In a wide-ranging AMA on Reddit today, VW CEO Herbert Diess provided answers to a ton of questions from the Reddit community, some of which were news to us. Importantly, he clarified Volkswagen’s position on Autonomy and ID.4 charging update timelines while waxing eloquent on a low-price VW EV and everyone’s favorite, the Microbus.
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The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced that it’s opening an investigation into Tesla Autopilot over its possible involvement in 11 crashes with emergency and first responder vehicles.
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Tesla has dropped the price of their FSD Computer/Hardware 3.0 upgrade to $1,000, from the previous price point of $1,500. This applies to vehicles that still have Hardware 2.0/2.5 computers and want to try the new Tesla FSD subscription service rolled out this weekend.
The move comes after significant criticism from Tesla forums and from us here at Electrek, who pointed out that Tesla is charging owners to upgrade to hardware they were already told they had.
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This weekend, Tesla started offering their long-awaited Full Self-Driving subscription package for $199/month. Along with the package, Tesla is offering a $1,500 hardware upgrade for early owners who have old hardware that is not capable of full self-driving tasks.
The problem is, Tesla previously told those same owners that their cars were capable of full self-driving tasks and isn’t allowing those owners to take advantage of the new subscription scheme without paying again for a hardware upgrade that they already paid for.
Update: Tesla has reduced the price of the upgrade to $1,000. Which is still $1,000 more than the appropriate price for something that customers already paid for.
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If you’re reading this article, you know Tesla. You may even be reading this from inside your Model 3 as it’s docked at a Supercharger. As we desperately scramble away from the ceaseless test of will that was 2020, we look toward to the new year with newfound hope and optimism. 2021 is a big year for everyone and everything, including electric vehicles. To help keep you in the know for the future, here are several of the best Tesla alternatives and where they currently lie on their journey up the EV ladder.
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After much teasing from CEO Elon Musk, Tesla has released its long promised “holiday update.” It is now available over the air to Tesla’s entire EV fleet. The release notes of the Tesla software update 2020.48.26 have a lot of new features to offer Tesla owners.
This post will focus on one of the more robust updates released by Tesla in recent months, version 2020.48.26. Here’s a breakdown of the release notes and what new improvements Tesla drivers can expect from this update.
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Tesla lost a case in a German court today over how the company advertises its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving, which the court judged “misleading.”
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Last week we reported that the latest over-the-air Tesla software update improves driving visualization to detect and render traffic cones. Then on Thursday we also shared a video of a Tesla navigating its way through traffic cones, courtesy of Tesla hacker @greentheonly. Now @greentheonly is reporting that the traffic cone feature is only being delivered to Tesla owners with the “Hardware 3” chip (HW3). This is significant, as it’s the first time that software features (in this case, Auto Lane Change and Navigate-on-Autopilot) will be forked for Tesla drivers depending on when their Tesla was built.
For more than a year now, Tesla has been releasing Autopilot safety numbers to show that autopilot is safer than a human driver in average driving conditions. In today’s Tesla Q3 update, the company updated those numbers to show that autopilot is nearly 9x times safer than average driving.
There are caveats, of course. Autopilot is primarily used on highways, which have fewer accidents than surface streets because driving conditions are much simpler. And Teslas are generally newer cars, which are also less likely to be involved in accidents than the overall vehicle fleet, which includes old cars without modern active and passive safety features.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been talking a lot about Tesla Network lately, part of Tesla’s “Master Plan, Part Deux” which will enable Tesla cars with full self-driving hardware to operate as autonomous robotaxis to generate revenue for owners and for Tesla itself.
This is all still a ways off, but that hasn’t stopped Musk and others from theorizing about what might happen when the technological problems behind self-driving are solved. Recently, Musk stated that any Tesla bought today is an “appreciating asset” due to its potential to be used to generate revenue in the future. But an asset wouldn’t really appreciate unless a new, similar asset couldn’t be bought at the same price. So now, Musk has committed to making that happen, stating that once robotaxis become possible, Tesla will likely stop selling cars to consumers, at least at anywhere near the same price.
Tesla has been making bold claims about future autonomous driving plans lately, most recently holding an “autonomy investor event” where the company laid out plans for its future full self-driving technology. At that event, Tesla stated that they would be ready to roll out a fully autonomous robotaxi fleet as early as next year, depending on regulations.
Today, CEO Elon Musk pushed that timeline forward a bit, and stated that Tesla’s long-planned autonomous cross-country roadtrip would actually occur later this year. Tesla has made claims in the past about enabling cross-country Autopilot travel, but the news today is that not only will it be possible for Tesla to do this on their own to demonstrate their technology, but that any Tesla owner (*with FSD software) will be able to do the same.
Along with several other changes in the last few days, one thing Tesla has done is completely reworked how “Enhanced Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving” are differentiated. Features for both of the systems have been shifted around, and FSD, which for a few months wasn’t even available on the cars, is back and available for purchase.
But one of the changes is that Tesla is offering Model 3 owners who already bought the car, but who didn’t previously purchase Enhanced Autopilot or Full Self-driving, a discount to purchase the software unlock for either of those systems.
The problem with this is that these systems were originally billed as increasing in price if ordered after delivery, rather than decreasing. Now, early buyers who took Tesla at their word, and paid full price for these systems, are being left out of the price drops, and will end up having paid more than people who buy it now.
Tesla has long complained that media coverage of crashes in Tesla vehicles is overblown. In response to this, the company announced that it would start reporting safety numbers each quarter, detailing the frequency of Tesla crashes, and today Tesla delivered their first report of this kind.
It sounds like ordering 20,000 vehicles from an automaker gets you on top of the list for deliveries.
Jaguar has now delivered its first production all-electric I-Pace in the US and Waymo got several for testing its autonomous driving technology.
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Cadillac announced today that its Super Cruise level 2/3 autonomous driving system will be expanding into its other vehicles and to the wider GM lineup of vehicles in 2020. Cadillac calls it the only truly “hands free” autonomous system though other makers might argue semantics.
Cadillac’s Super Cruise is a Tesla (or Mercedes Drive Pilot, Nissan Propilot, etc) Autopilot-like level 2 software that GM puts in its top end CT-6 only for now. GM gave us a demo CT-6 which we did a quick review of, below.
Google this week announced that it was putting Google Assistant on Android Auto which basically means that your Android phone is now a Google Home/Amazon Echo type of device in your car that you can talk to. This, as opposed to having to push the button on the steering wheel, is great for passengers who want to ruin my music vibe.
Unfortunately, my Chevy Bolt was on an older version of the firmware which apparently isn’t OTA upgradable and cut out Android Auto on my Google Pixel every few minutes. To properly test and use Google Assistant, I was going to need to get a firmware update. Off to the Chevy dealer, right?
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Oxford PV granted financing for perovskite serial production – Oxford PV received an EU bank financing of €15m, to support the transfer of its disruptive perovskite on silicon tandem solar cell technology from lab scale to commercialisation. Plus “The company has demonstrated the necessary parameters in efficiency and stability on its perovskite photovoltaic technology, to engage commercially with major industry players and play a key role in enhancing solar energy supply in the future.” Two items – 1. Perovskite is moving from a lab to a commercial facility. That’s pretty cool. 2. From the quote – ‘necessary parameters in efficiency and stability’ – most perovskite push back has been due to it quickly degrading in sunlight and water. If stability is meeting requirements – then perovskite is getting real.
Los Angeles-based startup, Thor Trucks, unveiled its new electric semi prototype, the Thor ET-One, on social media and in the press this week.
They are trying to bring the heavy-duty electric vehicle to market before the Tesla Semi hits in 2019 and they also have plans to convert other trucks to electric propulsion.
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Earlier this year, we published an exclusive report about Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard’s comeback in the EV space with a new startup. It is an interesting story.
Fast forward to today where we’ve learned that China’s SF Motors, which recently launched in the US, has acquired Eberhard’s startup.
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Earlier this week, a Tesla Model S hit a barrier on the highway near Dallas, Texas. The driver, who fortunately wasn’t injured, first blamed Tesla’s Autopilot for the crash.
We now have footage of the accident and it actually shows a situation that the Autopilot probably shouldn’t be expected to be able to handle, at least not yet. Ultimately, it serves as a reminder not to trust the system without paying attention.
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Concrete efforts to slow down electric vehicle adoption are taking form. Last week, we reported on the oil and biofuel industries forming an alliance to lobby against electric vehicle incentives and now the same industries are being linked to other efforts to undermine EVs.
A new report links the fossil fuel industry to a series of new legislations being introduced in several states in order to impose fees on electric vehicles.
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In this week’s top stories: Tesla 2nd-gen Autopilot could reduce crash rate by 90%, Model S 100D update, hints at upcoming EVs from Hyundai, Audi, and VW, and much more.
Intel has announced it will acquire 15% of mapping company HERE in an effort that will see the two companies collaborate on autonomous vehicle tech, machine learning, and more.
A press release from Intel notes the partnership will focus on development of autonomous vehicle technology it describes as “a highly scalable proof-of-concept architecture that supports real-time updates of high-definition (HD) maps for highly and fully automated driving.” It also said the two companies will collaborate on opportunities in IoT and machine learning related technology.
In this week’s top stories: Tesla’s Autopilot predicts an accident, Solar power at 1¢/kWh by 2025, Elon Musk teases new ‘Tesla Supercharger V3’, and much more.
