As Tesla edges closer to officially unveiling the Model 3 Ludicrous enthusiasts and potential buyers alike are keenly analyzing every piece of information available. Amidst the flurry of images showing the new Ludicrous model in public and leaked images of the car in a display area at a Tesla facility in Malibu, California, it appears that Tesla will kick off the second quarter in style. But something else will be unveiled as well.
The presence of Tesla's head designer, Franz von Holzhausen, along with his distinctive matte black-wrapped Cybertruck in Malibu, hints at a gathering of automotive influencers and experts. This strategic gathering, further evidenced by sightings of notable figures such as Marques Brownlee and Jason Cammisa, suggests Tesla’s intention to leverage influential reviews and social media buzz to highlight the Model 3 Ludicrous upon its release.
Mysterious Technological Innovations Unveiled
Alongside the anticipation surrounding its unveiling, the Model 3 Ludicrous has sparked intrigue with the mystery of a covered item spotted on a desk beside a covered Model 3. Speculation is that this could be a new motor or an advanced technological component integral to the Model 3 Ludicrous's capabilities.
The Model 3 Ludicrous sets itself apart with significant upgrades, including a redesigned front fascia, side front bumper vents for improved aerodynamics, and new rim designs complemented by a sleek rear spoiler. These enhancements and the expected acceleration metrics that promise to surpass the previous performance model's benchmarks set the stage for what is sure to be a must-have car for the Tesla enthusiast.
Strategic Pricing and Timing
An important financial aspect has come to light courtesy of Tesla insider Sawyer Merritt. He points out a crucial consideration for U.S. customers eyeing the Model 3 Ludicrous: the eligibility for federal incentives. Specifically, Merritt notes that any electric sedan priced over $55,000 does not qualify for the coveted $7,500 Federal EV credit. This detail adds a layer of financial planning for potential buyers, as the Model 3 Ludicrous is expected to harness 2170 cells from Giga Nevada, similar to its predecessor, which could influence its qualifying status from a manufacturing standpoint.
Tesla's timing for the Model 3 Ludicrous unveiling seems strategically poised to stimulate its second-quarter sales, leveraging the heightened public interest and media buzz. The company has prepared investors for a slower year of growth, so introducing this new product aims to strengthen Tesla's market position and emphasize its role as a leader in innovation within the automotive industry.
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On Sunday, Tesla started rolling out Full Self-Driving (Supervised) V12.3.6, the latest version of its FSD software. This update includes the highly anticipated new Autopark and High Fidelity Park Assist feature for additional vehicles. FSD v12.3.6 replaces v12.3.5 which had only been rolled out to a small portion of the fleet.
The new Autopark (tap to park) and High Fidelity Park Assist features are now available for vehicles with ultrasonic sensors (USS). Since October 2022, all Model 3 and Model Y vehicles no longer include ultrasonic sensors, instead relying solely on Tesla Vision to provide Autopilot, Park Assist, and Autopark features. However, the vision-based Autopark has been limited to the U.S. and Canada so far.
New Autopark
When driving at low speed, the new Autopark highlights potential parking spaces allowing the driver to pick their preferred spot. Tesla vehicles with ultrasonic sensors (USS) can now take advantage of the new Autopark feature, which is a significant improvement over the previous iteration.
Although the new Autopark feature is expanding to vehicles with USS, it appears to still be geographically limited to the U.S. and Canada. We expect Tesla to continue the feedback loop and release the feature in Europe and other regions in a future update.
Vehicles without USS outside of North America have never had Autopark of any form since they don’t support the older Autopark version that relies on USS and have yet to receive this latest revision of the feature.
For vehicles with the Intel-based infotainment unit, the visuals will look like the video below, where it doesn’t display a 3D environment of the vehicle’s surroundings. Instead, the visualization just highlights parking spaces available. However, the limitation for Intel vehicles is just in the visualization itself, the vehicle is just as aware of its surroundings as vehicles that display 3D renderings of objects on the screen.
With Tesla update 2024.3.25 (FSD v12.3.6), Tesla is also releasing High Fidelity Park Assist features to vehicles with ultrasonic sensors. However, as initially suspected, it’s limited to vehicles with the most recent infotainment processor that includes the Ryzen chip (MCU 3). Unfortunately, Intel Atom based vehicles don’t include the 3D visuals of High Fidelity Park Assist.
The feature provides drivers with a 360-degree 3D reconstruction of their vehicles’ surroundings while parking while traveling at low speeds. It even accurately displays lane markers in parking lots helping drivers visualize the environment around them when parking. The feature was added as a late addition to Tesla’s 2023 holiday update. However, at the time, it was limited to vehicles without ultrasonic sensors (USS).
For vehicles that have ultrasonic sensors, users will have a choice to either continue using their vehicle with USS sensors that display exact distances to objects or use the new High Fidelity Park Assist feature and forego the display of distances.
We were hoping that when Tesla finally released HiFi Park Assist to vehicles with USS, it would merge the two features and display the updated visuals with distance measurements, however, that is not the case in this update.
For owners with USS, the new Park Assist option is located under Controls > Autopilot and allows you to choose between “Standard” or “Tesla Vision.” Tesla Vision being the new HiFi Park Assist and Standard representing the USS version with arcs and measurements.
Tesla’s director of Autopilot, Ashok Elluswamy had previously set expectations and stated that HiFi Park Assist would “eventually” go to vehicles with ultrasonic sensors back in December 2023. The new Park Assist feature is available in various regions around the world, including North America and most of Europe.
Tesla continues to double down on vision and Musk revealed that it's becoming “very clear that the vision-based approach with end-to-end neural networks is the right solution for scalable autonomy”.
Tesla has started offering Enhanced Autopilot (EAP) in China via a subscription starting at 699 yuan per month — equivalent to about $98.5 USD. It’s the first time Tesla owners in the country will have access to features such as auto lane change, Autopark, Smart Summon, and others.
It’s not clear whether Tesla will begin to offer EAP as a subscription in other regions as well.
The move is seen as the first step towards the expansion of Tesla’s full self driving to China as other markets outside North America wait for the arrival of the FSD software. Yesterday, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk said the version 12 is “ready for supervised FSD in LHD countries” while RHD countries such as Australia, UK or Japan “will take a bit longer”.
FSD in China
China giant Baidu announced last Monday that it will provide all Tesla vehicles in China its latest version of Baidu Maps starting in May.
This week, Tesla celebrated its 10th anniversary in the Chinese Market where it has a total of 1.7 million owners — Tesla’s second largest market. Elon Musk recently tweeted that Tesla may soon offer full self-driving in China by saying “It may be possible very soon”.
FSD in Europe
On Friday, the Senior Advisor of the Swedish Transport Transportation, Rikard Fredriksson, shared on LinkedIn that he had been demoed the FSD technology in Germany with a Tesla employee. The moment marks the first official use of the assisted driving software in Europe.
Impressive smooth and natural driving
LinkedIn Post by Rikard Fredriksson after the FSD Demo in Germany
In the recent earnings call, Elon Musk said Tesla has over 300 million miles that has been driven with FSD v12 since it was launched just last month. He added that it's becoming “very clear that the vision-based approach with end-to-end neural networks is the right solution for scalable autonomy”.
Tesla said it has been investing in the hardware and software ecosystems necessary to achieve vehicle autonomy and a ride-hailing service. The company is confident that it can establish a scalable and profitable autonomous driving business by employing a vision-only architecture.
Tesla has recently reduced the pricing of its “Full Self-Driving” software in the US, from $12,000 to $8,000, and in Canada from CA$16,000 to $11,000. This price reduction follows a 50% cut in the subscription fee announced earlier this month.
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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