Tesla has released an updated Vehicle Safety Report, this time for the 2nd financial quarter of 2024. Every quarter, Tesla provides an update to their Vehicle Safety Report, which provides quite a bit of information into how safe Tesla vehicles actually are.
So far, 1.6 billion cumulative miles have been driven with FSD Supervised according to Omead Afshar, who works at the Office of the CEO at Tesla.
This quarter, Tesla recorded a slight decrease in miles driven before an autopilot accident over last quarter – quite a surprising start to the report. Last quarter, Tesla achieved a record-breaking 7.6 million miles driven on Autopilot or FSD before an accident. This quarter, the number is down slightly to approximately 6.88 million miles.
Looking at the trends in the data, this is expected. The second quarter of a year tends to have more incidents, as drivers are increasingly on the road in summer months and taking longer trips – both Tesla drivers and non-Tesla drivers alike.
While Tesla doesn’t release detailed statistics on incidents, including those with Autopilot or FSD, we can likely attribute the majority of these incidents to drivers not properly supervising their vehicles, at least in most cases.
The most recent, widely published case occurred in Australia, where a driver using Autopilot hit a cyclist. The incident details have yet to be published, but there is speculation that the driver was holding the drive pedal down – which will stop Autopilot from slowing or stopping for obstacles.
On the flipside, the number of miles driven without Autopilot before an accident has increased since last quarter, which is a positive note. In Q1, Tesla achieved about 0.9 million miles driven, but in Q2, they’re at 1.45 million miles driven before an accident. That’s more than a 50% improvement.
Tesla's Q2 2024 vehicle safety report
Not a Tesla App
Safety Features
The biggest part played this quarter is definitely by Tesla’s Active Safety Features. While they don’t sound like much in comparison to the magic of FSD, these safety features likely save more people from accidents than anything else.
Between Lane Departure Avoidance and Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB), all working in tandem with Collision Avoidance Assist, Tesla vehicles are some of the safest vehicles on the road today. Teslas are packed with cameras – which means they always know what’s going on around them. Combine this with the immensely powerful engine that can run FSD, and you’ve got a recipe for a vehicle that is more than capable of keeping its occupants and other road users safe.
We’re glad to see Tesla continues to release these statistics, and that overall, they’re showing an improvement.
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For the first time in quite a while, Tesla has increased the price of one of its vehicle offerings. The Model S Long Range and the Model S Plaid have both received a hefty price increase. However, not all is bad - as Tesla also added a new benefit for buyers.
Price Increase
The price increase for the Model S is $5,000 - currently only in the United States. This price increase will likely impact other markets, including Canada, in the coming days.
The Model S Long Range now starts at $79,990, while the Model S Plaid now starts at $94,990. The Model S and Model X now have the same starting price. Interestingly, that’s also the same pricing point for the Cybertruck AWD and Cyberbeast Trimotor non-Foundation Series.
The vehicle configuration does not appear to have changed, so the new pricing is simply an increase rather than the addition or removal of features. Tesla previously cut the price of the Model S and Model X by 15% in 2023, so this could simply be an adjustment to ensure that the vehicle pricing stays in line with inflation and other factors.
Free Lifetime Supercharging
For those on the fence about ordering a Model S, Tesla has brought back Free Lifetime Supercharging when you order a new Model S on or after December 13, 2024. As always, Free Lifetime Supercharging is restricted to the buyer’s Tesla account and to that specific vehicle. It cannot be transferred to another vehicle or another owner after ownership transfer. It’s worth noting, that it also doesn’t exclude the owner from receiving Supercharger idle fees or congestion fees. There is currently no end date for this promotion.
There are currently no changes to the Model X, neither a price increase nor the addition of Lifetime Superchargering. However, when Tesla makes changes to one of their premium vehicles, it usually affects the other one as well. So be on the lookout for potential changes to the Model X offering in the coming days.
We’ve seen Tesla value Lifetime Supercharging at $5,000, so this falls in line with the price increase we’re seeing. It’s possible that Tesla will begin to bring back Lifetime Supercharging as a perk for buying into their more premium Model S and Model X cars, or this could be another temporary promotion to get buyers who are on the fence to go ahead and make their purchase while this promotion lasts.
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.
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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