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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In a move that’s sure to excite those with larger families, Tesla has started teasing the return of the seven-seat configuration for the Model Y. In a new marketing email sent out to customers recently, Tesla explicitly highlights the vehicle’s spaciousness.
“Ready for anything with long range, seating for up to seven, and enough room for everyone’s gear.”
The seven-seat Model Y was initially offered in late 2021, but it hasn’t been available since Spring 2023. The return of the new variant will be an addition that many have been waiting for, as the next vehicle with that much passenger space in the line-up is the Model X, starting at almost double the price.
First-Gen Model Y Third Row
The original seven-seat Model Y was extremely popular in the Asia-Pacific and European markets, and it still sold fairly well in North America despite differences in preferred vehicle sizing and spaciousness. It offers additional seats for larger families with young children, but space in the third row is minimal.
The seven-seat variant makes the Model Y more competitive against other three-row SUVs on the market. The video below features the seven-seater, first-generation Model Y.
Power Reclining Third Row?
The refreshed Model Y was launched with power-reclining second-row seats, a huge plus for practicality and ease of use. The power-reclining second-row seats are extremely popular with families and are very helpful, as you can control them from the front screen rather than needing to open the rear doors.
Tesla is likely to integrate power-reclining seats into the third row and potentially keep them for the second row as well. With the second row sliding forward and backward for easy entry, as well as allowing the second and third rows to fold flat for additional cargo room when needed.
Launch Date and Price
Tesla’s tease of the seven-seat variant is likely just the start. With recent sightings of the Model Y Performance variant hitting the Nürburgring, it seems Tesla has a lot in store for this summer. If you’ve been waiting for the seven-seat variant, it seems like it’ll be just a few short months away at this rate.
While we haven’t seen any production samples or other details regarding dates yet, Tesla previously priced the seven-seat option at an additional $2,000 USD ($3,000 CAD). The seven-seat option will likely only be available on the Long Range AWD and Long Range RWD variants, not the Performance model, similar to the first-generation Model Y.
In Elon’s flurry of posts on X about FSD yesterday, he also revealed the date that another moment of peak science fiction would be occurring — June 28th. Tesla expects to conduct the first-ever self-delivery, where a brand-new Model Y will depart from the production line and arrive directly at its new owner’s home without any human intervention.
Imagine ordering a vehicle, and a few days later, rather than needing to pick it up, it simply arrives in your driveway and notifies you via an app that it has arrived. That’s no longer the talk of science fiction; it is quite literally something that is likely to happen this month.
Expect a Model Y Delivery in Austin
Considering everything Tesla has done so far, we’re fairly certain that the first self-delivered vehicle will be a Model Y in Austin, in the same geo-fenced area where Tesla’s Robotaxi will operate. FSD is highly optimized for the Model Y, and it’ll take some time for those optimizations to trickle down to the rest of the fleet. It’s not clear if FSD performs better on the Model Y because it’s the most popular vehicle and, therefore, Tesla has the most data for it or if Tesla explicitly chose to focus more on their most popular vehicle.
Tentatively, June 22.
We are being super paranoid about safety, so the date could shift.
First Tesla that drives itself from factory end of line all the way to a customer house is June 28.
While a car driving itself is something truly different from what other manufacturers offer, there are also numerous strategic advantages for Tesla to do so. This includes drastically reducing last-mile delivery costs by minimizing the need for car carriers, delivery drivers, and even delivery personnel at your local Tesla center. For customers, it could mean a faster, more flexible delivery method - and one absolutely unforgettable welcome to Tesla ownership.
We recently took a closer look at the advantages and disadvantages of vehicles delivering themselves to customers. While it’s all positive for Tesla, there are some potentially negative sides to it as well.
A Futuristic Glimpse
When you step back and look at it, Self-Delivery is a logical extension of Unsupervised FSD and the Robotaxi network in general. Self-deliveries are expected to run on the same software stack that powers the Model Ys currently roaming Austin’s streets autonomously, which means there is little for Tesla to do other than enable specific instructions for self-delivery during the final vehicle configuration steps.
Given Elon’s note that the dates could shift, this could easily be moved to early July; however, either way, it seems like we’re just weeks away from this monumental event, which will further reduce the cost of Tesla vehicles.