With the release of update 2021.32.22, Tesla released Safety Score, a feature that assesses your driving behavior. To assess your driving, Tesla is using a similar model to what they use to determine Tesla insurance rates.
By opting-in to Safety Score, you give Tesla the authority to collect certain driving metrics that Tesla will use to measure your driving behavior. Tesla will assess your risk across five major categories.
The five categories are:
Forward Collision Warnings
Hard Braking
Aggressive Turning
Unsafe Following
Forced Autopilot Disengagement
Your Safety Score is then available in the latest Tesla app (version 4.1), which is currently available to iPhone users, but will soon be available on Android as well.
Your Safety Score is rated from 0 to 100 and the app does an excellent job breaking down the score for each category and comparing it to the Tesla fleet median.
You can also dig deeper and drill down into an individual day or even a specific trip to see which drives affected your score the most. Tesla will even show you which driver profile was used for an individual trip.
Tesla is currently using this feature to decide the next batch of FSD Beta testers, but this is an excellent feature that should be available to everyone.
Safety Score is a useful feature if you’re looking to improve your safety on the road. It can also be used to monitor new drivers or even to see how your vehicle was handled when used by other individuals such as valet service or car rental services such as Turo.
Tesla Safety Score is currently limited to vehicles on 2021.32.22 and later and to owners in the US. You must opt-in through the Request FSD Beta button in the Autopilot menu.
Expect Tesla to continue improving this feature and expanding it to other regions. I would also expect Tesla to use this data to further improve their FSD Beta.
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Tesla’s latest iOS app update reveals several upcoming features that we’re sure everyone has been looking forward to. As usual, the Android update is likely a few days out.
As usual, Tesla App Updates (iOS) has kindly provided a breakdown of the decompiled app update, which reveals three key things: watch support, Banish, and a new way to onboard FSD users.
Tesla Watch App
People have been requesting a Tesla app on their watches for ages. Smart watches have become fairly ubiquitous today, and third parties have been providing Tesla functionality for both Android and Apple’s signature wearables for years.
However, using the Tesla API has some limitations, making a third-party solution less ideal. In addition, Tesla plans to charge developers for API calls in the near future, which means some wearable apps have moved to subscription-based services while others charge a large up-front fee.
However, the wait for an official watch app may soon be over. This latest version of the Tesla app, v4.38.0, reveals that you’ll need to select a vehicle to show on the watch, hinting that the UI will show a single vehicle at a time, which is to be expected.
We’re not sure whether you’ll be able to use the Apple Watch as a key for the vehicle, but Tesla app update 4.38 adds the ability to perform offline commands as long as the vehicle is within Bluetooth range. So even if Tesla doesn’t add key support, you should be able to unlock or start the vehicle even if you don’t have your phone or an internet connection.
We’d guess that Apple Watch support will be included in Tesla’s big Christmas update later this year (a look back at previous holiday updates).
Given Tesla’s propensity to launch features on iOS before Android, expect support for the Apple Watch before Android’s Wearables, but hopefully, Tesla is working on both.
Apple Watch concept created by a fan
@niccruzpatane
Banish (Reverse Smart Summon)
As part of Tesla’s FSD Roadmap, they mentioned that Park Seek and Banish (Reverse Smart Summon) will arrive in October. Banish will allow users to get out of their car in a parking lot, and the car autonomously find a parking spot (Park Seek) and park itself using Autopark.
Overall, it's a necessary system for Robotaxi and Cybercab, and it's been one of the most anticipated features for FSD for a long time. The sheer convenience of being able to get out of your car at the mall entrance while the vehicle locates its own parking spot and then comes back to pick you up using Actually Smart Summon - that’s just next level.
In the recent app update, Tesla revealed a few phrases related to Banish - namely some information about “Parking Map,” “Parking Occupancy,” and “Parking Details.” It seems that Banish will map the parking lot while it drives around, looking for a parking spot. Once it finds one, it’ll park and then relay that information back to the user, so that you know where the vehicle parked.
It seems that you may also be able to direct Banish to a specific parking area. Once it arrives, it’ll let you know if there’s a spot, and if not, it'll keep searching.
New User FSD On-Boarding
The final new feature tease is an interesting one. Tesla has recently put out another free trial for FSD, but many people trying it out for the first time (or the first time in a while), may not know what to expect. While Full Self Driving is a fantastic piece of software - it's still something that users have to supervise today.
We’ve recently been hoping that Tesla would address the user knowledge gap for new-to-FSD owners, and it seems like they’ll be adding some tutorial information for how to use FSD in an upcoming app update. Personally, the author has found people tend to panic when they see the steering wheel turn, jiggle, or the car accelerate hard—all things that happen on a day-to-day drive with FSD. While most FSD users are well-conditioned to the quirks, new users could be scared away.
We’re excited to see what kind of tutorials Tesla adds for users. We hope they’re in-depth and explain what certain FSD visualizations, like black or blue cars, signify.
It’s that time of year once again when Tesla hosts a Q&A for its shareholders at its quarterly earnings event.
If you’re interested in seeing what people have asked or would like to submit your own question, you can do so at the link here. Submissions and voting ends on this Wednesday, October 23, at 4 PM EDT.
Earnings Q3
Third-quarter earnings are coming up on October 23, 2024. As usual, it will take place at around 5:30 PM. Tesla Investor Relations will stream the event live, and we’ll have links available for you a little closer to the event.
Voting and Submissions
Voting and submissions are done through Say, a third-party company that validates share ownership. Once your ownership is validated, you’ll be able to use your shares to vote - your vote weight is equivalent to the number of shares you have.
If you submit a question, your question will have an initial number of votes equivalent to your number of shares.
Top Questions
The current top questions are pretty interesting - and we’re excited to see the answers. Let’s take a look at what people have asked so far.
Here are the top ten questions currently:
Is Tesla still on track to deliver the more affordable model next year, as mentioned by Elon earlier, and how does it align with your AI and product roadmap?
When can we expect Tesla to give us the ~$25K, non-robotaxi, regular car model?
What is Tesla doing to alleviate long waiting times on service centers?
🚨Please provide an update on the Semi. What will the next stage of growth look like and when will FSD be ready?
What’s the plan for 2025?
Will Hardware 3 be capable of level 5 FSD?
Can we get more details surrounding the Robotaxi including how will Tesla deploy the fleet, will it start with Robotaxi than move onto a subscription model if you own your own Tesla
When will Optimus begin shipping?
If you find these questions interesting, tune in! If not, we’ll recap all the key points as usual.