Tesla is bringing a new approach to buying a used car
Tesla
Tesla's used car division is transforming how people buy vehicles, and they are not resorting to “wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube men” to do so. Tesla’s Director of Sales and Delivery Operations, Jimmy Douglas, told Electrek that he doesn’t need the attention-grabbing inflatables to beat the online used car giants.
Tesla seemingly stumbled into a brilliant plan to sell its used cars. In 2019, the electric vehicle trailblazer announced that it would not allow people who leased their Model 3s to sell them after; instead, the vehicle must be returned to the dealership. The original plan was to retrofit these previously loved cars to become the RoboTaxi. The RoboTaxi program, a fully autonomous vehicle that would take over the ridesharing sector, is still under development, so now Tesla has thousands of cars coming back to the lot.
The timing could not be more ideal. The demand for EVs has never been higher. However, some prospective buyers get sticker shock when shopping for electric vehicles, including the biggest name in the sector. A simple solution is to buy used. Used vehicle sales topped 40 million in the United States alone in 2021, compared to 15 million new vehicles.
Nevertheless, there is still the longstanding stereotype of the sleazy, used car salesperson pushing a shiny lemon at unsuspecting shoppers. That is certainly not the case with Tesla. Instead, the used car sales run similarly to the new car buying experience.
Douglas said to Electrek, “Most people don’t realize that Tesla runs its own vertically-integrated, nationwide online used car retailer. It’s as big as some publicly traded used car retailers you’ve definitely heard of, despite no Super Bowl commercials.” It can only be assumed he is referring to Carvana, which launched its Over Sharing Mom commercial during the 2022 Super Bowl. The used car company is valued at $4.69 billion.
Tesla does not have a line item showing how much its used car division is worth. That section of the company falls under Services and Other; on the most recent filing with the SEC, that number is $1.4 billion.
While it is not Carvana’s value, it is still a big chunk of change, especially because Tesla has recently stopped lessees from selling any of its products at the end of the term. That means a never-ending supply of used cars will be returned to the dealership.
In addition, the company is preparing for growth in this division. A recently posted job at Tesla reads: “Would you like to be part of a team transforming the way people buy a car?” Douglas is hiring an associate manager of used car quality. The posting continues, “As a leader in Tesla’s Used Car business, you are responsible for the development of the refurbishment process and managing daily refurbishment operations.”
Perhaps the used car division will get more respect in the future at Tesla and not be lumped into the 'other' category. That category has grown by 50 percent since last year. At this pace, used cars deserve a line of their own.
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The feature is now possible thanks to what Wes Morrill, Cybertruck’s lead engineering, points out is a huge rewrite of Tesla’s Trip Planner, which not only makes it much more accurate but will now allow users to choose their arrival charge percentage.
More Accurate Trip Planner
When you navigate to a destination, your Tesla will automatically calculate when, where, and how much you need to charge. While the process seems straightforward, Tesla deserves a lot of credit for creating a simple user experience because a lot goes into accurately determining this information.
Tesla has to calculate many moving pieces in order to accurately predict when and where you should stop. First, it needs to consider your driving efficiency and wind direction, terrain elevation, traffic, vehicle speed, and ambient temperature. It also needs to predict the best Superchargers to stop at, taking into account congestion and charger speed.
Now, according to Wes’ post this morning, Tesla has made backend improvements to the Trip Planner, thanks to a rewrite by several engineers, that bring even more accurate predictions to Trip Planner.
It sounds like these changes are mostly server-side, so thanks to their OTA connection, more accurate predictions should be available to all vehicles—no vehicle update is required.
Arrival State of Charge
Along with Tesla’s improvements to Trip Planner, Wes also stated that these improvements allow for a popular feature request — the ability to select your desired charge level at arrival.
Up until now, Tesla’s Trip Planner tried to get you to your destination as quickly as possible, which usually meant arriving with a low state of charge.
While this was fine if you have a charger at your destination, it’s not great if you don’t, or it could be even worse if there are no chargers nearby.
Max de Zegher said on X that he has heard the requests for a selectable arrival state of charge. Wes later clarified this by saying that these improvements to Tesla’s Trip Planner now allow for additional features to be added, such as “desired arrival charge.”
Actually trip planner got a huge rewrite on the back end. I had a great conversation with one of the engineers working on this over a morning run a few weeks back, it's pretty neat. The rewrite also unlocks additional features, like desired arrival charge.
Given that Max de Zegher’s comments came last night and Wes Morrill commented this morning, this feature request likely won’t arrive with the upcoming Holiday Update. Tesla actually hinted at such a feature being added in their last app update, so it does seem like they’ve already planned for it.
Although ‘Arrival State of Charge’ was on our wishlist for the Holiday Update, it looks like it may arrive soon after the holidays.
As Tesla update 2024.44.3 continues to roll out, we’re seeing more features in this update. While the update doesn’t include many new feature, it either improves existing features or rolls out a feature to new regions. Actually Smart Summon is rolling out to Europe, although with more strict restrictions. AutoPark is also rolling out to the UK and several other countries for the first time, and we’re now seeing improvements to Autopark arriving in North America and Europe.
As Tesla’s 2024.44.3 update continues to roll out, more features in the update are being revealed. While this update doesn’t introduce many entirely new features, it does refine existing features or expand the reach of others.
Notably, Actually Smart Summon is now rolling out in Europe, albeit with stricter regulations. Vision-based AutoPark is debuting in the UK and several other countries, while North America and Europe are receiving updates that further improve Autopark’s functionality.
Improvements to Autopark
As part of the same update, Tesla is making a batch of improvements to Autopark in Europe and North America. In the release notes, Tesla states that Autopark is receiving performance and visualization improvements. Unfortunately, Tesla doesn’t go into more detail here, but it sounds like these improvements could be the faster and more accurate Autopark enhancements Ashok Elluswamy talked about earlier this year.
Those improvements are expected to make Autopark more reliable, let it pick spots faster, move faster into them, and also shift between forward and reverse faster. The improvements would also let the vehicle park in tighter spots than before, with more accurate vision.
We’ll have to wait and see how this improved Autopark compares to the current version.
Your vehicle's Autopark performance and visualizatons have been improved.
Autopark in the UK and Other Countries
Countries in Europe that previously didn’t have access to Vision-Based Autopark, including the UK, will now have access to the new Autopark for the first time with update 2024.44.3 and later. This includes countries such as the UK, Ireland and Malaysia.
While these countries are receiving Autopark, it’s not clear whether it includes the Autopark improvements that other regions are receiving. The release notes don’t include the Autopark Improvements section in these countries, but that could be due to Tesla simplifying the release notes for these countries that are receiving Autopark for the first time.
With Autopark finally introduced in these regions, it’ll be the first time vehicles without ultrasonic sensors are capable of Autopark. Vision-Based Autopark is far more reliable, faster, and easier to use in more situations than the older USS-based solution.
