The screen will go black for a short time. A star field will swiftly appear and zoom forward, closely resembling a jump to ludicrous speed from the movie Spaceballs.
In subsequent updates, this Easter egg was co-opted to activate a genuine "ludicrous+" performance enhancement beyond the normal ludicrous mode. When the Easter egg is activated, the star field zooms forward until the entire screen is momentarily white. When the flash fades, a text box is revealed which asks "Are you sure you want to push the limits? This will cause accelerated wear of the motor, gearbox and battery". As a nod to The Matrix, a metaphorical red pill and blue pill option is given in the form of two buttons at the bottom of the text box. A blue button reads "No, I want my Mommy" while a red button exclaims "Yes, bring it on!".
If "Yes, bring it on!" is chosen, the car may prepare itself by heating the battery. The smaller display in front of the driver changes to give a purple indicator for battery temperature, to show the front and rear motors on the car graphic, and to give a table with values including peak longitudinal acceleration.
In the movie Spaceballs, there is only one speed which exceeds ludicrous. As a continuation of Tesla's use of Spaceballs terminology, future versions of the Model S and Model X, as well as the Tesla Roadster (2021), will include a new mode of acceleration which is even faster than Ludicrous+. This new mode is called "Plaid".
This easter egg works on the Model S and X. Vehicle must have the ludicrous mode option.
To activate this easter egg: In the controls menu, switch the software-controlled acceleration from "sport" to "ludicrous" and then tap and hold on the "ludicrous" text for 5 seconds.
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Tesla has updated its Vehicle Safety Report once again, in line with the third financial quarter of 2024. Each quarter, alongside its Earnings Call, Tesla provides an update to its Vehicle Safety Report, which includes a massive amount of data on how safe Tesla’s vehicles are.
Q3 2024
In the third quarter, Tesla vehicles had one crash every 7.08 million miles while drivers were using either Autopilot or FSD. Meanwhile, those who didn’t use either regularly had one crash every 1.29 million miles in a Tesla.
The NHTSA shows that the average driver is in a crash once every 670,000 miles. Even if you weren’t using Autopilot or FSD but were in a Tesla, you were twice as unlikely to be in a crash. If you were using Autopilot or FSD, you were over 10.5 less likely to be in an accident compared to the average driver in the United States.
In Q1 2024, Tesla achieved a record-breaking 7.6 million miles driven before an accident while on Autopilot or FSD, and they’re trending back upwards after a Q2 miss at 6.8 million miles. Every batch of major improvements has increased this number drastically. If we look back to Q3 2021, it was only 5.5 million miles, while Q3 2019 was at 3.85 million miles.
It’s not a coincidence that Tesla’s safety numbers continue to improve. Tesla’s overall package of safety features, including technologies like Automatic Emergency Braking, Lane Departure Avoidance, and Collision Avoidance Assist, work through FSD’s vision-based system to keep both the vehicle’s occupants as well as other road users safe. Tesla continues to improve these safety features through continuous software updates, and as FSD improves, so do these safety features.
When you combine safety features with the only fully vision-based self-driving package on the market, you’ve got a vehicle that is demonstrably safer than the average road vehicle.
Following the massive adoption of the North American Charging Standard, or NACS, Tesla has launched another industry standard that it hopes other manufacturers will adopt.
This new standard is called LVCS, or Low-Voltage Connector Standard. It consists of six different connectors and a cable, simplifying a vehicle's internal electrical and data connections to that one standard.
LVCS
LVCS has six different connectors designed to deliver the power, data, and signal requirements for 90% of the internal systems in a modern EV. What’s interesting is that LVCS is built using the same 48V standard that Tesla provided to manufacturers when volume production of the Cybertruck took off.
Tesla previously shared that 48V standard by mailing it to every major automaker in North America in December 2023.
They weren't joking. We received the document today, dated Dec. 5th. Thanks, @ElonMusk. Great for the industry! https://t.co/DkLaHA84CY
Just like the 48V standard and NACS, LVCS has the chance to have a wide-ranging impact on the automotive industry as manufacturers follow Tesla’s technical engineering standards. If manufacturers adopt LVCS, it’ll be easier for both first and third-party technicians to repair vehicles, as the cables and connectors they’ll need to use will be standardized.
It’ll also improve operational efficiencies across the industry, helping to spur further cost reductions and improve manufacturing and automation. Essentially, Tesla is setting the stage to standardize the 48V standard they pioneered with the Cybertruck. The upcoming Model Y Juniper Refresh will likely be the first mass-market vehicle with a 48-volt low-voltage system. We already know that the new Cybercab and the Robovan are also running on 48V.
LVCS is another fantastic initiative from Tesla to standardize components, reduce waste, and improve the repair environment across all automotive manufacturers.
Tesla released an official statement on the LVCS system, which points out several key improvements:
Tesla’s new Low-Voltage Connector Standard (LVCS) reduces the required connector types from over 200 to six, covering 90% of device needs.
Using a 48V architecture like Cybertruck’s, LVCS improves efficiency with a quarter of the current needed for the same power.