Tesla's Investor Day 2023 will be "a message of good hope & positivity for the future," according to a tweet from Elon Musk a few weeks ago. The event generates hype among Tesla enthusiasts and investors as they anticipate what the company will reveal.
Cybertruck Insight
At check-in, which begins at 11:00 am CST, lucky ticket holders can take factory tours and "Plaid Demo Rides," which may include the Cybertruck. This futuristic vehicle appeared at the opening of the new Engineering Headquarters last week. A closer look would be advantageous for the company, given the millions of Cybertruck reservations already made. In addition, investors could get a better look at many features of the Cybertruck that are still unknown, such as the design of the user interface and a closer look at Hardware 4.
Investor Day Agenda (All times CST)
11 am: Event Check-In
11 am - 2:45 pm: Factory Tours and Plaid Demo Rides
3:00 pm - 4:30 pm: Keynotes
4:30 pm - 5:30 pm: Q&A
5:30 pm - 7:00 pm: Meet & Greet
Master Plan Part 3
At 3:00 pm, the keynote speeches will take place, during which Musk will unveil his Master Plan Part 3. These plans have served as the roadmap for Tesla, providing insight into the mind of the company's founder. The first plan focused on using the profits from producing an electric sports car to fund a more affordable vehicle, which eventually led to the development of the Model S.
Master Plan Part Deux expanded on this idea, addressing more transportation needs and touching on solar energy, battery storage, full self-driving, and robotaxi. The upcoming Master Plan Part 3 is expected to detail production scaling and introduction of the new, more affordable Tesla and a mini van-type unit.
New Giga-Factory
Tesla also needs to increase its production capacity, and rumors continue to swirl that the next Giga factory could be located in Mexico. There were reports that Musk talked with the president of Mexico for nearly an hour.
Critics with Questions
The question-and-answer portion of the agenda is slated to begin at 4:30 pm. After a tumultuous couple of months, investors may have some pointed questions about the company's future. Many high-profile investors were up in arms as the stock tanked at the end of December, demanding the board of directors step in and control their brash CEO. Musk was, and continues to make waves with his new company, Twitter. The company will also have to answer for its recent struggles with recalls and pausing the rollout of the full self-driving beta to new owners.
Overall, Tesla's Investor Day 2023 promises to be an exciting event, providing a glimpse into the company's future and answering some big questions.
Check back tomorrow, Wednesday, March 1st for a direct feed of the event, which should include the keynotes and Q&A sessions.
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on the latest Tesla news, upcoming features and software updates.
For the first time in quite a while, Tesla has increased the price of one of its vehicle offerings. The Model S Long Range and the Model S Plaid have both received a hefty price increase. However, not all is bad - as Tesla also added a new benefit for buyers.
Price Increase
The price increase for the Model S is $5,000 - currently only in the United States. This price increase will likely impact other markets, including Canada, in the coming days.
The Model S Long Range now starts at $79,990, while the Model S Plaid now starts at $94,990. The Model S and Model X now have the same starting price. Interestingly, that’s also the same pricing point for the Cybertruck AWD and Cyberbeast Trimotor non-Foundation Series.
The vehicle configuration does not appear to have changed, so the new pricing is simply an increase rather than the addition or removal of features. Tesla previously cut the price of the Model S and Model X by 15% in 2023, so this could simply be an adjustment to ensure that the vehicle pricing stays in line with inflation and other factors.
Free Lifetime Supercharging
For those on the fence about ordering a Model S, Tesla has brought back Free Lifetime Supercharging when you order a new Model S on or after December 13, 2024. As always, Free Lifetime Supercharging is restricted to the buyer’s Tesla account and to that specific vehicle. It cannot be transferred to another vehicle or another owner after ownership transfer. It’s worth noting, that it also doesn’t exclude the owner from receiving Supercharger idle fees or congestion fees. There is currently no end date for this promotion.
There are currently no changes to the Model X, neither a price increase nor the addition of Lifetime Superchargering. However, when Tesla makes changes to one of their premium vehicles, it usually affects the other one as well. So be on the lookout for potential changes to the Model X offering in the coming days.
We’ve seen Tesla value Lifetime Supercharging at $5,000, so this falls in line with the price increase we’re seeing. It’s possible that Tesla will begin to bring back Lifetime Supercharging as a perk for buying into their more premium Model S and Model X cars, or this could be another temporary promotion to get buyers who are on the fence to go ahead and make their purchase while this promotion lasts.
Tesla recently showed off a demo of Optimus, its humanoid robot, walking around in moderately challenging terrain—not on a flat surface but on dirt and slopes. These things can be difficult for a humanoid robot, especially during the training cycle.
Most interestingly, Milan Kovac, VP of Engineering for Optimus, clarified what it takes to get Optimus to this stage. Let’s break down what he said.
Optimus is Blind
Optimus is getting seriously good at walking now - it can keep its balance over uneven ground - even while walking blind. Tesla is currently using just the sensors, all powered by a neural net running on the embedded computer.
Essentially, Tesla is building Optimus from the ground up, relying on as much additional data as possible while it trains vision. This is similar to how they train FSD on vehicles, using LiDAR rigs to validate the vision system’s accuracy. While Optimus doesn’t have LiDAR, it relies on all those other sensors on board, many of which will likely become simplified as vision takes over as the primary sensor.
Today, Optimus is walking blind, but it’s able to react almost instantly to changes in the terrain underneath it, even if it falls or slips.
What’s Next?
Next up, Tesla AI will be adding vision to Optimus - helping complete the neural net. Remember, Optimus runs on the same overall AI stack as FSD - in fact, Optimus uses an FSD computer and an offshoot of the FSD stack for vision-based tasks.
Milan mentions they’re planning on adding vision to help the robot plan ahead and improve its walking gait. While the zombie shuffle is iconic and a little bit amusing, getting humanoid robots to walk like humans is actually difficult.
There’s plenty more, too - including better responsiveness to velocity and direction commands and learning to fall and stand back up. Falling while protecting yourself to minimize damage is something natural to humans - but not exactly natural to something like a robot. Training it to do so is essential in keeping the robot, the environment around it, and the people it is interacting with safe.
We’re excited to see what’s coming with Optimus next because it is already getting started in some fashion in Tesla’s factories.
![Tesla’s Optimus Robot Learns to Walk Without Vision [VIDEO]](https://www.notateslaapp.com/img/containers/article_images/optimus/optimus_fall.jpg/59ea0e3082db081e7473a1f0da1ed31c/optimus_fall.jpg)
![Tesla Updates Santa Mode & Rainbow Road to Use Ambient Lighting and Updates SteamOS [VIDEO]](https://www.notateslaapp.com/img/containers/article_images/tesla-screen/ambient-lighting-santa-mode-rainbow.webp/bd6dd7459fc8963516a33efd3bd54466/ambient-lighting-santa-mode-rainbow.jpg)
![Tesla Builds Cybertruck Tunnel While Production Lines Pause [VIDEO]](https://www.notateslaapp.com/img/containers/article_images/2024/cybertruck-tunnel.webp/822a2c10124f46fe13e0d45cefdd9d33/cybertruck-tunnel.jpg)
