Tesla service is on another level. They can even tell if you're in the drivers seat

By Barry Shell

Tesla service vehicle

After two months it was time to set up a service appointment with Tesla to take care of a few minor deficiencies. We've had our new Tesla SR+ (blue) 2021 model since mid November 2020. The experience of dealing with Tesla Service was unlike any other car dealer and I learned a thing or two in the process. Now I know how to better track problems with our new car. Again as in so many other areas, Tesla has reimagined the automobile service experience. Here's what I found out.

Instead of phoning the dealer, Tesla gets you to make a service appointment using the Tesla app on your phone. After you make contact, they ask you to list your issues using the built in private messaging system in the app. Among other things one problem with our new car is that sometimes the car's touch screen just goes black for a few minutes. This has only happened when the car is stopped but it's quite scary because nearly everything is controlled from that screen. After 2 - 4 minutes it always comes back on. But when it happens it's unnerving. To be clear: you can still drive the car when the touch screen is black, but you cannot use the entertainment system, the climate control, the mirror adjustments, and much more. You also don't get a speedometer. It's pretty strange.

In the days before the service appointment a technician sent me a message asking if I could give the exact times and circumstances when the screen went black. I was not able to tell them because these black-outs happened at random over a two month period, and I could not remember dates and times exactly. But a few days later I was slowly backing the car into the garage and suddenly the whole car stopped, the screen went black, and everything turned off. It was weird. My service appointment was not for a few days yet, so right that minute I used the app to send a message telling the Tesla technicians the exact time this happened to the minute.

In a few hours I got a message back saying, "This is the Tesla remote technician. At the time stamp you provided the vehicle shows you were in reverse and the seat belt was unbuckled, and the drivers seat occupancy sensor was fluctuating like you were lifting on and off of the seat. This can be caused by leaning too hard one way or the other. This can confuse the car making it think no one is present, and it will cause the car to shut down. Please remain in the seat with the buckle on while driving."

The amazing fact is: it's all true. I was just moving the car from the front of the house to park it in the garage and I had not bothered to put on the seatbelt for this simple task. Also, our single car garage door is pretty narrow and the Model 3 just fits with a couple inches to spare on both sides. So while backing up I was twisting around in the seat to look behind and line up the car perfectly and in so doing I did lift my bum off the seat a bit. So this totally explains why the car shut down. It thought no one was driving! The fact that the remote technician at Tesla had all this information at their fingertips is at once brilliant but also chilling. They know EVERYTHING!! They know if I have my seatbelt on, and they even know if I'm twisting around in the seat. It's kind of frightening, and it shows that Teslas and probably all cars in the future are going to know a lot about us and our driving habits. Of course Tesla promises not to use this information, but what guarantee do we have that they will keep that promise? That's another story.

In the meantime, I suppose it's a good thing overall, and in this case it helped me understand the car better. I now put my seatbelt on even to park it in the garage. What's more, whenever I have a new issue with the car I now know to write down the exact time to the minute when it happens. No car in the past ever required this, but with Teslas it's a new habit that everyone should learn. With such time stamps technicians can do amazing things. In some cases they might even be able to solve the problem without you even having to bring the car into the shop. Now that is progress. When it comes to designing cars Elon Musk once said, "No part is the best part." In the same way, no service visit is the best service visit.

Tesla Doubles Robotaxi Service Area, Now Larger than Waymo

By Karan Singh
Not a Tesla App

To show off its scalability, Tesla has officially launched its first major expansion of its Robotaxi service area in Austin, Texas. The expansion comes just 22 days after the program’s initial public launch.

That’s a stunningly quick pace that sets a benchmark for how fast we’ll be expecting Tesla to roll out additional expansions as they validate and safety-check in additional area and cities. The new geofence not only adds a significant amount of new territory, but also makes Tesla’s service area in Austin approximately 4 miles larger than Waymo’s.

The expansion, which went live for users in the early access program earlier today, reshapes the map into… what we can call an upside-down T. It helps connect more parts of the city, and increases the service area by more than double.

So far, the initial launch has been operating without any significant issues, which means Tesla is ready and willing to continue expanding the program.

Rapid Scaling

While the larger map is a clear win for early-access users and especially those who live in Austin, the most significant aspect here is just how fast Tesla is going. Achieving a major expansion in just over three weeks since its initial launch is a testament to Tesla’s generalized autonomy approach with vision only.

Unlike methods that require intensive, street-by-street HD mapping that can take months or even years just to expand to a few new streets, Tesla’s strategy is built for this type of speed.

This is Tesla’s key advantage - it can leverage its massive fleet and AI to build a generalized, easily-applicable understanding of the world. Expanding to a new area becomes less about building a brand-new, high-definition map of every street light and obstacle, but instead a targeted safety validation process.

Tesla can deploy a fleet of validation vehicles to intensely focus on one zone, allowing the neural nets to learn the quirks of that area’s intersections and traffic flows. Once a high level of safety and reliability is demonstrated, Tesla can simply just redraw the geofence.

Geofence Size

Tesla went from approximately 19.7 sq mi (51 sq km) to 42.07 sq mi (109 sq km)in just 22 days, following the initial launch and safety validation. Within a few short days of launch, we began seeing the first Tesla engineering validation vehicles, hitting Austin’s downtown core, preparing for the next phase.

The larger footprint means more utility for riders, and that’s big, especially since the new service area is approximately four square miles larger than Waymo’s established operational zone in the city.

Highways and Fleet Size

The new territory enables longer and more practical trips, with the longest trip at tip-to-tip taking about 42 minutes from the southern edge of the old geofence to the northern edge of the new geofence. For now, Tesla has limited its fleet to operating exclusively on surface streets and does not use highways to complete its routes.

We also don’t know if Tesla has increased the vehicle fleet size quite yet - but if they’re intending to maintain or reduce wait times for even the early-access riders, the fleet size will easily need to be doubled to keep up with the new area.

Next Expansion Underway

Perhaps the most telling bit about how fast Tesla is expanding is that they’re already laying the groundwork for the next expansion. Validation vehicles have been spotted operating in Kyle, Texas, approximately 20 miles south of the geofence’s southern border.

Robotaxi Validation vehicles operating in Kyle, Texas.
Robotaxi Validation vehicles operating in Kyle, Texas.
Financial_Weight_989 on Reddit

This means that while one expansion is being rolled out to the public, Tesla is already having its engineering and validation teams work on the next expansion. That relentless pace means that if this keeps up, Tesla will likely have a good portion of the Austin metropolitan area - the zone they’ve applied for their Autonomy license for - serviceable by the end of 2025.

The pilot? A success. The first expansion? Done. The second expansion? Already in progress. Robotaxi is going to go places, and the next question won't be about whether the network is going to grow. Instead, the new questions are: How fast, and where next?

How to Retrofit a Front Bumper Camera on a HW4 Model S and Model X

By Karan Singh
Tutrifour/X

One of the most welcome features of the recently refreshed 2026 Model S and Model X is the addition of a front bumper camera. Now, thanks to some clever work by the Tesla community, it has been confirmed that this highly requested feature can be retrofitted onto older HW4-equipped (AI4) Model S and Model X vehicles.

The discovery and first installation were performed by Yaro on a Model X, and Tesla hacker Green helped provide some additional insight on the software side.

Unused Port and a Software Switch

The foundation for this retrofit has been in place for a long time, laid by Tesla itself. All HW4-equipped Model S and Model X vehicles, even those built before the recent refresh, have an empty, unused camera connector slot on the FSD computer, seemingly waiting for this exact purpose.

While the physical port is there, getting the car to recognize the camera requires a software change. According to Green, a simple configuration flag change is all that is needed to enable the front camera view on the vehicle’s main display once the hardware is connected and ready.

The Hardware: Parts & Costs

Yaro, who performed the installation on a Model X, provided a detailed breakdown of the parts and approximate costs involved.

  • Front Camera - $200 USD

  • Bumper Grill (with camera cutout) - $80 USD

  • Bumper Harness - $130 USD

  • Washer Pump - $15 USD

  • Washer Hoses - $30 USD

The total cost for the Model X hardware comes to around $455 USD, which isn’t too expensive if you were to DIY it. Tesla’s Electronic Parts Catalog has some of these parts available for order, and some can be ordered via your local Service Center. Yaro did note that he had to jerry-rig the camera connector cable, having salvaged the cable from a different camera harness.

The Model S vs Model X

This is where the project varies significantly. For the Model X, the retrofit is relatively simple. Because the main bumper shape is the same, only the lower bumper grill needs to be swapped for the version with the camera opening, along with installing the camera itself and the washer hardware.

For the Model S, the process is a bit more complex and expensive. Due to the different shape of the pre-refresh bumper, the entire front fascia assembly must be replaced to accommodate the camera. This makes the project far more expensive and laborious.

DIY or Official Retrofit?

The official front bumper camera on the Model X
The official front bumper camera on the Model X
Not a Tesla App

Right now, this is only a DIY retrofit. Tesla hasn’t indicated that they intend to offer this as an official retrofit for older vehicles at this time, but given the fact that it isn’t too complex, we expect that there is a possibility that they may do so in the near future.

All in all, this is about 3-5 hours of labor for the Model X, and approximately 5-7 hours of labor for the Model S, based on the official Tesla Service Manuals, using the front fascia reinstall process as a guide.

That means if Tesla does offer this as a retrofit service, it will likely cost between $800 and $1,200 USD when factoring in Tesla’s labor rates, but the total cost will vary regionally.

For those who own an AI4 Model S or Model X, it could be possible to request service for this installation, but as far as we’re aware, there is no official service notice for this retrofit at this time.

What About the Model 3?

For owners of the refreshed Highland Model 3, the only vehicle now left without a front bumper camera, the possibility of a retrofit is still uncertain. It has been noted by Green that some, but not all Model 3s built in late 2024 have an empty camera port on the FSD computer. This inconsistency means that while a retrofit may be possible for a subset of Model 3s, it isn’t a guaranteed upgrade path like it is for the Model S or Model X.

Overall, it's a fantastic opportunity for owners of older Model S and Model X vehicles to get a slight hardware refresh, which can get them one of the best new features from the 2026 refresh.

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