Tesla is nearing a pivotal moment in its journey and the automotive industry. According to a detailed report by Reuters, the company is on the brink of a groundbreaking manufacturing evolution, set to revolutionize the production of its next vehicle and set a new standard for the future of vehicle creation.
Drawing on insider knowledge from five anonymous sources, the report sheds light on Tesla's innovative gigacasting process, poised to redefine the manufacturing landscape and help Elon Musk realize his ambition of halving production costs. A decision on this significant shift could be made later this month.
A Single-Frame Approach
The key to this disruption lies in Tesla's commitment to unboxed manufacturing - a strategy introduced by Musk in March. At its core, this strategy focuses on the die-casting of nearly the entire complex underbody of an EV in one singular piece, reducing the traditional assembly of around 400 parts in a conventional car to a singular entity.
Tesla has used technology in several areas of its operation, notably a recent single-piece front casting for the Model Y that resulted in 169 fewer pieces and 1,600 fewer welds.
Tesla's unboxed strategy could roll out soon, drastically cutting production time and costs. According to Reuters, Tesla's forthcoming $25,000 car presents the perfect canvas for this one-piece casting revolution, bearing a simpler underbody resembling "a battery tray with small wings."
The Material Difference
To bring this vision to life, Tesla's global team, based across the UK, Germany, Japan, and the US, has leveraged 3D printing and industrial sand. Utilizing binder jets, which construct molds layer by layer through the deposition of a liquid binding agent on a sand layer, the team can quickly create and adapt prototype molds. This process significantly cuts the traditional costs associated with metal prototype creation, paving the way for rapid iteration at just 3% of the usual expenditure.
Beyond molding, Tesla has also been developing special alloys to overcome challenges in crashworthiness and other attributes associated with the different behaviors of these materials in sand and metal molds. These alloys, aligned with a fine-tuned molten alloy cooling process and post-production heat treatments, have potentially set the stage for a large-scale manufacturing revolution.
Tesla is deliberating on the exact nature of the die-casting process - whether embracing high-pressure techniques for speed or opt for slow alloy injection to ensure quality and versatility. The choice between these methods implicates not only the complexity of the car frame but also dictates the need for potentially more significant factory buildings and Giga Presses boasting a staggering clamping power of over 16,000 tons.
Strategic Shift to Giga Texas
This aligns with recent insights from Walter Isaacson's biography of Elon Musk, illustrating a strategic shift in Tesla's operations. Initially slated for Mexico, the production hub for the next-generation EV platform will now reside in Giga Texas. This will allow Musk to keep a closer eye on the development, design engineers and the manufacturing hub to facilitate immediate feedback and streamline processes. The book also said that Giga Mexico would still play a significant role, but now it seems it would be where the new technology would be housed after being perfected in Texas.
As the clock ticks down to Tesla's final decision, one thing remains clear: a potential transformative moment in EV manufacturing is on the horizon, promising a future where Tesla's EVs are more affordable, attainable, and revolutionary than ever before. It is not just a step but a gigantic leap toward the future of automotive manufacturing that only a visionary like Musk could envision and endeavor to achieve.
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Tesla is set to introduce restricted driver profiles in an upcoming update, aiming to improve safety for teenage drivers. Tesla hacker @greentheonly, also known as Green, recently decompiled the 2024.14.3 update, revealing the change.
Restricted Driver Profiles
Over the years, many people have asked Tesla to bring in restricted driver profiles, similar to Tesla’s currently existing Valet Mode. Valet Mode already serves to restrict the car’s maximum speed, reduces acceleration, and disables the use of Autopilot and FSD. The new restricted profiles will let you apply certain restrictions to driver profiles without the full-fledged restrictions of Valet Mode which also limits HomeLink, GPS history and more.
What Restricted Profiles Could Do
From Green’s post on X, restricted driving profiles will display “training wheels” next to the profile, indicating their usage for new drivers. The ability to add a maximum speed and enforced chill mode are expected to be part of the feature package.
Other restrictions that could also be implemented could include disabling the use of Autopilot and FSD, or perhaps requiring certain features to remain disabled or enabled, like disabling “Joe Mode”, frunk or glove-box access, summon, and locking Sentry Mode to active.
Given how easy it is to swap profiles on a Tesla, Tesla would need to prevent a user from switching from a restricted profile to a regular profile. Tesla could do this in a variety of ways, such as tying driver profiles to a key card or mobile device and requiring a PIN code to exit the restricted profile, much in the same way they do it in Valet Mode.
Enhanced Safety Implementations
Additional safety measures could include alerts that notify parents or guardians when the vehicle reaches its destination or exceeds set speed limits. Given that a Tesla can automatically call emergency services in a crash, this could be an excellent feature for ensuring the safety and security of young drivers on their own for the first time.
Release Date
Elon Musk has previously mentioned that FSD V12.4 is being rolled out sometime shortly, and given that Green has found this 2024.14.3, it could be coming very soon. The latest Tesla update being rolled out now is 2024.14.6.
Tesla announced last month that its Spring Update, version 2024.14, would come with visual updates, but that they would be exclusive to the Model 3 and Model Y with Ryzen processors.
Tesla has slowly started rolling out update 2024.14, but until last night, it was only available to vehicles with the Ryzen processor.
We now have our first glimpse into update 2024.14 on vehicles that include the older Intel Atom processor.
Visual Updates
According to Tesla, none of the visual updates would be available on vehicles with Intel infotainment units, however, it looks like those vehicles will be receiving some of the features as well.
A new media player that has a better layout and includes more controls and a new minimized state.
Expandable Autopilot visualizations that are available to everyone include a smaller map in the top-right corner.
And a redesigned and more compact drive mode strip for vehicles for Auto Shift, which doesn't apply to Intel vehicles.
New Parked Visualization
This is probably the biggest feature just because it’s executed so beautifully. Unfortunately, it’s not available on vehicles with MCU 2 (Intel Atom)… at least not at this time.
It appears that Tesla may be using a higher-resolution 3D model or different shaders to create this new visualization. This could be the reason for its exclusivity to the faster AMD Ryzen processor. However, it could just take some time for Tesla to optimize it for Intel Atom processors or use a different model that is more suitable for the older processor.
The Model S and Model X are also not receiving this new parked visualization at this time. Although the Model S and Model X use the instrument cluster for visualizations, given the appeal of the new parked visualization, we wouldn't be surprised if it became available on the Model S/X in the future as well.
The Cybertruck already uses the new parked visualization, although it doesn't include an instrument cluster like the Model S/X.
New Media Player
Tesla's new media player on the Model 3/Y
The improved media player that exposes additional controls and has a new minimized state, is arriving on vehicles with Intel processors.
Tesla included the new audio player as part of the Visual Updates that would be exclusive to AMD Ryzen vehicles, but the new media player on Intel appears to look and function exactly like it does on AMD vehicles. If you haven’t seen the new media player, take a look at our in-depth look at Tesla’s new audio player.
Expandable Autopilot Visualizations
The new, expandable Autopilot visualizations are also available on Intel vehicles. Although users with FSD already had full-screen visualizations, Tesla is bringing over additional features. This includes everything we've seen on AMD vehicles, including the new media player, the 'Navigate to' module, and the map preview in the corner of the screen.
For owners without FSD, this will bring full-screen visualizations to Autopilot for the first time. The full-screen visualization will look and function much like it does in Europe. It includes all of the new controls, improved vehicle detection, and the ability to display turn signals, but it won't display everything FSD does, including curbs and drivable areas.
Update: It looks like if you have FSD then you’ll have the new full-screen visualizations, but a user is reporting that he didn’t receive them on his Intel vehicle without FSD.
Other Updates
While Intel-based vehicles aren’t receiving all of the visual updates as expected, they are receiving a lot of the other functionality in update 2024.14, including Audible, Sentry Mode Previews, Trip Progress Bar, Spotify improvements, Better Route Available and many more.
Final Thoughts
Although this update doesn't bring the most appealing part of the Spring Update to Intel vehicles, it brings more than was expected.
The new parked visualization is the most exciting, but arguably least useful aspect of the new update. While it's beautiful and fun to play with, the new media player that features quick access to the most used controls is a much more useful addition.
The improved full-screen driving visualizations being available to everyone with the map in the corner is also a nice addition.
While we're not seeing the new parked visualization available on older vehicles with this update, it may arrive later once Tesla has a chance to optimize it for the slower Intel processor.
If you haven’t checked out Tesla’s new Spring Update, take a look at some videos of the best features in Tesla’s 2024.14. update.
TeslaFi logs your drives and charging sessions, letting you keep a log of your vehice's activity. We highly recommend checking them out if you use your car for business trips and would like to keep track of reimbursements, if you like to see how much you spend on charging or if you just love statistics. Visit their site and see everything they have to offer!
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