Tesla news curated with love and delivered to your inbox weekly.

If you are just now finding out about Tesletter, you can subscribe here!

If you already know Tesletter and want to support us, check out our Patreon page πŸ™

Issue 171 - New UI coming to Model 3 and Y

DIY Protection with Feynlab

Feynlab’s DIY products follow a regimen: Preparation, Protection, Maintenance. First Prepare the paint by washing with Pure Wash, followed by Panel Prep to remove any residual oil or contaminants. Then Protect your Tesla using Ceramic Lite - the easiest coating to apply. Then Maintain the coating with Pure Wash, and if you want that extra touch of protection, follow it up with Ceramic Spray Sealant every couple of months. Get a free quote.

Software updates

New UI coming to Model 3 and Y

Elon confirmed it on Twitter: “updated UI coming with FSD wide release”. Whenever this release arrives, and know we have been waiting for it for a while, it will also include the new visualizations to understand what the car is seeing and what it plans to do a bit better.

Visualizing the depth perception NN

Greentheonly found a Neural Network used for depth perception and came up with a cool way of visualizing it. I have to say that what Tesla can do with cameras is quite impressive.

All settings will be in your Tesla app and the car will auto adjust

Wouldn’t it be great that your phone identifies you with any Tesla that you drive/ride and adjusts your preferences accordingly? That seems to be the vision that Elon shares as well, he said that in the longer term that is what will happen.

Cybertruck & Model S

Cybertruck will come with rear-wheel steering

At low speed (e.g. parking) the rear wheels turn opposite to the front wheels, reducing the turning radius. This will give the Cybertruck the ability to do super tight turns.

Model S Long Range comes with Insane Mode and Drag Strip Mode

Last week, I had the privilege of joining my friend when he was taking delivery of the new Model S Long Range. Going through the menu, I discovered that the Long Range version comes with Insane Mode and Drag Strip Mode. BTW, this car is beautiful!

Plaid is ~460V at 90% SOC. Just charged 15% > 90% in 35 minutes

Or what is the same, it added ~260 miles of range in just 35 min, not bad at all!

Accessories

Impossible: Tesla Model S does 400,000km on one set of brake pads

If you are a master of regen braking, the lifespan of your brake can easily last over 100,000 miles. In this case, this Model S owner is now on 400,000 km (~250k miles) and still hasn’t replaced their brake pads 😱

Backup key experiments

Not a bad idea to put it on the phone case, and this is only for backup when the phone dies. The problem, as the author puts on Reddit, is it prevents the phone’s NFC from working when the case is on.

DIY

Valet key card holder with instructions

Depending on where you live, valet folks might not know how to lock/unlock or place your key card to drive. In order to help with that, u/potatosomersault made a printable version that you can hand to the valet so they know exactly what to do.

DIY

πŸ’‘ Tip of the week

Use A Better Routeplanner for planning a trip with multiple stops, trips with a required SOC at arrival, or if you want to just plan from your couch. They also have a pretty decent mobile app. This is one of those essential websites for Telsa and EV owners.

πŸ€“ What the acronym?

As Tesla fan I find myself sometimes having to remember what are all those acronyms, here is a list of the ones you can find in this issue.

  • EV - Electric Vehicle
  • FSD - Full Self-Driving
  • NFC - Near-field Communication
  • NN - Neural Network
  • SOC - State of charge

Tesletter Supporters & Sponsors πŸ™

Sponsors
Producer Supporters

If you enjoy Tesletter, please take a second to forward to your friends and share on social media

If you have any feedback please let me know by reaching out to [email protected]


Because we πŸ’š Tesla

Our Model S rocks so much that we designed some sweet t-shirts to go with it. Check out all of our designs at https://shop.spreadshirt.com/tesletter

Support Tesletter

Tesletter is put together by Ignacio and Vanessa. We're really grateful for all the love and feedback we receive. Special thanks to our supporters. If you like what we do, please consider supporting Tesletter. All the funds will go into making Tesletter more awesome.