Tesla's New Model 3 Includes a Drowsiness Warning, an Air Compressor and More

The new Model 3s are coming with an air compressor

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Tesla's upgraded Model 3 is hitting the roads around the world. With no date set for North America deliveries, we have to rely on Tesla enthusiasts worldwide to tell us what they are finding with the car originally known as the Highland.

Highland Model 3's Air Compressor Accessory

One of the Model 3's new features is the inclusion of an air compressor accessory, setting it apart from other editions. This built-in air compressor is not just a handy tool for tire maintenance, ensuring optimal pressure and thereby improving vehicle efficiency, but it also serves various other purposes. Whether inflating camping gear during outdoor adventures or ensuring sporting equipment is game-ready, the Highland Model 3 positions itself as the ideal companion for those who demand more from their vehicle, both on and off the road.

Smart Shift

The concept of manual gear shifting is evolving, thanks to Tesla's Smart Shift technology. The new Model 3 simplifies the driving process by automatically determining whether to shift the car into reverse or drive. Upon starting, drivers will now be greeted with the "Press Brake to Drive" message on the screen. This eliminates another step from starting the vehicle. Thanks to Tesla's phone key and electric drivetrain, drivers don't need a car key, or a start button, and now they don't even need to shift the vehicle into drive. Just simply hold the brake, to have the vehicle check for a valid phone key and then gently press the accelerator.

Drowsiness Detection: A Lifesaver on the Road

The new Model 3 software has a drowsiness warning that appears on screen

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Safety remains paramount at Tesla. As Green told us a few weeks ago, another safety feature is in the new Model 3 - a drowsiness warning system. Utilizing the cabin camera and advanced algorithms, the system monitors the driver's alertness levels. If it detects signs of fatigue or inattention, a chime goes off and an alert is sent to the driver, prompting them to take a break or be more attentive. This proactive approach to safety could be the difference between a close call and a mishap.

Firmware Updates: An Insider's Note

New Model 3 owners might notice the unique version number: 2023.31.600. This version might seem unusual initially, but Tesla aficionados will recognize this odd-numbered sequence. For new vehicles equipped with factory firmware, Tesla typically uses an odd number after the year in the version to differentiate it. These new Model 3s wil eventually receive the same software updates as other vehicles.

Update: This article has been updated to remove the reference to the ambient lighting cycling through different colors while the Rainbow Road easter egg is activate. Although this could be a feature Tesla implements in a future update, the original video (below) was done manually by having the passenger cycle through the various colors in settings.

Tesla's Rainbow Road easter egg may one day take advantage of the vehicle's ambient lighting

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Tesla’s Optimus Robot Learns to Walk Without Vision [VIDEO]

Optimus Falls - but catches itself!

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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.

Daily walks help clear your mind pic.twitter.com/dUsW58trS6

— Tesla Optimus (@Tesla_Optimus) December 9, 2024

A Look Behind the Curtain

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.

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Is Tesla Close to Licensing FSD? GM Quits Cruise, BMW Praises Tesla

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In a relatively surprising move, GM announced that it is realigning its autonomy strategy and prioritizing advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) over fully autonomous vehicles.

GM is effectively closing Cruise (autonomous) and focusing on its Super Cruise (ADAS) feature. The engineering teams at Cruise will join the GM teams working on Super Cruise, effectively shuttering the fully autonomous vehicle business.

End of Cruise

GM cites that “an increasingly competitive robotaxi market” and “considerable time and resources” are required for scaling the business to a profitable level. Essentially - they’re unable to keep up with competitors at current funding and research levels, putting them further and further behind.

Cruise has been offering driverless rides in several cities, using HD mapping of cities alongside vehicles equipped with a dazzling array of over 40 sensors. That means that each cruise vehicle is essentially a massive investment and does not turn a profit while collecting data to work towards Autonomy.

Cruise has definitely been on the back burner for a while, and a quick glance at their website - since it's still up for now - shows the last time they officially released any sort of major news packet was back in 2019. 

Competition is Killer

Their current direct competitor - Waymo, is funded by Google, which maintains a direct interest in ensuring they have a play in the AI and autonomy space.

Interestingly, this news comes just a month after Tesla’s We, Robot event, where they showed off the Cybercab and the Robotaxi network, as well as plans to begin deployment of the network and Unsupervised FSD sometime in 2025. Tesla is already in talks with some cities in California and Texas to launch Robotaxi in 2025.

GM Admits Tesla Has the Right Strategy

As part of the business call following the announcement, GM admitted that Tesla’s end-to-end and Vision-based approach towards autonomy is the right strategy. While they say Cruise started down that path, they’re putting aside their goals towards fully autonomous vehicles for now and focusing on introducing that tech in Super Cruise instead.

NEWS: GM just admitted that @Tesla’s end-to-end approach to autonomy is the right strategy.

“That’s where the industry is pivoting. Cruise had already started making headway down that path. We are moving to a foundation model and end-to-end approach going forward.” pic.twitter.com/ACs5SFKUc3

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) December 10, 2024

With GM now focusing on Super Cruise, they’ll put aside autonomy and instead focus solely on ADAS features to relieve driver stress and improve safety. While those are positive goals that will benefit all road users, full autonomy is really the key to removing the massive impact that vehicle accidents have on society today.

In addition, Super Cruise is extremely limited, cannot brake for traffic controls, and doesn’t work in adverse conditions - even rain. It can only function when lane markings are clear, there are no construction zones, and there is a functional web connection. 

The final key to the picture is that the vehicle has to be on an HD-mapped and compatible highway - essentially locking Super Cruise to wherever GM has time to spend mapping, rather than being functional anywhere in a general sense, like FSD or Autopilot.

Others Impressed - Licensing FSD

Interestingly, some other manufacturers have also weighed into the demise of Cruise. BMW, in a now-deleted post, said that a demo of Tesla’s FSD is “very impressive.” There’s a distinct chance that BMW and other manufacturers are looking to see what Tesla does next. 

BMW chimes in on a now-deleted post. The Internet is forever, BMW!

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It seems that FSD has caught their eyes after We, Robot - and that the demonstrations of FSD V13.2 online seem to be the pivot point. At the 2024 Shareholder Meeting earlier in the year, Elon shared the fact that several manufacturers had reached out, looking to understand what was required to license FSD from Tesla.

There is a good chance 2025 will be the year we’ll see announcements of the adoption of FSD by legacy manufacturers - similar to how we saw the surprise announcements of the adoption of the NACS charging standard.

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