Tesla Is Creating a Wireless Car Charger

Tesla is developing its own wireless charging solution

Tesla

Tesla may be moving forward with wireless charging. If you blinked, you might have missed it during the Investor Day presentation. As Rebecca Tinucci, Tesla's Senior Director of Charging Infrastructure, was wrapping up her presentation, a slide titled: Can't Forget to Do Cool S*** appeared. It was only onscreen for a few seconds, but it may have been enough to show that Tesla is actively pursuing the technology.

Wireless Wall Connector

The slide showed an illustration of a Model S parked in a garage with a large mat under it and a box on the wall. It's assumed the box is the power source, and the mat is a charging pad. Interestingly, the illustration shows one of the recently updated Model S vehicles. It'll be interesting to see whether Tesla offers a retrofit for current owners or which vehicles will support a wireless charging mat.

Your Tesla is Always "Plugged In"

As Tinucci wrapped up her presentation, she concluded, "one more thing, yes, we've got to scale our infrastructure, yes we want to power it via renewable sources, but we are Tesla, so we also want to make sure we are continuing to focus on providing really incredible charging experiences." I'll confess I have forgotten to plug in my Tesla. It sure would be an incredible experience if my car charged itself.

Many owners will likely agree that what makes this product special isn't the wireless aspect, but the automated charging solution. You'll never have to decide whether to plug your vehicle in or forget to do so. You'll simply drive into your garage and the vehicle will decide when it needs to charge.

While this wireless unit appears to be a newer version of Tesla's Wall Connector, we expect Tesla to continue to offer their plug-in unit.

Several Companies Developing Wireless EV Charging

Plugless Power, a leader in wireless EV charging, was the first to provide a production wireless charging station to Telsa's Model S.

Another company pursuing the technology, Witricity, states that wireless charging is the key enabler for accelerating EV adoption and driving a greener future.

Several new companies have been working on the technology, but some legacy brands are also getting in on the action. For example, when Dodge unveiled their new Ram Revolution BEV Concept at CES 2023, they also introduced the Ram Charger. It's described as an inductive robot charger that "detects the vehicle's presence and its charging needs, and automatically moves into position and aligns itself under the vehicle."

Tesla is certainly not one to play catch up to anyone. However, with companies already developing a more convenient way to charge, including a legacy automaker, the race is on for Tesla to get wireless charging technology to Tesla owners.

Tesla's Next FSD v12 Update Will Be Available For Users on 2024.8

Tesla will soon roll out a FSD v12 which is compatible with update 2024.8 Tesla began its public rollout of FSD v12 last month, which brings a much more refined, human-like experience to the self-driving software.

To celebrate the achievement and show owners how big of an improvement FSD v12 is, Tesla offered a free month of FSD to all owners with compatible vehicles in the U.S. and Canada.

However, there was a caveat. The latest FSD v12 (v12.3.4) is Tesla update 2024.3.15. Since Tesla doesn't roll back updates since the process isn't rigorously tested, that means many owners who had already received Tesla update 2024.8.9 were left without a free trial and access to FSD v12.

Subscribing to FSD on Update 2024.8

In fact, if you're in the U.S. or Canada and subscribe to FSD while on update 2024.8.x, you'll actually receive the older, and quite a bit worse FSD v11.4.9.

The FSD v12 update has been highly anticipated and aims to finally upgrade Tesla’s ADAS level 2 system to something higher. Musk has talked about level 4 or 5, and even recently said Tesla is going all-in on FSD.

FSD v12 for Update 2024.8 Is Coming

Rohan Patel, who recently left Tesla, recently said that Tesla is already working on an FSD v12 update that is compatible with users on update 2024.8.x. This means that the next FSD update may finally be based on the 2024.8 codebase.

However, just this morning Tesla released the next major update to the platform, update 2024.14 for employee testing. The update is massive and includes an updated UI, hands-free trunk opening, a full-screen browser and more.

However, Patel never specified which codebase the next FSD update would be based on. If it's based on update 2024.8, then users who are upgraded to 2024.14 in the next couple of weeks may face a similar fate as users on 2024.8 today.

Release Date

Patel said to expect the release of the next version of FSD v12 this week. Since update 2024.14 is still being tested with "wave 1" employees, we'll likely see one of two things happen. We may see the next FSD update be based on 2024.8 and released very soon, or it'll be based on update 2024.14, but it may not be available for another couple of weeks.

Once this update arrives, owners with a Tesla on 2024.8.x will finally be able to update and receive their one-month trial of FSD v12 and finally experience what everyone has been excited about.

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Tesla Adds V12 User Interface, Full Screen Browser Button, Nav Improvements, Full Screen Visualizations for All

Tesla's latest V12 user interface will change the look and feel of some of the vehicle’s operations. This new interface, announced on X, is already partially available on the Cybertruck but will now be rolled out to the Model 3 and Model Y, equipped with AMD Ryzen processors according to Tesla. However, the new Model S and Model X will likely receive it as well, although possibly not at the same time. It integrates several new features and aesthetics that set new standards in vehicle interface design.

The new interface will become available in Tesla update 2024.14, which started rolling out to employees yesterday.

Centralized Vehicle Visualization

A standout feature of the v12 UI update, not to be confused with FSD v12, is the centralized vehicle visualization, which dominates the display while parked (shown in photo). This design choice enhances visual appeal and improves functionality by placing critical vehicle performance metrics, and status updates front and center. Similar to the layout in the Cybertruck, this feature provides drivers with a clear and immediate view of their vehicle's status and shows off the gorgeous 3D model.

Improved Navigation

The navigation system will see several improvements. You’ll now see a little trip progress bar that lets you visually see how far along you are on your route.

If your vehicle has a rear screen, as in the new Model 3, the redesigned Model S or Model X, then trip information such as ETA will also be displayed on the rear screen.

Tesla already has the ability to update your route if a faster route becomes available. You can change some of these settings under Controls > Navigate. However, now the vehicle will show you if a faster route becomes available and gives you a chance to cancel the updated route if needed.

Expanded Autopilot Visualizations

Tesla is now bringing its full-screen visualizations outside of North America. However, there will be some improvements as well. In addition to being able to have the visualizations go full screen, there will now be a small map displayed in the corner as well.

That’s one of the issues with the full-screen FSD visualizations right now. If you make them full-screen, you lose your navigation map completely and only have the next turn available.

This will be the first time full-screen visualizations are available outside North America. It’s not clear whether all the FSD visualizations will be available such as traffic lights, curbs and more will be displayed, but Tesla has slowly been adding additional visualizations for non-FSD users, so there’s a chance that this feature will finally display all FSD visualizations to users outside of North America.

It’s not immediately clear whether this feature will require Enhanced Autopilot or FSD.

Full-Screen Browser Support

With this update, Tesla will finally let you manually make the browser full-screen. While this will make Tesla’s Theater apps a little redundant since they just loaded the website of the selected streaming service, you’ll now be able to stream any video service full screen, as long as the service supports Tesla’s browser.

As expected, the full-screen button will only be available while the vehicle is parked.

Checking Compatibility and Availability

Owners can verify their vehicle’s compatibility with the new full-screen visualizations while parked and driving by navigating to Controls > Software > Additional Vehicle Info on their Tesla’s touchscreen. This update is tailored for Tesla vehicles equipped with the AMD Ryzen processor.

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