As a Tesla fan, you’re likely already aware that most American-made cars are Teslas, but we wouldn’t be surprised if many people still think it’s one of the Detroit Big-3.
Tesla produces most of the parts for the North American versions of the Model 3 and Model Y in the United States, with some parts coming from facilities inside Canada, so it's all kept relatively local. As a background fact, both the study and the United States government consider parts from Canada as domestic content, and there is no differentiation between US-made or Canadian-made parts.
Tesla’s supply chain is designed with a strong emphasis on reducing transportation costs. By streamlining the movement of goods between part production facilities and their Gigafactories, Tesla not only lowers expenses but also secures its position as the leading manufacturer of American-made vehicles.
First, Second, Third, Fourth… and Fifth!
According to a study from American University’s Kogod School of Business, Tesla not only makes the most American-made car but actually makes the top five most American-made cars, with the Model S and Model X being tied for the number four spot.
Rank
Model
US Domestic Content
1
Model 3 Performance
87.5%
2
Model Y
85%
3
Cybertruck
82.5%
4
Model S
80%
4
Model X
80%
4
Ford Mustang GT Models
80%
The Model 3 and Model Y easily dominate the top two spots, coming in with US Domestic Content rates of 87.5% and 85%, respectively.
For comparison, the first non-Tesla on the list has an 80% rate, while the 10th most American car has a 73% rate. So, the Model 3 and Model Y are significantly more American-made than the other leaders on the list.
Every Tesla vehicle is mostly American-made, and even the Cybertruck is ranked 82.5% American just a year after its launch.
The closest competitor is Ford’s Mustang GT - in a couple of variants, meeting the 80% mark. Many would normally think Ford, GM, or Stellantis would have taken up all these spots, but this isn’t the case. In fact, tied for #5 is the Honda Passport with 76.5%.
Tesla not only produces some of the safest vehicles in the world, but they’re easily the most American made year after year. We’d love to see another study at the manufacturer level, where the maker’s whole lineup of vehicles is considered instead of just specific models. It seems that there would be a stark difference from number two.
With the current list of incentives running through the end of the year, now is a great time to buy a new Tesla.
Tesla’s latest FSD Release - V13.2.1 began to go out in small waves just a few days ago. It included a bevy of new features and was the first release of FSD V13 to go past the early-access testers. While this release requires AI4/HW4, it’s available on all Tesla models, including the S, 3, X, Y, and, for the first time, the Cybertruck.
Now, Tesla’s VP of AI - Ashok Elluswamy, has confirmed that this release is going wide, meaning most HW4 vehicles in the U.S. and Canada should receive it in the next couple of weeks.
Ashok also said that vehicles on FSD V13 won’t have to wait much longer for Tesla’s Holiday update.
When Will You Receive FSD V13
Right now Tesla is rolling out FSD V13.2.1 to vehicles on an earlier version. So if you were already on FSD V13, or V12.5.x, then you should receive Tesla’s latest FSD build very soon.
However, if you’ve already received the Holiday update, then you’ll have to wait until Tesla’s FSD V13.2 build supports the Holiday update with version 2024.44.25.x. Once that’s available, you’ll be eligible to receive FSD V13.2 as well.
Should I Subscribe?
A question we hear often is whether someone should subscribe or unsubscribe to FSD in order to receive a certain update. If you don’t currently subscribe to FSD, now may be the perfect time to do so. It’ll instantly unlock FSD V12.5.4.2, which is included in the Holiday update. However, it’ll also make you eligible for the newest FSD updates, which should include FSD V13.2 with the holiday update features included in the near future.
When Is the Holiday Update Coming For V13 Users?
The 2024 Tesla Holiday update introduced many fantastic new features and changes, including the much-anticipated Apple Watch app. In addition, Tesla added a Dashcam and Sentry Mode viewer to the Tesla app and the ability to start a Light Show from the app.
On the safety and accessibility side, we also received Rear Cross Traffic Alert, another hotly-awaited feature.
There were a ton of navigation-related improvements, too, including Search Along Route - which also provides estimated detour times - and Arrival Energy at Destination. Weather got a rework, too - vehicles with AMD Ryzen processors received a precipitation map, while all vehicles received Weather at Destination.
While the majority of users have already received the Holiday update, the Tesla VP says that FSD V13 users can expect it within a week. So, hopefully, by this time next week, you’ll be playing with all the Christmas goodies.
It's been a while since HW3 owners have received a new FSD update, with the latest update coming with FSD version 12.5.4.2. While this version added vision-based attention monitoring with sunglasses, it’s still far behind the latest features available on FSD v13.2.1.
Tesla shared their FSD roadmap twice in the past few months, but HW3 was mostly left out, except for a single bullet point that stated there would be improved V12.5.x AI models for city driving.
We’ve recently seen HW4 vehicles receive much larger AI models, camera improvements that include processing video feeds at full resolution and 36 FPS, and much more. FSD V13 also gained features such as the ability to reverse and start FSD from park, amongst others.
It’s clear that HW3 is not powerful enough to run these latest FSD models, but HW3 owners are right to feel left out and disappointed with Tesla selling vehicles with HW3 up through the middle of 2023. Elon Musk has stated that Tesla will upgrade HW3 cars if needed, but are left in the dark in terms of what the upgrade will be and when it’ll become available.
Since that comment from Musk and Tesla’s updated roadmap in late October, Tesla hasn’t shared any additional news on HW3, until now.
Ashok Elluswamy, VP of AI at Tesla, has confirmed on X that an FSD update for HW3 owners is coming before the end of the year. Putting aside the 2 weeks joke, he did confirm that FSD V12.6 will be on its way for HW3 vehicles by the end of the year - which just happens to be about 2 weeks away.
FSD V12.6
WholeMarsBlog on X
It seems that the V12.6 build will be unique to Hardware 3 - as there haven’t been any builds with that FSD version yet. The closest build that we have to look at is FSD V12.5.6.4, which only went out to HW4 vehicles. We expect FSD V12.6 to include everything in 12.5.6.4 with possibly some additions.
FSD V12.5.6 brought a lot of improvements. We covered all of the features in FSD 12.5.6 previously, if you want a detailed breakdown and photos of all the features. However, here’s a high level overview of everything that version included:
Better and More Natural Lane Change Decisions
Updated Speed Profiles, including Hurry Mode
Auto Speed Changes
End-to-End Highway Stack
Audio Data Collection
These changes greatly improved FSD on HW4, so we’ll have to wait and see if they provide similar improvements for HW3 vehicles. The more natural decisions should improve overall smoothness and get rid of the jerky-wheel syndrome and green-light braking that has become synonymous with V12.5.4.2. Alongside better lane selection, this makes the entire experience much smoother and more fitting of Full Self Driving.
The updated speed profiles are applicable on both roads and highways (up to 50 mph with this version), which means you’ll get an updated Chill Mode (with Minimal Lane Changes), Standard Mode, and the new Hurry Mode, which is focused on driving faster and making more frequent lane changes.
Auto Speed has also been removed in favor of Max Speed, which will let you define an overall max while letting FSD still pick its overall speed up to that maximum set speed. You can adjust the hard max by using your scroll wheel to slow down or speed up the vehicle.
However, the biggest feature in this update is the new End-to-End Highway Stack, which finally brings the benefits of FSD V12 on city streets to highway driving.
The final feature that we’re expecting in FSD V12.6 is the ability to collect audio data to begin training for hearing emergency vehicles. This one will be big and it’s what will make FSD feel very human-like. Tesla is starting off with detecting emergency vehicles, but you can expect them to start detecting much more than that soon.
Tesla hints at that in their release notes, saying that audio sharing will be used for features such as emergency vehicle detection. Expect FSD to react to more in the future, such as vehicles honking or someone yelling. Tesla also said that they’ll be looking to have the vehicle honk when needed.
Why FSD 12.6
It’s interesting that Tesla is choosing to name this version FSD 12.6 instead of FSD 12.5.6.x, like they’ve done in the past. This points at some additional improvements being included, but it’s not clear what they could be. Could Tesla bring down some improvements from FSD V13, or add some features such as the ability to reverse?
Tesla may want to stay away from the FSD V13 name if the HW3 version isn’t going to perform as well as FSD V13 on HW4, but at the same time, they could simplify some FSD V13 features and make them available for HW3 owners.
What’s in FSD V13
Let’s take a quick look at all the features in FSD V13 that weren’t in FSD 12.5.6.x. FSD V13 includes significant improvements to the FSD model that just won’t fit into HW3 that are likely responsible the the smoothness seen in FSD V13. This includes a much larger model, full camera resolution, higher frame rates, and more, but FSD V13 also includes these additional features:
Speed Profiles on both City Streets and Highways (available on all roads and speeds)
Integrated unpark, reverse, and park capabilities
Start FSD from Park
Improved reward predictions for collision avoidance
Improved camera cleaning
Redesigned controller for smoother, more accurate tracking
Dynamic routing around road closures, which displays them along an affected route when they are detected by the fleet
While the larger model of FSD V13 is not expected to be available for HW3 vehicles, some of these other features have the possibility of making the cut in V12.6.
Legacy Vehicles
There’s no news on Model S and Model X legacy vehicles with MCU 1 receiving the same update just yet. Teslas with MCU 1 did receive FSD V12.3.6 on update 2024.26.3.1, but we haven’t seen anything indicating there will be another update coming soon. However, getting FSD 12.6 out for HW3 with MCU 2 could be the precursor to it becoming available for older MCU 1 vehicles.
We’re super excited to hear Tesla talking about HW3 vehicles and that an update is coming in just a couple of weeks. While it’s not FSD V13, it could provide massive improvements until a hardware upgrade becomes available for HW3 owners.
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