Tesla's response to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) directive has led to an update in their Autopilot system, impacting over 2 million vehicles. This development follows a meticulous two-year investigation by the NHTSA into incidents where Tesla vehicles, using the Autopilot feature, collided with stationary emergency vehicles.
The timing of the report is suspicious. It comes just days after the Washington Post published a scathing article against Autopilot. The story was so biased that Tesla took the rare step of responding directly to it.
Background of the NHTSA Investigation
The NHTSA's exhaustive probe centered on whether Tesla's safeguards within the Autopilot system were sufficient in preventing misuse. The inquiry, which scrutinized Tesla’s response to a series of collisions, concluded recently, leading to a recall notice without placing direct blame on the Autopilot system itself. Instead, the focus was on the potential inadequacy of feature controls to prevent driver misuse.
Tesla’s Response and Recall Details
Tesla initiated a voluntary safety recall affecting approximately 2,031,220 vehicles. All of the changes will be handled through an over-the-air update; this is not a physical recall and requires no hardware changes.
This recall includes specific Model S vehicles produced between October 5, 2012, and December 7, 2023, Model X vehicles from September 15, 2015, Model 3 vehicles from July 15, 2017, and Model Y vehicles from January 9, 2020. The recall involves the Autosteer feature of Tesla’s Autopilot system and addresses issues particularly relevant when misused by drivers who fail to maintain continuous and sustained responsibility for vehicle operation.
Addressing the Recall in Software Update 2023.44.30
The software update, version 2023.44.30 is scheduled to roll out shortly and is expected to introduce several key features. This update is also expected to include Tesla’s much anticipated Holiday Update, which will include various new features, such as Alternate Routes While Driving, Automatic Calls to 911, High Fidelity Park Assist, and more. According to NHTSA, these are the Autopilot changes:
Additional Controls and Alerts: Enhanced controls and alerts for Autosteer engagement are introduced to ensure drivers maintain continuous driving responsibility.
Visual Alert Prominence: Visual alerts on the user interface are made more prominent, improving driver awareness and compliance. These new improved alerts can be seen in the photo above, which moves Autopilot alerts to the top of the screen instead of toward the bottom.
Simplified Autosteer Engagement: Known as 'Single-Pull Autosteer', this feature was made available in a previous update, although it’s not available to everyone yet. The goal is to make the engagement and disengagement of Autosteer more intuitive.
Enhanced Checks and Limiting Use: The update includes additional checks during Autosteer engagement, especially when driving outside controlled access highways and approaching traffic controls. It’s unclear whether Tesla will limit the use of Autopilot on certain road types, although the recall document makes it sound like that may be a possibility here. An owner we’ve talked to who has the NHTSA changes, specifically said that Autosteer was not available at times, although it’s not clear whether these are additional limitations or whether Autopilot just didn’t have enough information to activate. FSD appears to be unaffected and the recall document by NTSHA does not refer to Tesla’s FSD specifically.
Suspension for Autopilot: In a move to enforce responsible use, drivers who repeatedly fail to adhere to continuous driving responsibility may face temporary suspension from using the Autosteer feature. In some images we’ve received, it appears that Tesla will apply its suspension system that’s used on FSD Beta to regular Autosteer as well.
This update reflects Tesla's dedication to addressing safety concerns while pushing the boundaries of autonomous driving technology. By collaborating with the NHTSA and proactively enhancing the Autopilot system, Tesla continues to set standards in the automotive industry. As autonomous technology evolves, Tesla's approach is a benchmark for integrating advanced safety features and balancing innovation and driver responsibility.
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While Tesla’s 2024 Holiday Update brought many new features, including Apple Watch Support, Cross Traffic Alerts, Weather Overlays, Search Along Route, and others, there are also several smaller items in this update that didn’t get much attention.
Ambient Lighting Now Affects Easter Eggs
The 2024+ Model 3 and Cybertruck both come equipped with ambient lighting, and Tesla is now taking advantage of this custom lighting feature by incorporating it into several easter eggs.
Rainbow Road: If you head over to Apps > ToyBox > Rainbow Road, you’ll find a new option available that allows the ambient lighting in the vehicle to also change shades while Rainbow Road is active. The Rainbow Road easter egg is a tribute to the iconic course course in Nintendo’s Mario Kart.
Check out the feature in action below:
🇮🇹 Con l’aggiornamento di Natale, quando attiviamo la pista arcobaleno, anche i LED interni diventeranno arcobaleno. Questa è una novità non documentata, scovata da un utente di TESLERS (chiaramente riguarda le Model 3 Highland)
Santa Mode: Just in time for Christmas, Tesla has improved Santa Mode by cycling the ambient lighting between Christmas colors. Similar to Rainbow Road, the use of ambient lighting for the easter egg is optional and can be enabled under Apps > ToyBox > Santa Mode.
When using Santa Mode with ambient lighting turned on, the lights will cycle just between Christmas colors, red, green and white, instead of the full rainbow. There’s a video of the feature below:
The Model S and Model X vehicles that support Steam gaming are receiving a Steam app update in the holiday update as well. This update could end up being very interesting, but for now Tesla says that the SteamOS, which also runs on Valve’s Steam Deck has been updated to version 3.6.
Valve outlines a wide range of fixes and improvements in their release notes for version 3.6, but Tesla simply states that the OS update includes performance enhancements and improved game compatibility.
The SteamOS hasn’t been updated on the Model S and X for quite a while, so we believe there may be more to this besides performance improvements and fixes. We’ll be looking to share some insights into this in the near future.
So, there you have it—three new features in the Holiday update that have mostly gone under the radar. While they may not apply to everyone, there are plenty of other cool features in the Holiday Update, like the arrival of Dynamic Road Closure Routing and Nearby Parking, that are coming to every vehicle, so go check out the full release notes.
At the 2023 Q3 Earnings Call, Tesla provided an update on its next-generation model, what many are referring to as the “Model 2” or “Model Q.” Although the actual model name is yet to be determined, it is known internally as Redwood.
During the 2024 Shareholder Meeting, Musk again mentioned the upcoming model, saying that Tesla is working on new products, including a more affordable vehicle and a larger SUV.
While we know the next-gen vehicle is aimed at the $25k to $30k USD market, we now have some new information thanks to a new report out of China.
Launch & Price
According to the Chinese outlet CNMO Technology News (Sina Finance), Travis Axelrod, Tesla’s Head of Investor Relations, announced plans to launch a new model. Axelrod shared this update while addressing senior corporate investors at an investor conference hosted by Deutsche Bank on December 5, 2024.
The goal of Project Redwood, internally dubbed “Model Q” by Deutsche Bank, is to achieve a post-subsidy price of under $30,000 USD. With the Federal EV Rebate potentially expiring next year, this suggests that the Model Q’s starting price will be around $30,000 USD. For comparison, the Model 3 currently starts at $42,490 in the U.S.
We previously reported that Tesla has already been speaking to suppliers and is looking to begin volume production of the vehicle sometime around June 2025. Of course, prototyping is still necessary, but we haven’t seen any signs of Tesla testing a new vehicle since spotting the Cybercab on the streets ahead of We, Robot.
Specs
The Model Q will supposedly be about 15% smaller and 30% lighter than the Model 3, with an approximate length of 3,988mm, or 157 inches. For scale, the Mini is 157 inches, while the Model 3 is 185 inches, so it’s fairly compact.
The battery will also be smaller to match the vehicle’s smaller size as Tesla tries to reduce the vehicle’s price while maintaining a similar range as its other vehicles. Tesla is expected to offer two models—a single-motor RWD model and a Long-Range Dual-Motor AWD variant.
The lower trim level will include a 53 kWh lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery, while the AWD version is expected to include a 75 kWh LFP battery. The report says that the vehicle will be able to travel up to 500 km (310 miles) on a single charge, but it’s not clear whether this will be for the more efficient RWD version or the AWD variant.
Given the vehicle’s weight reduction compared to the Model 3, this type of range is likely for the lower trim level.
Variant
Motors
Battery Size
Estimated Range
RWD
1
53 kWh (LFP)
310 miles (500km)?
AWD
2
75 kWh (LFP)
?
There’s no news yet on the price of the AWD version, but we expect it to be about $5,000 more expensive than the RWD variant.
Once the vehicle ramps up in production, Tesla intends to produce about 10,000 of these per week globally or about 500,000 per year. As Tesla mentioned during one of their previous earnings calls, this next-gen vehicle will be built using Tesla’s current assembly lines with minimal changes. This should allow for a smoother and more predictable production ramp. While Tesla still plans to use its new unboxed assembly process, it’s now saving it for the robotaxi.
We’re expecting Juniper to launch early next year, as production has supposedly already begun at Giga Shanghai, at least on a limited prototyping basis. If the rollout matches the Model 3 Highland refresh, we’ll see Juniper arrive in China first and then make its way to North America and Europe by the end of 2025. The performance variants should launch in early 2026, after the standard models.
If you’re excited about Juniper, so are we! Check out our wishlist of features for Tesla’s Model Y refresh, and see everything we know so far.
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