Tesla is changing its referral program, again.

May 6, 2021

By Henry Farkas

Tesla is changing its rewards program again.

Tesla Model Y

According to Electrek, Tesla, which famously doesn’t have a public relations department and doesn’t spend money on advertising, is now looking to change its referral program rewards again, removing the reward of a thousand miles of free Supercharging for people who refer new customers.

I had a thousand miles of free Supercharging because I used the referral code of a cousin when I bought my Tesla. I bought it during the pandemic so I wasn’t going anywhere. I went ahead and supercharged a few times just to see what Supercharging was like. Since my free Supercharging miles expired six months after I bought my car, it’s all gone now even though I used only about two hundred miles of free Supercharging.

It’s certainly true that some people got lots of free Supercharging because they had a YouTube channel with Tesla-themed videos so lots of people used their link when they bought their Tesla. Tesla says it has spent twenty-three million dollars in the last quarter alone on free Supercharging rewards. Tesla relies on owners, and YouTubers to do their advertising for them. And that advertising must be working since Tesla seems to be able to sell as many cars as they can make. I’m seeing Teslas everywhere I drive these days.

According to the article in Electrek, they’re going to stop awarding miles to people whose referral code was used. In fact, they’re going to stop using referral codes entirely. That will prevent some people from getting large rewards because their referral code was attached to their YouTube videos. Instead, they’re going to use the Tesla app to link potential Tesla buyers to current owners who are willing to give test drives. If the potential buyer who took a test drive becomes an actual buyer, the person who gave the test drive will get rewarded. The article doesn’t say what, exactly, the reward will be.

So, thinking about this new situation, it seems like Tesla wants to reduce the number of test drives at the Tesla stores. There was a time when Elon Musk wanted to eliminate the stores entirely, but cooler heads convinced him that people want test drives, and test drives lead to sales. It looks to me like he’s trying again to reduce his expenditures for salespersons. So what does that mean for us, the current Tesla owners?

I suspect that everything will depend on the reward. Do I want to spend time giving test drives to strangers in my personal car? Not really, unless the reward is interesting. Let’s face it, 1,000 miles of free Supercharging would cost about forty-two dollars. And, if that was the reward for making a sale, you’d get it only when you actually made a sale. You might need to take three or four people on test drives, maybe more than that, in order to make a sale. Let’s say it’s four test drives per sale. Each test drive would last around a half-hour. So that’s two hours work to earn 1,000 miles of Supercharging, around forty-two dollars, or $21 an hour. That sounds like a lot if you’re an unemployed person, but it’s not much if you’re a person who can afford a Tesla Model 3 or Model Y. It’s peanuts if you’re a person who can afford a Tesla Model S or Model X, and it’s inconsequential if you’re a person who can afford a Tesla Roadster.

And why does Elon Musk want to do this? He wants to sell cars without spending much money on the sales process. Tesla makes great cars, but I don’t think they’re going to sell themselves. I have to hesitate before I tell someone as successful as Elon Musk how to run his business. I’m not as smart as he is. But I suspect that the reward for making a sale will have to be more interesting than a thousand miles of free Supercharging. So far, the reward is unspecified. Stay tuned, though. We should find out more soon.

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Tesla Starts Rolling Out HW3 Support for FSD to Chinese Employees

March 16, 2025

By Not a Tesla App Staff

Tesla Newswire

Tesla is getting ready to start rolling out FSD support for hardware 3 vehicles in China. Tesla is internally testing what appears to be a build of FSD V12.6 on HW3 vehicles with its employees.

A post on Chinese social media platform Rednote initially shared the software update details and was then shared by Tesla Newswire. We’ve verified that the vehicle in question is a 2023 Model Y, confirming it falls within the HW3 hardware generation.

Tesla initially introduced FSD for HW4/AI4 vehicles in China in late February, making this a surprisingly fast follow-up to extend support to HW3 vehicles. The Chinese rollout of FSD also came just a couple weeks after Tesla introduced FSD in Mexico.

FSD V12.6 Primer

We reviewed FSD V12.6 in depth here, and provided a comparison to FSD V13 here, but here’s the key points you’ll need to know.

FSD V12.6 is Tesla’s latest revision of FSD for HW3 vehicles and it’s is very comparable to FSD V13 in terms of features. It includes 3 speed profiles, Chill, Standard, and Hurry, which control how aggressive FSD is in making lane changes and ensuring it stays at, near, or above the speed limit.

This version of FSD also comes with an improved controller, as well as earlier and more natural lane change decisions, making it far more capable than V12.5 or V12.3 builds.

For Chinese customers getting their first taste of FSD after using Autopilot for years, it’s mindblowing. It can handle city level streets, hanlde turns and traffic control signs and get you to your destination with minimal interventions.

When Does It Release?

Given’s China’s more crowded streets and more complex road layouts, we weren’t sure whether Tesla would introduce support for HW3 vehicles in the market. This news is a positive and encouraging sign, not only for FSD in China, but for all HW3 vehicle owners out there.

Tesla usually releases updates to employees in advance of releasing them to its general customers - providing them with a second chance to find and fix bugs. Usually, once updates make their way to employee vehicles, and barring any major issues, they begin rolling out to customers within one to two weeks.

China currently requires owners to buy FSD, as FSD subscriptions aren’t available in the country yet. If you’re in China and bought FSD on a HW3 vehicle, it may not be long before you have access to FSD.

A Look at the Tesla Cybertruck’s Crumple Zones [VIDEO]

March 14, 2025

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

Tesla’s Cybertruck has officially earned a 5-Star Safety Rating from the NHTSA—an impressive achievement given the vehicle’s design. The achievement demonstrates Tesla’s engineering prowess. As one engineer points out, it wasn’t an easy feat.

Interestingly, the NHTSA only recently disclosed the results, despite the crash tests being completed a while ago. According to Lars Moravy, Tesla’s VP of Vehicle Engineering, the team had been aware of the 5-star rating for quite some time. While the reason for the delay remains unclear, now that the results are public, Tesla’s engineers can finally share how they achieved the rating.

Crumple Zones

Wes Morril, the Cybertruck’s Lead Engineer, wrote about the crash test video on X recently, addressing the claims that the Cybertruck doesn’t have a crumple zone. He also posted a side-by-side video (below) of the engineering analysis and the crash test itself.

Engineered Crash Safety

There’s a lot of engineering precision at play when a Cybertruck is involved in a crash. Unlike traditional crash structures that rely on crash cans and collapse points, the Cybertruck’s front gigacasting is designed to absorb and redirect impact forces in a highly controlled manner.

It all starts with the bumper beam, which crushes within the first few milliseconds of a high-speed impact. At the same time, the vehicle’s sensors rapidly analyze the crash dynamics and determine the optimal deployment of safety restraints, including airbags and seat belt pre-tensioners. These split-second actions are crucial in keeping occupants safe.

As the crash progresses, the vehicle’s structure deforms in a carefully engineered sequence. The drive unit cradle bends, directing the solid drive unit downward and out of the way, allowing the gigacasting to begin absorbing impact forces.

The casting crushes cell by cell, methodically dissipating energy in a controlled manner. This gradual deceleration reduces the g-forces transferred to occupants, making the crash much less severe. As the gigacast begins crushing, the safety restraints are deployed.

As Wes points out in his post - you can see how accurate the virtual analysis and modeling were. The video shows the simulated crash side by side with the real-life crash test and they’re almost identical. All that virtual testing helps provide feedback into the loop to design a better and safer system - one that is uniquely different than any other vehicle on the road.

All the armchair experts claimed the Cybertruck has no crumple zone and I get it, the proportions seem impossible. It was a tough one and there is a lot of engineering that went into it. Let me break it down for you:

Here you can see the large single piece casting in action in a… https://t.co/Jk4X5erTcm pic.twitter.com/24Nmb1bmU5
— Wes (@wmorrill3) February 20, 2025