information from other sensors, but the primary input is vision. While Tesla previously used radar in its vehicles and still ships the Models S and X with deactivated HD Radars, it relies on vision to guide its decision-making.
But that’s all changing—a revised version of V13 will bring audio-based decision-making to FSD for the first time. FSD is famously designed to work like a human driver—it relies on vision—but now it’ll also begin relying upon audio—both as an input… and an output.
We touched upon these items in our article on FSD V13, but it's time to really dig into them.
Listening for Emergency Vehicles
@steveshap.bsky.social
FSD will soon be able to detect emergency vehicles by analyzing the sounds it hears. Interestingly, this will be done through the internal microphone—the same one used for voice commands. That’s because sirens are loud—loud enough for humans (and microphones) to hear them inside a moving car.
This will enable FSD to identify the distinct sounds of an approaching siren - helping to ensure that FSD detects emergency vehicles earlier and takes the correct maneuvers to move out of the way and safely pull over.
In addition, by analyzing the actual sound of the incoming siren, FSD should also be able to make a reasonable determination about whether the siren is approaching or just echoing off the city streets using the Doppler effect and some fairly simple math.
With the release of FSD V13.2 to early access testers and now FSD 12.5.6.4, Tesla has added a new item to the release notes that lets drivers opt-in to sharing audio data. For users who opt-in to sharing this data, Tesla will now receive 10-second audio clips in certain situations. Tesla will listen for certain sounds and then send this data back to Tesla for further analysis. This will help them improve certain sound detections.
In the release notes, Tesla specifically mentions detecting emergency vehicles by sound, but it seems that it will also be used for other things, such as listening for other vehicles honking or potentially someone yelling at the vehicle. These additional capabilities will help FSD navigate a world made for humans, which couldn’t be done with vision alone.
FSD Will Honk
So we’ve covered inputs… what about outputs? Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s VP of AI, mentioned that FSD will gain the ability to honk. That means FSD will be able to provide an audio cue to other vehicles - just like a real, human driver would. Whether that’s someone cutting FSD off, or someone dozing off at a traffic light, FSD gaining the ability to honk will be extremely valuable - it’s the first ability FSD will have to communicate with the outside world and with other drivers.
Humans have developed different types of honks, such as short, friendly taps of the horn or louder, longer horn presses for emergency situations. It’ll be interesting to see if Tesla also implements different types of honks as well.
This is one of the key steps to humanizing FSD - one of the final puzzle pieces. This is expected to be the final set of inputs necessary for FSD to be able to drive like a human, and it’s exciting to see Tesla get so close with just vision.
FSD will soon be able to see, hear, and honk. Let’s just hope Tesla’s initial implementation for honking is better than Waymo’s (video below of Waymo vehicles honking repeatedly at 4 am).
Imagine being woken up at 4 a.m. by cars honking at each other. That's what some San Francisco residents have been dealing with for weeks, as the Waymos can be heard in this video honking and blinking headlights in a parking lot outside of their condo. https://t.co/2cVmDfUk4ipic.twitter.com/pkxNTT5vXd
Back in 2023, Tesla put together a rather unique Supercharger site idea - one with a CyberCanopy. This canopy is intended to provide solar power for Supercharging, helping to reduce the impact on the local grid while also providing a futuristic and Cybertruck-themed location that would set it apart.
Unfortunately, the plans never moved beyond the filing stage. Instead, Tesla opened a standard-looking Supercharger at the same Canton, Massachusetts location. However, the site is still well-situated just off the highway and benefits from natural tree cover in the parking area.
However, Tesla is at it again with a concept for another CyberCanopy with RGB lighting. Thanks to MarkoRP for spotting this. No April Fool’s this time.
We want to build a few Superchargers cool enough to be worthy of the trip itself. - Max de Zegher
CyberCanopy 2
This second Supercharger with CyberCanopy is set for Roswell, New Mexico, at the Whataburger in town. Featuring just eight stalls, this will be one of Tesla’s smaller Supercharger sites, but for what it lacks in size, it makes up for it in uniqueness. The charging stalls are covered from the rain by a futuristic, Cybertruck-themed canopy, which will have solar panels installed on the top of it.
According to the plans, the CyberCanopy boasts 20.88kW of solar panels on its roof, providing shelter from the elements while also providing some power back to the grid.
RGB Lighting
At nighttime, the Supercharger will make a big statement. Tesla intends to light the long edges of the canopy, which will not only look amazing, but it’ll actually make finding the Supercharger easier in a large parking lot.
The lighting coming off the edge of the canopy reminds us a lot of the lightbar on the Cybertruck and now the new Model Y. It’s definitely the direction Tesla is moving for all their models, so expect all future models to have it, including the new Roadster and the next-gen model.
Tesla’s Max de Zegher also took to X after the plans for the new Supercharger were found and shared the image above. He stated that Tesla wants to build a few cool Superchargers that will be worth stopping at, even if they’re out of the way a little bit. So it seems like this isn’t just a concept, but an idea that Tesla wants to expand to several areas around the country or world.
We want to build a few Superchargers cool enough to be worthy of the trip itself. Wish we could have kept it under wraps for longer, but submittal was needed for Planning Approval. We can't hide anything from @MarcoRPi1! 🙂 pic.twitter.com/X2WaKDd408
This particular site doesn't have a Megapack or other form of energy storage, unlike the upcoming Harris Ranch Supercharger site in California. That means that Tesla won’t be storing the solar energy gained from this site, but instead will be either offsetting the immediate grid impact or serving energy back to the grid when the site isn’t actively charging.
Tesla will likely be incorporating V4 Superchargers, including both V4 posts and the new, more powerful V4 Cabinets, as the permit states that Tesla will be redesigning the site internally before beginning construction. For Cybertruck owners, 500kW charging may be around the corner.
We’re hoping Tesla continues to deploy these kinds of Supercharger sites around the world - they make a stylistic statement about Tesla’s futurism, like the Shell gas station that was upcycled into a Supercharger site earlier this year in Spain.
They also make a big impact for ownership because it is a far more comfortable charging experience when you stop at a site that’s shaded from the elements - and one that’s better for the environment with offset emissions.
It was a rainy April 1st when a news-searching author went on a delve into the depths of April Fools to find fact from falsehood. And while we found a lot of fantastic jokes, we also found some good ideas.
So, with a shoutout to MarcoRP on X, whose April Fool’s Joke gave us a good run for our money for a couple of minutes, we thought to ourselves - what would a Cybercab Charging Station / Cleaning Hub really look like?
Cybercab Wireless Charging Sites
Now, before continuing, we’d like to point out that the image up top is a joke from Marco - it isn’t an accurate or real site map submission from Tesla. However, it gave us the impetus to think critically about what is required for a Robotaxi fleet, based primarily on the Cybercab, to be able to service a city.
Requirements
Tesla will likely need to charge a small fleet of Cybercabs at a single time and in a single place. That means that the site needs to be large enough to cover a major metro area while also still being compact enough to not cost too much money to build out.
In addition, we need to factor in charge times. The Cybercab is likely to launch with a battery around 50 kWh, which will result in a range of approximately 300 miles. With that much range, the average Cybercab may not need to charge more than once or at all during daytime shifts, so instead, most of the vehicles will charge overnight.
MarcoRP
Math and Charge Times
The overnight charging means that most of these vehicles could be charged slowly. When we did some back-of-the-napkin math last year, we determined that Tesla’s wireless charger will likely peak around 17 kW (for comparison, Tesla’s Wall Connector at 32 amps charges at about 7 kW). If we scale Tesla’s wireless charger down slightly to 10 kW, accounting for some energy loss and the potential size of the site, that means a Cybercab will be able to charge in about 5 hours.
Tesla’s upcoming V4 Supercharger unit can currently handle 1.5MW per cabinet, but this slower-speed charging is A/C, not DC, which means there is a step-down loss of about 3-5%. Let’s make that a comfortable 10% for any other overages, but we can estimate around 1.35MW of power. That 1.3MW will easily handle charging up to 100 Cybercabs at once - all wirelessly, using Tesla’s unique beam-forming and beam-steering technology to keep efficiency high at every single stall.
Within about 5 hours, a whole fleet of 100 Cybercabs could be charged overnight when electricity rates are cheaper and still be out in time for the morning commute.
While this is all just hypothetical, it really does make sense that Tesla will be establishing these sites that won’t require much space or a ton of energy.
Tesla recently curtained off a large section of the parking garage at Giga Texas, as well as some of their chargers on the eastern end of the facility, leading us to believe they may just be testing this at scale internally.
There’s a lot to look forward to with Tesla’s V4 Supercharger deployment coming this year and with Robotaxi launching in just a couple of months.
