Teslas to report real-time data to help with road closures and traffic issues

Tesla may be building out a feature for vehicle-to-vehicle communication

Ian Maddox

Tesla recently wrapped up its 2022 annual shareholders meeting, and CEO Elon Musk hinted at a potentially exciting feature coming to the fleet: vehicle-to-vehicle communication.

Towards the end of the shareholders’ meeting, a gentleman in the audience mentioned how aircrafts use a system called Airborne Collision Avoidance System (ACAS). He elaborated on how ACAS relays an aircraft’s telemetry to prevent a collision.

“Sometimes too much telemetry,” Musk adds and laughs, assumingly referencing the Twitter account that tracks his private jet.

“Do you see Teslas communicating with one another and Dojo turning into some kind of air traffic control for Tesla supply chains and Robotaxi?” adds the gentleman.

Musk answered by saying he hasn’t thought about that before, which is interesting. He added that the goal with Dojo is to be the de facto computer for training the neural net with videos.

“Oh. That’s an interesting idea. I haven’t thought about that,” Musk responds. “Right now our goal with Dojo is to be really good at video training. We have probably the fourth or approaching the third, most powerful computing center in the world for AI training. Our first goal with Dojo is to make it competitive and be more effective at neural net training than a whole bunch of GPUs. We might get there… soonish.”

Musk also added that Dojo is built “from the ground up” to train AI using videos, and building such a computer has never been done before.

This question got Musk’s mind going. He paused for a moment and said there may be some difficulties in getting Teslas to communicate with one another - and it won’t be needed with Full Self-Driving.

“There will be some merits for Teslas to communicate [with] each other, but that won’t be needed for Full Self-Driving at all,” Musk responds. “But for a long time the vast majority of cars will be manually driven, so the value of Tesla-to-Tesla communication is not that high, except for, perhaps, communicating traffic issues, accidents, potholes, and road closures. A Tesla ahead of you has seen a road closure and you get that real-time update to your car so you don’t get stuck in the road closure situation. That’s the stuff that we are working on right now.”

Elon Musk's Answer

In January of 2022, Twitter user and Tesla enthusiast @BLKMDL3 tweeted at Musk asking about this type of feature. “Hey @elonmusk, can we get the air suspension in Model S/X to automatically raise quickly if the car detects a dip in the road ahead and then remember the location for next time?” BLKMDL3 writes. “Would be an awesome feature to have!”

Musk responded with, “Yeah.”

Hey @elonmusk, can we get the air suspension in Model S/X to automatically raise quickly if the car detects a dip in the road ahead and then remember the location for next time? Would be an awesome feature to have!

— Zack (@BLKMDL3) January 20, 2022

BLKMDL3’s tweet received quite a bit of attention.

Tesla has recently rolled out updates to improve a vehicle’s ability to raise and lower its suspension when arriving at a specific location. This is so the vehicle doesn’t scuff the pavement and cause damage to its underbody.

Since Musk stated that he hasn’t thought about vehicle-to-vehicle communication or how it would be done, we don’t anticipate this feature rolling out anytime soon. However, we can hope that it gets added to the pipeline of upcoming features due to its seemingly positive reception and want for it. This could also increase the safety of Tesla’s vehicles, even though they’re already the safest cars on the road.

It would be nice for vehicles within a 5-10 mile radius to notify one another of a construction zone, or accident, similar to Waze. This would allow the vehicle to reroute to a more efficient route or handle the situation accordingly. Going a step further, it would be exceptionally cool to see snapshots or videos of the upcoming situation by seeing a “hotspot” in maps, similar to how Snapchat shows hotspots, that are recorded via the vehicle’s cameras to more accurately prepare for it. But this may open a can of worms in regards to privacy.

Turning Tesla’s fleet into a mobile social network may go against Musk’s vision. He’s stated before that any user input in the vehicle should be considered an error, so having an interactive feature such as this may not be in Tesla’s deck of cards.

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Exclusive: Tesla’s AI Assistant Now Uses Vehicle Data for Personalized Responses

Not a Tesla App

As part of Tesla’s App Update 4.42.5, which is now available on both the Android and iOS App Stores, Tesla has rolled out an improved AI Assistant.

If you’re not familiar with Tesla Assist, it’s the company’s AI-powered assistant, which can be found in the Service section of the Tesla app. The assistant was first introduced with app update 4.35.5, and it has slowly improved to help answer the most common Tesla-related questions.

At first, Tesla Assist could answer general support questions like “What is Sentry Mode?” or “Why is my range lower than expected?” It acted as a helpful starting point for answering questions, but the responses weren’t personalized for you or your vehicle. However, with this latest update, that is changing.

Personalized Support

The latest version of Tesla Assist introduces personalized responses. You can specify which vehicle or product your question relates to and ask specific questions about your vehicle. For now, the responses are limited to a few categories, like tire pressure, however, we expect the assistant to have access to more vehicle information in the future.

For now, you can ask questions such as, “What alerts were recently triggered on my vehicle?” or “Is my tire pressure low?”. We’ve also been successful in asking whether a particular accessory, such as a key fob, would work with our vehicle.

Tesla provides these answers based on information in their owner’s manuals, tutorials, and your vehicle’s details and data.

Just like before, Tesla continues to provide links to related articles, such as the Owner’s Manual or the Service Manual, depending on the context.

Not a Tesla App

Future Releases

While the assistant can’t access every detail just yet — how many miles are on my vehicle — it’s already capable of pulling a lot of service-related information. It appears Tesla may be looking to expand this to other areas, with some responses stating, “Based on your vehicle’s data…”

It’s not clear what’s powering this assistant, but it could be some version of Grok, which will soon be available inside of Tesla vehicles.

The AI-based assistant can be found in the Service section of the Tesla app or by going into the main menu and tapping the question mark in the upper-right corner. Let us know if you’ve seen any other interesting responses from Tesla Assist.

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Tesla to Build Third Megafactory in Texas With $200M Investment

Not a Tesla App

Tesla has revealed the location of its third Megafactory, following Mega Lathrop and Mega Shanghai. The new facility will be in Brookshire, Texas, covering 1.6 million square feet—twice the combined size of Mega Lathrop and Mega Shanghai.

Tesla has had a lease deal at the Empire West industrial park since at least late 2021, where a third-party company has been managing the shipment of vehicle parts from Giga Texas and Fremont factories service centers across North America.

Mega… Factory?

The name says it all. Tesla’s Gigafactories focus on vehicle production—like Giga Texas, Giga Berlin, and Giga Shanghai—while Megafactories are dedicated to Tesla’s energy products.

Tesla Energy is expanding rapidly, with executives suggesting it could soon become one of the company’s largest revenue streams as demand continues to outpace supply.

Mega Brookshire will manufacture Megapacks and Powerwalls, Tesla’s primary stationary energy products. Both use LFP batteries, meaning their production won’t impact Tesla’s vehicle output, as most of the company’s cars rely on NMC batteries.

Looking at the Numbers

Tesla plans to invest approximately $194 million in upgrades and equipment across the two buildings, with the facility projected to generate between $8 billion and $10 billion in annual revenue.

Of that investment, $44 million will go toward facility improvements, such as parking, electrical upgrades, accessibility, and structural updates. The remaining $150 million will be allocated to Tesla-sourced manufacturing equipment for product production.

Tesla will also be employing approximately 1,500 people in the local community, which will be a considerable economic boost for the local residents.

Mega Brookshire Phase 2

The Megafactory plans also include funding for a distribution facility, with Tesla set to invest $31 million in its purchase and an additional $2 million for equipment and facility upgrades. Given its proximity to Giga Texas, it’s likely that Mega Brookshire’s distribution terminal will support the Tesla Semi.

This marks Tesla’s first factory announcement since Mega Shanghai. While there were initial plans for Giga Mexico, where Tesla initially planned to build their next-gen vehicle, those plans have seemingly been shelved as Giga Texas and Fremont continue to expand.

Although an official timeline for Mega Brookshire’s launch hasn’t been shared, Mega Shanghai is set to begin production soon after breaking ground in May 2024. Based on that timeline, Mega Brookshire could be operational by mid-to-late 2026.

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