Tesla News: Model Y Deliveries, Battery Supplier Test, Radar Back in Cars, Possible Autopilot Recall, and More
Introduction
Tesla is known for its innovative electric cars, solar panels, and battery storage solutions. The company has been in the news lately due to several updates and improvements to its products. In this article, we will discuss the latest Tesla news, including the first customer deliveries of the new Model Y, a huge Tesla battery supplier test, the filing to put radar back in cars, a possible Autopilot recall, Tesla’s in Saint June, and more.
Model Y Deliveries
The past year has been consumed by the Model Y 2.0, the Model Y with structural battery pack and 4680 cells that Tesla is first making at Giga Texas. First deliveries of this Model Y occurred at the Cyber Rodeo, and they went to employees. Then we saw first customers get offered this configuration, and now first deliveries have officially begun to customers. This is a new configuration of the Model Y that is yet to show up on Tesla’s online configurator but comes in at 60,000 dollars with a standard range 4680 cell battery pack. It gets a top EPA range of 279 miles with standard wheels, 269 miles with induction wheels and a 0 to 60 in 5 seconds. Tesla explained why this Model Y gets less range, saying, “Introducing the new cells meant introducing a new variant of Model Y. We’ve designed Model Y all-wheel drive to have an attractive combination of range, performance, and price that will be the best fit for many customers and will make Model Y accessible to more customers, furthering our mission. We’ve chosen to put a lower energy battery pack in Model Y all-wheel drive, resulting in the lower range, acceleration, and price point.” The first delivery to a normal customer of this Model Y was confirmed by Spoken Reviews on YouTube. They confirmed the sticker price showing the breakdown of 39,990 dollars for Model Y, 1000 dollars for the tow package, and 20,000 dollars for all-wheel drive. The fuel economy is 123 miles per gallon electric equivalent overall. This build seems pretty good, and what’s especially interesting is that it was actually built all the way…
Tesla Battery Supplier Test
Samsung has reportedly won a huge contract from Tesla to supply cameras for that car and the semi. A huge part of Samsung’s business is working as a supplier, and they make EV batteries and cameras for many cars on the market. For Tesla, though, cameras come standard in every car for their Autopilot system. In fact, there are eight exterior cameras and one interior camera, so that camera supply need is very heavy for them. According to a new report, Samsung won the bid to supply all camera modules for the Tesla Semi and Cybertruck as production of those vehicles occurs in the next few years. This is a huge contract for Samsung but also further evidence that Tesla is making the moves to secure parts for the Cybertruck, which is very exciting to see.
Radar Back in Cars
Another part that has been essential for self-driving in Tesla’s and many other cars has been radar. Tesla used radar and cameras to enable Autopilot for years, but last year, likely due to supply issues and their own changing technology, Tesla dropped radar sensors. After Tesla made this move, Elon Musk said, “The probability of safety will be higher with pure vision than vision plus radar, not lower. Vision has become so good that radar actually reduces signal noise.” For a while now, the view from Tesla’s side has been that Tesla will only use Tesla Vision, and radar has become unnecessary. However, at the same time, Elon was talking about radar adding noise, he said, “A very high-resolution radar would be better than pure vision, but such a radar does not exist. I mean, vision with high res radar would be better than pure vision.” There were some rumors of Tesla adding new 4D radar with longer range back in 2020, but nothing came of that until now. Tesla has officially filed with the FCC to use a new radar in their vehicles. Tesla hacker @greentheonly, who follows Tesla’s hardware and software updates closely, said, “Frequency in line with exterior radars from Bosch and Continental. Imaging radar that we’ve been waiting for.” Essentially, this could be the updated, longer-range, improved radar that Elon talked about, which would add to vision rather than detract. Tesla has updated the hardware of the Autopilot system many times and currently ships what they call Hardware 3.0. Back in October 2021, Tesla’s Hardware 4 made an appearance in the production code of the FSD beta, and greentheonly noted that it has faster RAM but many other improvements as well. This would be updating the FSD computer, and it would come out in tandem with this new radar. Most likely, Tesla’s self-driving situation has been very confusing because they’ve promised that the hardware necessary to achieve full self-driving is already included in their cars for a while now. In turn, this has actually resulted in them upgrading the computers on cars for customers who bought the FSD package but didn’t have Hardware 3.0. Hardware 4 with potentially higher resolution cameras, a new FSD computer with more RAM, and an improved form of radar that improves on Tesla Vision could be the next iteration of this hardware. While Tesla is trying to make FSD backwards compatible to older cars as they plan, they also need to push the hardware further as technology advances. At some point, there will be some separation in the overall functionality of FSD based on these hardware improvements, but time will tell as to how that plays out. As someone who is looking at the future of Tesla and self-driving, it looks like they might be putting better radar back in to achieve the best self-driving they can. This is an interesting development and will be interesting to see them introduce.
Possible Autopilot Recall
According to the Los Angeles Times, a former Tesla safety director said that the company stopped employees from reporting crashes involving Autopilot to the government. She alleged that Tesla filed to report an accident to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that killed an Apple engineer in California in 2018 while he was driving a Tesla Model X. The former director said that Tesla continued to avoid reporting similar accidents, and she claimed that the action was illegal because the crashes should have been disclosed to regulators. The allegations come amid growing concerns about the safety of Autopilot, Tesla’s semi-autonomous system.
Tesla’s in Saint June
Tesla is planning to open a new center in St. Johns County, Florida. According to a recent report from the St. Augustine Record, the company has signed a lease for a 12,000-square-foot building to be used as a service and sales center. This move indicates that Tesla is committed to expanding its presence in the Florida market and is willing to invest in new facilities to support its growth. The service and sales center in St. Johns County will be Tesla’s fifth location in Florida, joining stores in Miami, Tampa, Orlando, and Sarasota, and will provide more convenient access to Tesla products and services for customers in the area.
Conclusion
Tesla is constantly innovating and improving its electric cars, solar solutions, and battery storage products. The latest news about the first customer deliveries of the new Model Y, a huge Tesla battery supplier test, the filing to put radar back in cars, a possible Autopilot recall, and Tesla’s in St. Johns County, Florida, shows that the company is committed to pushing the boundaries of technology and providing the best products and services to its customers. With each new development, Tesla is proving that it is a company that is worth watching in the coming years.