Tesla officially opens up select Superchargers in the U.S. to all EVs
Not a Tesla App
Tesla has officially opened up select Superchargers in the U.S. to all compatible electric vehicles. This comes on the heels of news that Tesla has been retrofitting various Superchargers with its Magic Dock solution that allows Tesla to easily support the standard CCS connector in addition to Tesla's own NACS connector.
Europe
Tesla has previously opened up Superchargers in several countries around the world, although that was significantly easier for Tesla since Tesla uses the standard CCS connector in most countries outside the U.S. and Canada. In the U.S. Tesla needed to retrofit Superchargers with provide a solution that would support multiple connectors.
Magic Dock
Tesla needed to develop a solution to be able to continue to support their own NACS connector in addition to the CCS connector. The Magic Dock does that in an elegant and simple way. The Magic Dock houses a CCS adapter inside that locks onto the Tesla plug only when needed. Tesla owners will be able to continue charging at these stations without any changes.
Cost for Non-Teslas
Non-Tesla vehicles charging at Superchargers will pay a slight premium over their Tesla counterparts. An early look at Superchargers that Tesla has opened up reveals that Tesla is charging about $0.10 more per kWh to charge other EVs. This is about a 25% premium over Tesla's standard rate, although Supercharger prices vary by station and time of day.
Membership
Tesla is also offering a monthly membership option for non-Tesla owners who wish to reduce their price per kilowatt hour. For $12.99/month, non-Tesla owners can subscribe to lower their charging rate to be the same as Tesla vehicles.
There are currently no other benefits to the membership and non-Tesla owners are limited to the same Superchargers whether they have a membership or not.
The membership is only open to non-Teslas and will not lower the charging rates for Tesla owners, although that could be an interesting option if Tesla decides to consider it.
Idle fees
Tesla charges idle fees for vehicles that stay in a Supercharging spot after their vehicle has finished charging. The idle fees vary depending on how full the station is and they're waived if the station is at less than 50% capacity.
Tesla is charging the same idle fees for Teslas and non-Tesla vehicles.
Compatible EVs
If your EV uses CCS, or you have an adapter for your vehicle that can connect to a CCS1 connector then you'll likely be able to use Tesla's Superchargers. The only other physical requirement is that your vehicle's charge port has to reach Tesla's Supercharger cable without blocking access to others.
Congestion
While Tesla owners are right to be concerned about issues such as Supercharger congestion and dock blocking, Tesla is doing everything it can to minimize these issues.
Tesla has no plans to open up all of its Superchargers. Tesla told the U.S. government that it was going to open up 7,500 Supercharger stations to all compatible electric vehicles. This number includes current and future Superchargers.
The most popular Tesla Superchargers will likely remain exclusive to Tesla vehicles as Tesla doesn't want to make congestion worse at its most used locations.
In fact, without Tesla opening up Superchargers to other EVs, some Supercharger locations may not be possible. When Tesla decides to open a new charging location one of the things they're looking for is the number of vehicles that will take advantage of the Supercharger and how long it will take Tesla to recoup the cost of opening the location.
Dock Blocking
Dock blocking is going to be a new term that we're unfortunately going to hear and experience more often. The term refers to vehicles in Supercharger locations taking up more than one spot and blocking access to other vehicles. Tesla's Superchargers feature very short cables to reduce damage and risk. This works well for Teslas since their charging ports are all located in the same location.
However, not all EVs have a charge port that can easily reach the end of a Supercharger cable. Depending on the vehicle, this could lead to a vehicle taking up two spots, or going over the line to be able to reach the Supercharger's cable.
Stations Opened
Tesla appears to have opened up about eight stations across the U.S. yesterday. These stations are in various parts of New York and California but expect Tesla to open more stations soon.
In typical Tesla fashion, Tesla rolls out changes slowly as it gathers feedback. If Superchargers are working as expected Tesla will slowly open up more Superchargers as it retrofits old locations with its Magic Dock.
Although many Tesla owners may be worried about a worse experience at Superchargers, this is a big win for not only Tesla but for sustainable transportation. Tesla provides some of the faster and most reliable charging stations in the world and this change will help convince more vehicle buyers into choosing an EV.
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To show off its scalability, Tesla has officially launched its first major expansion of its Robotaxi service area in Austin, Texas. The expansion comes just 22 days after the program’s initial public launch.
That’s a stunningly quick pace that sets a benchmark for how fast we’ll be expecting Tesla to roll out additional expansions as they validate and safety-check in additional area and cities. The new geofence not only adds a significant amount of new territory, but also makes Tesla’s service area in Austin approximately 4 miles larger than Waymo’s.
The expansion, which went live for users in the early access program earlier today, reshapes the map into… what we can call an upside-down T. It helps connect more parts of the city, and increases the service area by more than double.
So far, the initial launch has been operating without any significant issues, which means Tesla is ready and willing to continue expanding the program.
Rapid Scaling
While the larger map is a clear win for early-access users and especially those who live in Austin, the most significant aspect here is just how fast Tesla is going. Achieving a major expansion in just over three weeks since its initial launch is a testament to Tesla’s generalized autonomy approach with vision only.
Unlike methods that require intensive, street-by-street HD mapping that can take months or even years just to expand to a few new streets, Tesla’s strategy is built for this type of speed.
This is Tesla’s key advantage - it can leverage its massive fleet and AI to build a generalized, easily-applicable understanding of the world. Expanding to a new area becomes less about building a brand-new, high-definition map of every street light and obstacle, but instead a targeted safety validation process.
Tesla can deploy a fleet of validation vehicles to intensely focus on one zone, allowing the neural nets to learn the quirks of that area’s intersections and traffic flows. Once a high level of safety and reliability is demonstrated, Tesla can simply just redraw the geofence.
Geofence Size
Tesla went from approximately 19.7 sq mi (51 sq km) to 42.07 sq mi (109 sq km)in just 22 days, following the initial launch and safety validation. Within a few short days of launch, we began seeing the first Tesla engineering validation vehicles, hitting Austin’s downtown core, preparing for the next phase.
The larger footprint means more utility for riders, and that’s big, especially since the new service area is approximately four square miles larger than Waymo’s established operational zone in the city.
Highways and Fleet Size
The new territory enables longer and more practical trips, with the longest trip at tip-to-tip taking about 42 minutes from the southern edge of the old geofence to the northern edge of the new geofence. For now, Tesla has limited its fleet to operating exclusively on surface streets and does not use highways to complete its routes.
We also don’t know if Tesla has increased the vehicle fleet size quite yet - but if they’re intending to maintain or reduce wait times for even the early-access riders, the fleet size will easily need to be doubled to keep up with the new area.
This video clip shows the @robotaxi follows the Interstate (I-35) but does not take the highest.
Perhaps the most telling bit about how fast Tesla is expanding is that they’re already laying the groundwork for the next expansion. Validation vehicles have been spotted operating in Kyle, Texas, approximately 20 miles south of the geofence’s southern border.
Robotaxi Validation vehicles operating in Kyle, Texas.
Financial_Weight_989 on Reddit
This means that while one expansion is being rolled out to the public, Tesla is already having its engineering and validation teams work on the next expansion. That relentless pace means that if this keeps up, Tesla will likely have a good portion of the Austin metropolitan area - the zone they’ve applied for their Autonomy license for - serviceable by the end of 2025.
The pilot? A success. The first expansion? Done. The second expansion? Already in progress. Robotaxi is going to go places, and the next question won't be about whether the network is going to grow. Instead, the new questions are: How fast, and where next?
One of the most welcome features of the recently refreshed 2026 Model S and Model X is the addition of a front bumper camera. Now, thanks to some clever work by the Tesla community, it has been confirmed that this highly requested feature can be retrofitted onto older HW4-equipped (AI4) Model S and Model X vehicles.
The discovery and first installation were performed by Yaro on a Model X, and Tesla hacker Green helped provide some additional insight on the software side.
Unused Port and a Software Switch
The foundation for this retrofit has been in place for a long time, laid by Tesla itself. All HW4-equipped Model S and Model X vehicles, even those built before the recent refresh, have an empty, unused camera connector slot on the FSD computer, seemingly waiting for this exact purpose.
While the physical port is there, getting the car to recognize the camera requires a software change. According to Green, a simple configuration flag change is all that is needed to enable the front camera view on the vehicle’s main display once the hardware is connected and ready.
The Hardware: Parts & Costs
Yaro, who performed the installation on a Model X, provided a detailed breakdown of the parts and approximate costs involved.
Front Camera - $200 USD
Bumper Grill (with camera cutout) - $80 USD
Bumper Harness - $130 USD
Washer Pump - $15 USD
Washer Hoses - $30 USD
The total cost for the Model X hardware comes to around $455 USD, which isn’t too expensive if you were to DIY it. Tesla’s Electronic Parts Catalog has some of these parts available for order, and some can be ordered via your local Service Center. Yaro did note that he had to jerry-rig the camera connector cable, having salvaged the cable from a different camera harness.
The Model S vs Model X
This is where the project varies significantly. For the Model X, the retrofit is relatively simple. Because the main bumper shape is the same, only the lower bumper grill needs to be swapped for the version with the camera opening, along with installing the camera itself and the washer hardware.
For the Model S, the process is a bit more complex and expensive. Due to the different shape of the pre-refresh bumper, the entire front fascia assembly must be replaced to accommodate the camera. This makes the project far more expensive and laborious.
DIY or Official Retrofit?
The official front bumper camera on the Model X
Not a Tesla App
Right now, this is only a DIY retrofit. Tesla hasn’t indicated that they intend to offer this as an official retrofit for older vehicles at this time, but given the fact that it isn’t too complex, we expect that there is a possibility that they may do so in the near future.
All in all, this is about 3-5 hours of labor for the Model X, and approximately 5-7 hours of labor for the Model S, based on the official Tesla Service Manuals, using the front fascia reinstall process as a guide.
That means if Tesla does offer this as a retrofit service, it will likely cost between $800 and $1,200 USD when factoring in Tesla’s labor rates, but the total cost will vary regionally.
For those who own an AI4 Model S or Model X, it could be possible to request service for this installation, but as far as we’re aware, there is no official service notice for this retrofit at this time.
What About the Model 3?
For owners of the refreshed Highland Model 3, the only vehicle now left without a front bumper camera, the possibility of a retrofit is still uncertain. It has been noted by Green that some, but not all Model 3s built in late 2024 have an empty camera port on the FSD computer. This inconsistency means that while a retrofit may be possible for a subset of Model 3s, it isn’t a guaranteed upgrade path like it is for the Model S or Model X.
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