Tesla's solution to the problem of blaming Autopilot

September 7, 2021

By Henry Farkas

There was a crash in Florida recently where a Tesla hit a stopped Florida Highway Patrol vehicle that was stopped on the side of the road. The trooper was assisting the driver of a disabled vehicle. Fortunately, the trooper wasn't in their vehicle and was uninjured. The driver of the Tesla and the driver of the disabled vehicle had minor injuries.

Tesla Autopilot

There have been a series of episodes in which a Tesla on Autopilot has hit a stopped emergency vehicle, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened an investigation. We Tesla drivers, at least those of us who pay attention, already know the root cause of these accidents. And there are two solutions coming down the pipeline.

The basic problem is that plain old ordinary Autopilot doesn't seem to “see” parked vehicles. We see on our center screen what our cars seem to see, Go ahead out to your car. Drive to a street where there are painted lane lines and parked cars. Engage Autopilot and drive down the street. Your car will stay in its lane, but parked cars, for the most part, won't show up on your center screen. Go ahead and do that. I'll wait...

See, most of the parked cars didn't show on your center screen. Some did, but not all of them. Now imagine what would happen if you're on a limited-access highway. There's a disabled car, and a police car stops behind it. The police car parks with its light bar flashing, and it's sticking out into the travel lane a bit to notify drivers that they need to move over to the next lane. That's the procedure for protecting the disabled car and its driver. But your Tesla, on Autopilot, is firmly glued to the center of the travel lane. Since it doesn't see the parked police car, even with the light bar flashing, the right front fender of the Tesla hits the left rear fender of the police car. Computers don't do what you want them to do. They do what they're programmed to do.

And why does this accident happen? Because most drivers don't fly planes. What? How does flying have anything to do with this? If you're a pilot, you've been taught that engaging the autopilot in a plane doesn't absolve the human pilot of any responsibility. All it does is make the job of flying the plane less labor-intensive. The pilot knows that they still need to pay attention. That message doesn't seem to have reached all Tesla drivers even though Tesla tells them that they need to keep paying attention. If the driver had been paying attention, they'd have seen the flashing lights in plenty of time to shift over manually to the next lane.

Driver Monitoring

So, what are the two solutions in the pipeline? The first solution is that Tesla software update 2021.32.5 is going to activate the little camera inside the car above the rearview mirror. It will be watching the driver's eyes. If the driver starts looking somewhere else besides the road for more than a few seconds, the car will notify the driver. If the driver doesn't start paying attention after about thirty seconds, Autopilot disengages with a loud alarm and a big red steering wheel icon on the screen. And the driver had better be ready to take over. The camera-based driver monitoring system is rolling out to radar-equipped cars.

FSD Beta

The other item coming down the pipeline is the beta version of Full Self Driving. Of course, that's only available to people who have shelled out for FSD. But if you do have it, you can see from this video that FSD beta v 9.2 does see parked cars. It still doesn't see white concrete columns that hold the Seattle monorail up, so there are improvements yet to be made.

Tesla FSD V9.2 Review & Monorail Test

Tesla Q1 Update on Optimus, Batteries, and Tesla Energy

May 1, 2025

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

The 2025 Q1 Earnings Call gave us the opportunity to learn about a lot of things, from Unsupervised FSD, to the Robotaxi program, to the update on the more affordable model. There was a lot of news to unpack, but there’s still more.

In this article, we’ll cover Tesla’s updates on Optimus, batteries, and Tesla Energy.

Optimus

Tesla has been working away on their humanoid robot and continues to make progress in software and hardware.

First, Tesla is preparing the Fremont factory for the Optimus pilot production line, which is scheduled for completion later this year. Once it is, wider deployments of Optimus for internal use within Tesla’s facilities are expected as well. Tesla aims to have several thousand Optimus units working in its North American factories by the end of the year once the pilot production line is operational.

Tesla’s goals for production remain extremely lofty - 1 million units per year by 2030. However, they could face some challenges when ramping production.

Key components like the shoulder actuators use specialized permanent and rare-earth magnets, which are currently sourced from China. Due to recent Chinese restrictions on the overseas sale of these magnets, Tesla is seeking an exemption or alternative suppliers. They have not yet looked into modifying the shoulder actuator but will likely do so if they cannot obtain the necessary materials.

Batteries

Batteries are another item that Tesla’s teams have been working on behind the scenes for years now. The second generation of the 4680 - the Cybercell - has been IRA-compliant for some time now. This means that the Cybertruck is eligible for the US Federal EV rebate.

Tesla also achieved the lowest cost-per-kWh of any of its cells with the 4680 battery - and it is potentially one of the cheapest cells being manufactured by any vehicle battery manufacturer at this point. With dry-cathode still being worked on, Tesla may be able to squeeze more optimizations and cost efficiencies from the 4680 cells.

Additionally, Tesla is progressing with its plans for lithium refining and cathode production in the US, both of which are scheduled to commence in 2025. While the company says they’re no longer supply-constrained for non-LFP vehicle batteries, on-shoring production and sourcing critical minerals from nations outside of China will be key.

LFP batteries continue to be supply-constrained, namely for the Tesla Energy division. LFP batteries and their materials are sourced from China. Due to tariffs and limited exports, Tesla can’t obtain enough and is considering potentially building an LFP production facility in North America.

Energy

Tesla’s energy division is still experiencing some of the highest growth of any of its divisions. Year over year, Tesla saw a 154% increase in energy storage deployments, including both Megapack and Powerwall - for a total of 10.4 GWh deployed in just Q1 2025. While deliveries in energy storage remain volatile due to the nature of Megapack installations, Tesla expects growth to continue rapidly in this segment.

Tesla also deployed 1GWh of Powerwall 3 residential storage this quarter, marking its strongest quarter. Powerwall 3 has received positive feedback from customers, many of whom appreciate its new capabilities with its built-in inverter for solar.

Megapack is continuing to see demand increases, currently highlighted by utility-scale Megapack systems, as well as data centers requiring stable power delivery. Megafactory Shanghai is also online now and producing Megapacks - with an annual production capacity of 20GWh today and up to 40GWh in the future. The site has also produced over 100 Megapacks this quarter, which are all awaiting delivery.

There was a lot of interesting news from Tesla’s Q1 2025 Earnings Call, covering everything from FSD and Robotaxi - to the less glamorous but equally important Megapack and Powerwall.

Tesla Introduces AI-Powered Phone Support for Tesla Insurance, Reducing Wait Times and Cutting Costs

May 1, 2025

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

Tesla is heavily leaning into artificial intelligence, and its insurance offering is just another example of how it’s improving its product or lowering costs by leveraging AI.

Tesla recently started offering an insurance discount in select states when drivers use FSD for at least 50% of their drives and now it’s introducing an AI to help handle customer claims.

Tesla has developed an in-house voiced AI agent that can assist customers in handling simple support requests for Tesla Insurance.

Although Tesla Insurance is currently available in just 12 U.S. states, its voice AI assistant is accessible via phone across all supported states.

What the AI is Doing

For customers calling in from those states, the new AI agent provides a unique way to address the most common support calls. And it’s not just answering common questions but actually making requested changes to the owner’s account.

Policy Changes

The first key item is that it automates policy changes. Simple policy updates, including adjusting your deductible or coverage limits, are now done via AI. For policyholders who are simply looking to make quick changes and don’t have any questions, this makes the process a lot quicker by not having to wait for a representative. Tesla isn’t eliminating representatives, but this could reduce the number of representatives required or reduce wait times.

Continue Where You Left Off

The second item here, highlighted by Raj Jegannathan from Tesla’s internal IT team, is that Tesla’s AI agent is able to offer summaries of the user’s last interaction with Tesla Insurance. It will summarize your last interaction and provide assistance on that particular topic if you need to continue it. That means that you don’t have to wait for a human to review your file - the AI will kick off right where you left off.

Tesla appears to be focused on improving efficiency and making support more accessible. While actual items like claims are left up to humans due to their inherently complex nature, this helps free up employees to handle more complex items. While there’s no doubt Tesla will continue to develop this AI like they do everything else, we may soon see it take on even more tasks.

More AI

This isn’t the first AI agent that Tesla has demoed - there is now a chat-based AI sales agent available on the front page of Tesla’s website, which is able to answer common questions on Tesla vehicles.

Tesla has also been improving their AI support tool available in the Tesla App is able to provide feedback on common issues and also guide users towards either solving the problem or placing a support request.

Tesla has recently updated this AI to offer personalized support, allowing you to ask questions such as ‘What are my vehicle service alerts?’ or ‘Does my vehicle have a heat pump?’

Tesla’s strategy here is to influence the cost-heavy areas associated with having humans address simple requests and instead leverage AI, which can offer instant answers and reduce support costs.

Roll Out to More States

While this new AI is currently limited to just 12 states, it is likely to follow Tesla Insurance’s expansion. Insurance seems to have been at a bit of a standstill lately. Tesla continues to improve features such as the improvements to Safety Score V2.2, but we haven’t seen Tesla roll out support to new states since it added Minnesota in November of 2022.

Tesla may be looking to lower costs and refine the experience before it expands to additional states.