This week Tesla held an all hands meeting where everyone at the company was invited and Elon Musk took the time to address several important and interesting topics.
FSD
Elon talked about the FSD beta. He reiterated that version 10 will be released this coming Friday and that it is quite profound. He also said that “The Button” will be released two weeks later in version 10.1.
We have all heard two weeks used numerous times before. Elon is either putting some pressure on the team to get the public beta released or Tesla is getting very close and he feels confident they’ll be able to meet that timeline. Two weeks or not, it seems like we’re getting closer to a public release of the FSD Beta.
Model 2
Elon went on to talk about Tesla’s upcoming $25,000 car. He said that Tesla is considering not having a steering wheel or pedals in the car and may just roll the dice on FSD.
While I believe Tesla’s is making some major breakthroughs in self driving right now, I’m not quite sure if Tesla will be at level 5 autonomous driving by the time their lower cost model is released. There’s a huge difference between level 3, where a driver must pay attention and be ready to take over, to level 5 where the car can drive itself without human intervention in any weather conditions. There's a long tail of issues to be solved that will take a long time.
If Tesla could achieve level 5 autonomy by the time they release the “Model 2,” there are likely big changes coming to that vehicle interior. Changes that go far beyond removing a steering wheel and pedals.
As soon as a car can drive itself safer than a human is capable of, the entire interior of the vehicle is going to change. The criteria of what people want in a car is going to be completely different. Instead of looking for a vehicle with great acceleration, we’ll be looking for vehicles with large, cinema-like screens for entertainment, a fold out desk and reclinable seats. Maybe even a seat that folds down into a bed. There will also be no reason to look out the front of the vehicle. Instead we’ll likely want to face the other passengers, much like a train.
For these reasons, I don’t think Tesla’s $25,000 car will exclude a steering wheel and pedals. At least not just a steering wheel and pedals. If it did, then it may be completely outdated by the time it's released. When Tesla releases a new vehicle that is only capable of autonomous driving, it’ll be a completely different type of car.
Speaking of the “Model 2”, Elon was clear that they will not call the car the Model 2. There are some interesting theories of what the car may be called. It could be called the Model C, for compact. Another theory is that they may name it the Model A, for autonomous. It will also help Tesla spell out the S3xy Cars acronym. Everyone so far believed the ATV that Tesla unveiled during the Cybertruck reveal would be the “A” vehicle, but having Tesla’s $25,000 car called the Model A seems to make a lot of sense.
Superchargers
Moving on to the next topic Elon mentioned during the all hands meeting, Elon said that Tesla will be opening up their Superchargers very soon. Starting as soon as next month in Europe where CCS adapters are already standard in all new EVs. Tesla will use the Tesla app to allow other vehicles to charge at Tesla chargers.
Cybertruck
According to details about the meeting, the Cybertruck has been moved further back than initially thought. Tesla updated it’s release to 2022 several weeks ago, but the media took this to mean early 2022. It appears to actually be slated to start production in late 2022 with volume production beginning in 2023. So we’re still a little more than a year out from seeing the first Cybertrucks on the road.
Mars, Growth and Robo-van
Some other tidbits from the meeting are that Elon expects Tesla to grow by 10x, however no timeframe was mentioned. I imagine we’re not looking more than 5-10 years out, but without a timeline it’s hard to take any real meaning from this statement.
Elon also mentioned that he would maybe go to Mars. Maybe in 10 years. Again, not surprising. It’s obviously a passion of his and he would like to experience it in person.
Another topic that was talked about that we don’t have a lot of information on, but I believe is really interesting is a “Robo-van”. Apparently the idea is for it to be used for individuals with disabilities, but I could see a huge use-case for this type of vehicle, especially when FSD is achieved. As I talked about earlier, once we have FSD, we’ll want very different things in a vehicle. If a van could be like a mini-RV, that could fill a lot of needs.
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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