Strategy

3D assets for stop signs and traffic lights

‘Greentheonly’ has found new 3D assets in the Tesla’s firmware (of course he has!). The two new assets are a stop sign and a traffic light:

Read more: Twitter

Behind the scenes documentary 📹

YouTube has recently re-published this old Tesla documentary in full. I’m not sure of the original publishing date, but it could be 2012 or 2013. It’s fun to see how Tesla’s vision was pictured just a few years ago, almost like a sci-fi story (check out the music!). The future is now and it’s clear that Tesla’s vision will fully become a reality soon. So easy to believe in it now, right?

Congratulations Tesla team on making the 1 millionth car

It took Tesla 12 years to produce 1,000,000 cars (1st Roadster was built in 2008) but is going to take them less than 2 years to produce the second million. 👏💪🙌

Read more: Twitter

Elon Musk and the early days of Tesla: interview part 1

Our friends from TOSV together with Ryan from The Kilowatts and Eli from My Tesla Adventure had the amazing opportunity of sitting down with Elon for four hours and set the record straight in the early days of Tesla. This is part 1 of the interview.

FSD subscription coming early 2021

We don’t know how it will look like and how much it will cost, but we do know that Tesla is planning on making FSD available through a subscription in early 2021. It has now been confirmed by Elon Musk on Twitter.

Highlights from Tesla Q3 report

As you probably know, here in Tesletter we don’t talk about Tesla’s stock, financials, or Elon’s personal life. We stick to what we like the most, Tesla products. Yesterday, Tesla announced their Q3 results and during that conference call they dropped a few updates about their products that I thought are worth sharing with you:

• The Model Y is ahead of schedule and it will go into production the summer of 2020 instead of during the fall of 2020
• Elon thinks that is tight but still expects Tesla to release a feature-complete FSD before the end of the year, most likely only under the Early Release Program
• Today (October 24) Tesla will be releasing version 3 of the solar roof. Elon expects this one to be great and to increase production. More details next week!
• Elon expects FSD not needing the driver’s supervision attention - according to Tesla, not regulators - by the end of 2020
• Tesla electric Cybertruck (the pickup truck) is Tesla’s best product ever
• They said something along the lines of “Single pedal driving that will improve range … makes it easier to drive”, maybe stronger regen soon?
• Soon an OTA software update will increase the power output of the Model 3 by 5% and the Model S and X (we assume only the Raven) by 3%

How are Teslas holding up in value?

“Teslas have been flat in terms of depreciation in 2020 vs. the average depreciation 1%/month for the aggregate used car market. This is due to many factors, but OTA updates have created a customer experience unlike anything in the automotive market before that is creating tailwinds in the value of used Teslas.”

I got my car in 2017 and although the hardware is not completely up to date, I definitely feel I have a better car than when I purchased it. Leaving aside the new features received via OTA updates or the paid retrofit (HW3), just the driving experience with Autopilot by itself is so much better today than three years ago.

Is Tesla becoming a threat to the world’s biggest utilities?

By aggregating the solar generating capacity and the storage capacity of Tesla Energy Plan households, Tesla can create a virtual power plant, and it is starting to do so in places like Texas and the UK where it has applied or partnered with others to become a retail energy provider. What do you think, would you switch to Tesla Energy?

Layman's explanation of Tesla AI Day

Great, detailed, and simple explanation of what Tesla presented during AI Day. Fantastic writeup 🔝

Tesla AI Day is scheduled for August 19

This is all that we know about it, well, that and that the invite contains a processor, most likely Tesla’s own Dojo AI processor made specifically to train NNs. I’m sure there will be tons of interesting information at this event.

Tesla angles to become a major player in the Texas electricity market

After Texa’s grid went down last winter, it is clear their current infrastructure isn’t ready for the world we live in. Well, it seems that Tesla wants to collaborate and applied to the Texas Public Utility Commission to enter in the electricity market in the state.

Tesla Audio Engineering

Fantastic video by the Audio team at Tesla. Tesla’s audio team aims for top-tier sound systems, utilizing specialized tools like an anechoic chamber and a simulator named Tessie for detailed fine-tuning. Key aspects like tonal balance and loudness are prioritized, with speaker placement and a large subwoofer in the Model Y designed for optimal acoustics. In-house collaboration and an app for diagnostics and digital signal processing ensure a customized listening experience, complete with video and gaming capabilities.

Tesla donated 350 charging stations to Parks Canada

The Government of Canada is committed to providing Canadians with practical solutions to reduce emissions. Amongst other initiatives, they’re investing a lot in installing EV charging stations near the most popular Parks Canada places across the country. And to help make it happen, Tesla has donated over 350 charging stations to Parks Canada. Way to go, Tesla!

Tesla e-bike coming soon?

We all know that Tesla likes leaving clues to future products in their marketing images, the latest example is the bottle of Tesla Tequila on the table of the poster featuring the solar roof. This time, Tesla wasn’t that subtle and put half a bike in plain sight of one of their posters, is Tesla going to be producing an e-bike soon? One can just dream…

Tesla is going to use factory shutdowns to do upgrades and improve production

Shutting down the Fremont and New York factories due to the Coronavirus outbreak is for sure going to affect Tesla’s Q1 and most likely also Q2 production and sales numbers. However, they are still allowed to use a small workforce at the Fremont factory and Tesla is planning on making upgrades to the production lines which would increase the Model Y production capacity.

Read more: Electrek

Tesla is happy to license Autopilot/FSD and other Tesla technology

Several years ago, Tesla made all of its patents freely available, and recently, they started opening their Supercharger network to non-Tesla vehicles. Both actions align with Tesla’s mission statement to “accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy”. This week, Elon mentioned that they would be more than happy to license Autopilot/Full Self-Driving and other Tesla technologies to other car manufacturers. Personally, every time I rent a car, I find myself missing many of Tesla’s in-car technologies. I believe the lane-keeping abilities of many cars are substandard, often deactivating unexpectedly in the middle of a turn. I would love to see more cars equipped with advanced features and software akin to those in my Model Y.

Tesla is making a 12 passenger electric van

A Tesla electric van? Maybe! It seems that a county official working on a new Boring Company project may have leaked a new Tesla vehicle program that the company would use and it’s … an electric van! In the past, Elon Musk has talked about two segments where electric vehicles are needed, “heavy-duty trucks” and “high passenger-density urban transport”, and it looks to me like Tesla may have plans to tackle them all.

Read more: Electrek

Tesla plans to open their Terafactory in Austin, Texas

It seems like Tesla has chosen Austin, Texas, as the location for their next factory which will be producing the Cybertruck and Model Y. This information is not fully confirmed yet but Elon Musk is already planning a quite aggressive schedule for its development. We shall see.

Read more: Electrek

Tesla quarterly all-hands video

Tesla to produce $25K car as early as 2022

Last September at the Battery Day, Elon Musk announced that Tesla would be offering a $25K electric vehicle soon. Well, we have recently learned through an eco-assessment report for Giga Shanghai that a third Tesla will be produced at the China-based electric factory. The documents hint that Tesla is looking to produce a new car at Giga Shanghai as early as 2022 and it will be priced between $25K and $30K). What has been said in the past is that both Giga Shangai and Giga Berlin will produce smaller vehicles for their local markets, so it’s unclear if we will see these in the US.

Tesla's new compact crossover production set for June 2025

Tesla plans to start producing a new compact crossover, possibly the $25,000 car Elon Musk previously teased, in June 2025. Codenamed ‘Redwood,’ this vehicle is part of Tesla’s strategy to compete in the affordable electric vehicle market, particularly against Chinese automaker BYD. Musk’s past promises about vehicle pricing, however, suggest cautious optimism regarding the actual cost at launch.

Tesla’s fleet has driven 7.2 billion miles and its energy products produced 10.3 billion kWh

For Earth Day, Tesla released some interesting data about its fleet of electric vehicles and its energy products via its Instagram account. See below:

Read more: Electrek.co

We've torn down over 100 cars and here are Tesla advantages

This video is a bit long but definitely worth watching. In the video, Cory Steuben from Munro and Associates analyzes what he believes are Tesla’s advantages, based on his experience of dismantling and examining over 100 cars at Munro and Associates.

What is does really set Tesla apart from the competition?

As the article says “You don’t buy a Tesla: you buy a software platform that is constantly updated, further improving the driver experience”.

Read more: Forbes

You can now purchase a Tesla with Bitcoin

Elon said this was coming a few weeks ago. Probably a good option if you happen to have a bunch of Bitcoin and “don’t know what to do with them”.