Tesla will now leverage its fleet of vehicles to help locate rough road segments or non-paved roads.
Although the entire fleet will be contributing, the first vehicles to take advantage of this information will be Tesla’s Model X and Model S vehicles with an adaptive air suspension.
Many Tesla owners have requested that their vehicles learn and adapt to rough roads.
CEO Elon Musk has stated that adaptive air suspension will remain a luxury feature and will stay exclusive to the Model S and Model X, although it's possible other vehicles in the future can take advantage of knowing the location of rough road segments by either slowing down or avoiding potholes.
In November 2020, @JohnEG78 tweeted to Musk stating, “I would like voice commands for air suspension ride height.”
Musk responded, “Ok. Overall air suspension height & dampening algorithm is getting a lot of attention. Will be linked to FSD, so [it] acts automatically.”
Ok. Overall air suspension height & damping algorithm is getting a lot of attention. Will be linked to FSD, so acts automatically.
Update 2022.20 has just started going out to select vehicles and one of the key features in the update is "Tesla Adaptive Suspension."
This feature will let your Tesla with an adaptive suspension automatically lower or raise depending on the type of road. So if you're driving and encounter a gravel or dirt road your vehicle will now automatically adjust its suspension for a smoother ride.
As Tesla ramps up their FSD rollout, the amount of real-world data that Tesla has collected is most likely more than any other automotive company.
Tesla can use this data gathered by the Tesla fleet to automatically adjust the ride height.
If more data is needed or something is inaccurate, a button on the screen or voice command would be a nice addition to report it to Tesla, similar to Tesla's FSD Beta report button.
While we don't have pothole detection and avoidance just yet this could be the start of such a feature.
“Tesla Adaptive Suspension will now adjust ride height for an upcoming rough road section. This adjustment may occur at various locations, subject to availability, as the vehicle downloads rough road map data generated by Tesla cars. The instrument cluster will continue to indicate when the suspension is raised for comfort. To enable this feature, tap Controls > Suspension > Adaptive Suspension Damping, and select the Comfort or Auto setting.”
While potholes may be more difficult for the vehicle to detect, having a built-in system similar to Waze where users can report where the pothole is could be useful. With Waze, users can report a number of issues on the road, including police presence, objects on the road, construction, accidents, and more.
If a pothole is repaired, Tesla could utilize indicators that compare the amount of times the pothole is being reported by the driver or vehicle to before it was repaired. If there are no reports of that pothole in the road anymore, Tesla’s AI could mark that pothole as repaired and remove it from the notification system or adaptive air suspension.
Adjusting Tesla's Air Suspension
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Last night, Tesla released software update 2024.45.25.15, which includes FSD V12.6.1. This update adds support for all HW3 vehicles, including the Model 3 and Model Y. We’re excited to see the continued support for HW3 owners.
FSD V12.6.1
V12.6.1 is now going wide, according to Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s VP of AI. This update is going to the Model 3 and Model Y for the first time - as only the Model S and Model X were included in FSD V12.6.
V12.6 is a big step forward for HW3 - it includes End-to-End on Highway, Improved City Streets Behavior, and Smoother and More Accurate Tracking - all contributing towards a better, smoother, and more comfortable build of FSD. You can read our comparison between FSD V12.6 and V13.2.2 here.
In short, FSD V12.6 performs considerably closer to V13 than V12.5.4.2 - which is a massive improvement. It performs as well as the Cybertruck version of FSD V13, which is still missing a few features when compared to other HW4 vehicles, but it’s a great sign for HW3. A lot of the improvements can be pointed to in the improvements to lane selection and decision-making - the vehicle tends to hesitate far less on V12.6, meaning the ride is a lot smoother. Many early V12.6 testers mentioned that it felt more like V13-mini than anything else.
Legacy Model S & X
We haven’t seen this update hit any legacy Model S and Model X vehicles just yet. We’re not sure whether Ashok’s statement of “generally” applies here - but it should. If you do get the update, please let us know.
Legacy Model S and Model X vehicles are still on an older FSD build and potentially won’t see another FSD update for a little while longer. While they do have the same FSD hardware as other vehicles, there are enough hardware differences that require a build specifically for these vehicles.
FSD V12.6.1 is going out now to the redesigned Model S and X with HW3 and all Model 3 and Model Y vehicles with HW3. The initial wave went out last night, and we expect to see more later today or tomorrow. If this release ends up going “wide,” we should see much larger waves go out next week.
Tesla has issued a recall for some vehicles due to issues linked to a revision of the Hardware 4 (HW4) computer that was introduced this past November. This recall affects all vehicles with the revised hardware except for the Cybertruck, as it uses a slightly modified version of the HW4 system.
Many vehicle owners have reported a complete failure of their Autopilot computer, which not only leaves the vehicle without FSD and Autopilot but also disables many of the active safety features that make a Tesla what it is.
Let’s take a look at this recall - because the recall is partially physical and partially a software recall.
HW4 Failure
Tesla has identified the failure and flagged it to the U.S. NHTSA (but not Transport Canada or Euro NCAP at the time of publishing) as a recall.
Tesla mentions that the vehicle’s FSD computer circuit board may short circuit, resulting in the loss of the rearview camera image. The recall itself is focused on the rearview camera - as not having a functional rearview camera breaks a Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard. However, it does impact more than just the rearview camera.
As previously mentioned, users have experienced the full loss of Autopilot and FSD on these vehicles, as well as reduced traction control and removal of safety features such as automatic emergency braking, collision avoidance assist, and forward collision warnings.
While the vehicle remains driveable, it is not necessarily a good idea to drive the vehicle with many of these features, especially with the reduced traction control noted by many people. We’ve already noted that while Tesla has been sending tow trucks to pick up some vehicles, it is also prompting owners to drive the vehicle to their service center in some cases.
Remedy
Unlike most of Tesla’s recalls, this one isn’t entirely an OTA recall, owing to the fact that people have already experienced circuit board shorts and are already waiting for replacements.
The software portion of the recall has already been mostly completed for any vehicles with Tesla software update 2024.45.25.3 or greater. However, a significant portion of the tracked fleet remains on update 2024.44.25.2 (approximately 20%), so we recommend updating your HW4 vehicle whenever you receive the notification.
On the hardware side, Tesla is immediately identifying and replacing hardware that has had circuit board failure. Tesla is also reaching out to customers who have expressed intermittent issues with Autopilot features, active safety features, or vehicle cameras that don't display correctly. If you have experienced any of these issues in a late 2024 vehicle, we recommend submitting a service ticket with Tesla to ensure that your vehicle isn’t affected by this recall.
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