Tesla Gears Up for European Launch of Tesla Insurance As Expansion Continues

By Kevin Armstrong
You can manage Tesla Insurance payments, coverage and claims directly in Tesla app
You can manage Tesla Insurance payments, coverage and claims directly in Tesla app
Tesla

Tesla has continued its expansion into the insurance market, with its sights set on Europe. The automaker, known for its electric vehicles, established its European insurance branch in Malta in December 2020 but has yet to offer specific insurance services to European drivers. But that is about to change.

Tesla's Job Posting Indicates Progress Towards European Launch

Recently, Tesla advertised for a Legal Counsel position specializing in insurance for the European market, with the work based at the company's London headquarters. The individual will be tasked with building and leading the in-house legal function of the insurance company as it operates cross-border in Europe, navigating the complex legal and regulatory landscape of insurance in Europe.

In March 2022, Tesla registered its European insurance operations at its London headquarters at 109 Devonshire Road. In addition, the company has utilized other insurance programs in the UK and Europe to provide driver coverage through partnering insurance companies. Still, it has also launched its in-house insurance program in the United States and continued expanding its offering. Tesla uses real-time data on driving behavior to determine rates. It is now available in 12 states, excluding California.

Tesla's Focus on Europe After US Expansion

Tesla Insurance reported an annual premium run rate of $300 million as of the end of 2022 and growth of 20 percent a quarter. During the fourth quarter earnings call in 2021, the company revealed that Tesla's next target would be Europe after focusing on expansion in the United States.

Although the company has not yet announced a specific launch date for its insurance services in Europe, the recent job posting and the registration of the European insurance operations in London indicate that Tesla is making progress toward offering the service to European customers. In early 2022, Tesla's CFO, Zachary Kirkhorn, suggested that the company might launch insurance in Europe by the end of the year, dependent on the progress of the insurance launch in the United States.

Launch of Tesla Insurance in Europe by 2023

It's no secret that CEO Elon Musk has been optimistic with some of his previous timelines. Still, recent statements indicate that the launch of Tesla Insurance in Europe could happen as early as 2023. A successful Legal Counsel candidate will play a key role in ensuring that the company can navigate the unique challenges and opportunities of the European insurance market and deliver on its promise of rethinking the insurance customer experience.

Tesla Smoking While Supercharging? A Look at What's Actually Happening

By Karan Singh
Hot_Engineering3140 on Reddit

Winter is here, and temperatures are dropping, so one of the most common Tesla questions is about to resurface.

If you’ve landed here after frantically searching about “smoke” coming from your Tesla while Supercharging, take a deep breath—it’s completely normal.

Tesla Smoking While Charging

If you’re Supercharging in freezing weather—even with preconditioning—you might notice steam rising from your Tesla. But rest assured, your car isn’t smoking.

Your Tesla’s heat pump is hard at work warming both the cabin and battery to keep you comfortable and ensure optimal charging temperatures. Over time, condensation and ice build-up in the heat exchanger coils.

Why Does It Happen?

When you reach a Supercharger with your vehicle, the heat pump is still running hot, but without the cold air from driving to keep the heat exchanger coils cool, the ice and condensation quickly start to evaporate—creating what looks like smoke.

Since this typically happens near the front of the vehicle, where a car would traditionally have an engine, new vehicle owners can be startled by the discovery. However, rest assured that it’s just water vapor and it’s completely normal in cold weather.

In fact, this behavior can be experienced in any EV with a heat pump in cold climates. So, if you saw steam coming out of your vehicle and panicked, don’t worry—you’re not alone.

Now that you know what’s happening, go ahead and Supercharge with confidence.

Tesla Improves YouTube App With Smoother Playback

By Karan Singh
Not a Tesla App

Tesla made a lot of improvements in the 2024 Holiday Update, including more than 15 undocumented improvements that were included in the release. One of these was a stealthy performance improvement to the YouTube app.

Several people have mentioned they’ve seen improved performance on YouTube since this year’s Holiday Update - and there’s an interesting reason why.

YouTube Improvements

The improved YouTube performance in Tesla vehicles comes from an unexpected source—Tesla actually rolled back support for YouTube’s newer AV1 video encoding. Instead, vehicles now default to the older VP9 encoding standard.

While AV1 is highly efficient in terms of bandwidth, it requires considerably more processing power to decode and display videos. VP9, on the other hand, is less computationally demanding but uses more bandwidth to achieve the same video quality. This trade-off means smoother playback and better overall performance, even if it comes at the cost of slightly higher data usage.

Intel Inside

The VP9 video codec that the YouTube app is now using is much easier to decode, making it less taxing on the vehicle’s processor. This change is particularly beneficial for Tesla vehicles with Intel processors, which previously struggled to stream video at just 720p. When using AV1, these vehicles often experienced stuttering, sometimes forcing the YouTube app to automatically downgrade playback to 480p.

With this update, Intel-based Teslas should now be able to stream at 1080p smoothly. Streaming at 1440p is also possible, although occasional stutters still occur as the system keeps up with the decoding process.

Intel-based vehicles are the big winners with this change, but this appears to affect AMD Ryzen-based infotainment units as well, providing even smoother playback.

Chromium Web App

Tesla’s Theater apps aren’t native applications; instead, they run as chromeless web apps, leveraging the open-source browser built into Teslas known as Chromium (the open-source version of Chrome). Although this works quite well, there is a severe limitation - Chromium hardware acceleration isn’t supported on Linux, the operating system Tesla uses for their OS.

As a result, Tesla vehicles rely on software decoding instead of hardware decoding, which would otherwise handle video playback far more efficiently. A potential solution could be for Tesla to transition away from Chromium-based web apps in favor of a Mozilla Firefox-based browser, as Firefox does support hardware acceleration on Linux. This switch could also open the door to better streaming performance and the possibility of expanding Tesla’s in-car entertainment options.

However, Tesla’s choice of Chromium likely stems from Digital Rights Management (DRM) requirements for streaming services like Disney+ and Netflix, which rely on DRM-enabled playback. Firefox on Linux has had inconsistent support for DRM due to codec availability and variations in operating system versions.

We’re hopeful that Tesla will either adopt Firefox or develop a fully native application to improve video streaming, rather than continuing with the current web-based Tesla Theater. This shift could also pave the way for additional in-car applications built on Tesla’s native Linux environment—perhaps even reviving the long-rumored Tesla App Store.

Regardless, this update is a welcome improvement, particularly for YouTube, which remains one of the most widely used Theater Mode apps due to its accessibility, free content, and mix of short and long-form videos. It remains to be seen whether similar improvements are made for Netflix, Disney+, or other streaming platforms.

If you’ve noticed improved performance in Theater Mode, now you know why.

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