Tesla Talks Supercharger Improvements: Types of Cars Plugged In, Faster Data Refreshing and More

November 27, 2024

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

Tesla recently published an article on X detailing some of the improvements they’ve made to the Supercharging ecosystem to make it better for everyone. And boy, have they made a lot of improvements just this year - and with the recent announcement of the V4 Supercharger Cabinets capable of 500kW, it's going to get even better next year.

Since Tesla began opening its Supercharger sites to approved third parties, one key point of contention has been the charge port location. Every Tesla has its charge port on the rear left side of the vehicle, behind the driver. Superchargers before V4 rely on this location, and thus, non-Tesla vehicles with a port in a different location sometimes have to take up two stalls to charge.

Supercharger Improvements

Tesla has been making many improvements recently, even looking beyond the more powerful V4 cabinets coming in early 2025. Let’s take a look at all the work they’ve done and what’s coming up as well.

Cars Plugged In & Faster Data

One of the key updates has been to improve the overall accuracy of stall availability - the backend system refreshes fairly quickly, providing an accurate stall count - which helps to improve navigation and trip planner improvements too. Tesla announced that it’s now able to detect what type of EV is plugged in so that it can better assess charging estimates and determine if a vehicle may be taking up two stalls and automatically takes this into account when routing vehicles.

Max de Zegher, Director of Supercharging North America, mentioned on X that the stall availability now refreshes every 15 seconds, and with mapped Supercharger site layouts, Tesla can see which stalls are available.

The updated stall availability algorithm is a big improvement, with nearby refresh rates now every ~15 seconds. We know car types plugging in and mapped out Supercharger site layouts, to know which stall is not available at short cable sites. Your Tesla's touchscreen now shows… https://t.co/5PF7wruNhQ
— Max de Zegher (@MdeZegher) November 22, 2024

V4 Chargers to Outnumber V2 & V3 Combined

As part of the V4 Supercharger stall upgrade, Tesla has been deploying stalls with longer cables and stalls with built-in adapters for CCS vehicles. These new longer cables mean that Tesla’s Supercharger sites can serve more vehicle charge port layouts without having to block a stall. That increases site availability, and Tesla expects to have more V4 charging stalls in the next 18 months than it has V2 and V3 stalls today. Some of these will be due to new locations, but Tesla is also updating current Supercharger locations.

Modifying Current Superchargers

Tesla has also been working to modify its site planning and layouts—both sites that are already built and sites still in planning. Over 1,500 sites have been altered to better serve drivers by widening the parking spaces, ensuring that drivers never have to use more than two ports to charge.

Pull-Through Trailer Chargers

Another big one is the deployment of pull-through Supercharger Trailer spots. These spots mean you don’t need to unhitch your trailer from your vehicle before supercharging, which is excellent for vehicles like the Cybertruck when you’re towing a trailer and need to charge up before continuing on your trip. Tesla update 2024.44 also adds the ability to see which Superchargers have trailer-friendly charging stalls.

The Pull-Through Priority Signs

Not a Tesla App

Standardized Port Location

The last - but one of the most important - things that Tesla is doing is encouraging manufacturers to move their charge ports to either the rear left or front right of vehicles, thereby helping to improve compatibility with Supercharger sites. Manufacturers have already taken steps to standardize in Europe, but these changes really haven’t rolled out globally yet. Rivian recently announced that the charge port for their upcoming R2 and R3 vehicles will be in the rear driver’s side, matching Tesla’s port location.

We hope to see more improvements in this space, especially as NACS becomes the de facto standard in North America.

NHTSA to Streamline Approvals for Control-Free Vehicles Like Tesla’s Cybercab

June 16, 2025

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

In a letter to industry, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced that it is overhauling its approvals process for vehicles designed without human controls.

The change addresses a regulatory bottleneck that has slowed down American companies like Tesla from deploying purpose-built Robotaxis, rather than relying on using traditional vehicles with steering wheels and pedals. The policy shift is outlined in a letter posted to the NHTSA’s website, which you can find here.

Reducing Approvals From Years to Months

Under the existing rules today, any vehicle that is built without a steering wheel or brake pedals must receive a special exemption from federal safety standards.

Obtaining exemptions for a particular vehicle was a time-consuming process for both the companies requesting exemptions and the NHTSA. The process was often a black box—nobody knew when an exemption might be granted, and approvals could take years.

The NHTSA, under the new administration’s guidelines for autonomous vehicle development, is now committed to streamlining this process. The agency will be implementing a new, faster approach immediately for receiving exemptions for autonomous vehicles without standard controls. The NHTSA expects decisions on exemption requests to be determined within months rather than years.

Accelerating the Cybercab

This change has massive implications for Tesla, which is banking on the production of the simplified and easy-to-maintain purpose-built Cybercab. The Cybercab is developed from the ground up as an autonomous Robotaxi and will be one of the key beneficiaries of this move by the NHTSA.

Knowing that a final design won't be caught in a multi-year regulatory limbo provides a level of certainty that has been missing. It allows Tesla to confidently plan the manufacturing, development, and deployment processes without worrying whether the project will get stuck in regulatory approvals.

According to the letter, the agency will publish its improved instructions for the streamlined process "shortly." With Tesla already having begun Cybercab pre-production and the goals for its deployment as soon as late 2026, there’s still a lot to be done to make autonomy a part of Tesla’s new sustainable abundance mission statement.

You Can Now Track Tesla’s Robotaxi Deployment

June 15, 2025

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

Thanks to Tesla Yoda on X, we have found out that Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet is registered on the Texas Department of Transportation’s public-facing Automated Vehicle Deployment website. This makes the fleet’s movements publicly viewable and trackable, and marks a first for Tesla.

This isn’t just any old FSD test - this is the first officially acknowledged, government-tracked, and sanctioned deployment of a Tesla Model Y operating as a ride-share vehicle. But that’s not all - Texas DOT’s tracker notes that the Tesla does not have a safety driver.

View on the Map

Visitors to the Texas DOT website can filter for “Tesla”, and see, currently, a single active vehicle operating in the Austin Metro area. According to the state’s official data, here’s what we know:

Company: Tesla

Description: Ride-share service

Status in Texas: Testing

Safety Driver: No

The final point is definitely the most interesting here. While Tesla has been testing FSD with safety drivers for some time in Austin and LA for employee-only testing, this is the first time that a vehicle has been officially registered and deployed on public roads without a human behind the wheel for safety.

The fact that there is no safety driver officially shifts the liability from the occupant of the driver’s seat to Tesla, for the first time in a public setting. That’s already pretty significant - we previously dove into how Tesla plans to insure its own vehicles, and potentially owner vehicles in the Robotaxi fleets.

The status currently lists Tesla as “Testing,” confirming that the service isn’t available to the public, but this is expected to change in the coming weeks.

This testing phase is likely part of a short but crucial period that lets Tesla capture data on the safety levels of its current iteration of Unsupervised FSD without a driver supervising. Tesla already stated that they’d be avoiding difficult areas, so this testing can also expose additional areas Tesla may want to avoid, such as school zones or blind driveways.

Tesla will need to prove, both internally and externally, that FSD Unsupervised has the necessary performance to safely navigate the streets without any incidents.

Regulatory Milestone

For years, the concept of a Tesla Robotaxi has been a future promise. Now, it's a present-day reality, albeit in a testing capacity.

Having an official government body list a Tesla as an active, driverless vehicle shows that they’ve been able to clear regulatory hurdles, which Tesla has often pointed to as the issue. It demonstrates a level of confidence from both Tesla and Texas regulators in the system's capabilities.

While it's just a single vehicle for today, we’ll likely see this list slowly expand over time. Alongside being able to track Robotaxi incidents at the City of Austin’s website, we’ll be able to closely watch Tesla’s progress with its first Robotaxi deployments.