Tesla Superchargers opened up to other EVs: How much non-Teslas will pay

November 1, 2021

By Nuno Cristovao

Elon mentioned this summer that Tesla would be opening up their Superchargers to other vehicles. Just a few months later and Tesla has now opened up their first Superchargers to non-Teslas vehicles.

Tesla is starting the program in The Netherlands where Tesla and non-Tesla EVs use the same CCS port. Initially Tesla is making ten Supercharging locations available to other EVs in The Netherlands, but the goal is eventually open up all Superchargers worldwide.

Other vehicles will be able to charge at Tesla Superchargers by utilizing the Tesla app. This is a big advantage for Tesla as it gets non-Tesla owners into the Tesla ecosystem.

Tesla opens up Superchargers

@olympusdev_/Twitter

In order to charge, owners will need to create a Tesla account and add payment information. From there they will be able to start a charging session by choosing their stall and tapping Start Charging. While in the app, they'll also be able to browse Tesla models and even place an order for a Tesla.

Price

The price that Tesla charges for Supercharging varies by region and sometimes time of day, because electrical rates vary by region and time of day as well. It looks like non-Tesla owners in The Netherlands will be paying about €0.57/kWh. The price is significantly higher than what Tesla owners pay at the same chargers. In fact, it's almost 2.5 times more costly than charging a Tesla.

Membership

Tesla will also be offering a membership for non-Tesla vehicles. The membership will give owners lower pricing per kilowatt hour. In The Netherlands, the membership will cost €12.99/month and let you charge for the lower kWh pricing that is offering for Tesla vehicles.

It's likely that the pricing for the charging membership and Supercharger use will be similar in other markets.

Order a Tesla right from the Tesla App

@olympusdev_/Twitter

We don't yet know what the membership cost will be, or how much it will lower charging per kWh, but it looks like the membership will only be available to non-Tesla owners. We imagine the rate with a membership will drop considerably but will remain higher than what Tesla owners will pay.

Why This is Good for Tesla Owners

The topic of whether Tesla should expand Supercharging to non-Tesla vehicles can bring differing opinions. Most Tesla owners are worried about a degraded experience at a Supercharger if Tesla opens it up to other EVs.

Superchargers, especially in the Bay Area are already congested, Tesla owners have had to wait over an hour just to start charging, so I can definitely understand their reasoning for being cautious with Tesla expanding Superchargers to other vehicles.

Electric vehicles are the future, there's no doubting that. Along with more EVs there will come more charging solutions.

Back in 2012 Tesla created the first Supercharger because there weren't any options for fast DC charging. Superchargers aren't meant to be a revenue stream for Tesla, but something Tesla needed to offer in order to be able to sell their vehicles.

Tesla has a choice here, they can keep their charging network exclusive to Tesla owners and keep Supercharging as a profit neutral service, or they can turn it into a revenue stream and become the de-facto standard for EV charging.

By turning Tesla's Superchargers into a revenue stream Tesla will be able to more quickly expand their reach, resulting in more Supercharger locations for Tesla and non-Tesla owners.

There will be a large player in the EV charging infrastructure. If Tesla doesn't open up their Superchargers to other vehicles, they're likely to see someone do it and become the predominate player.

The result will be a worse experience for Tesla owners. If Tesla isn't the major charging network, Tesla owners will be left in a less than ideal situation. They'll need to buy an expensive adapter to go from Tesla's proprietary connection to the standard CCS port, or they'll need to find another charging station.

Tesla owners will also be the ones that will need to download another app, create an account, add payment information, etc. They'll need to do all of that, instead of what they do today. Just plug in.

Tesla Owners Have Advantage

Charging a Tesla at a Supercharger will always be the ideal solution and provide the best charging experience. Not only will Tesla owners benefit from faster charging times by having your car precondition the battery for optimized charging, but they'll also have a seamless charging experience that doesn't require them to open the Tesla app, choose their stall and press the start or stop charging buttons.

Idle fees are only charged when the Supercharger is more than 50% full. Non-Tesla cars will not be exempt from idle fees and will need to follow all the same rules as Tesla vehicles.

Idle Fees

In order to prevent cars from taking up precious Supercharging spots while other vehicles are waiting to charge, Tesla started charging idle fees several years ago. The idle fees are high and often much higher than what the cost of charging.

CSS port in the US?

So as Tesla expands their Supercharging network and offers non-Tesla vehicles fast DC charging, we face the question, why is Tesla still using their proprietary adapter? Sure, it was necessary in 2012, but in 2021 where so many things have changed, it doesn't add many benefits over a CCS connection. It prevents Tesla owners from charging at CCS stations, it prevents some non-Tesla owners from their at Tesla chargers and it requires Tesla to build and manage multiple parts for their cars.

We believe Tesla will switch to the CCS charge port globally in the future, instead of using their proprietary Tesla port. Tesla will slowly switch over Superchargers to use a CCS connection and offer an adapter at the station for non-CCS Teslas. This will also allow Tesla owners to charge at any charging locations without purchasing an expensive CCS adapter.

Two years ago Tesla launched their first V3 chargers, capable of charging at up to 1,000 miles per hour and Tesla said they'll be adding WiFi capability to Superchargers in the future.

Tesla’s Optimus Robot Learns to Walk Without Vision [VIDEO]

December 13, 2024

By Karan Singh

Optimus Falls - but catches itself!

Not a Tesla App

Tesla recently showed off a demo of Optimus, its humanoid robot, walking around in moderately challenging terrain—not on a flat surface but on dirt and slopes. These things can be difficult for a humanoid robot, especially during the training cycle.

Daily walks help clear your mind pic.twitter.com/dUsW58trS6
— Tesla Optimus (@Tesla_Optimus) December 9, 2024

A Look Behind the Curtain

Most interestingly, Milan Kovac, VP of Engineering for Optimus, clarified what it takes to get Optimus to this stage. Let’s break down what he said.

Optimus is Blind

Optimus is getting seriously good at walking now - it can keep its balance over uneven ground - even while walking blind. Tesla is currently using just the sensors, all powered by a neural net running on the embedded computer.

Essentially, Tesla is building Optimus from the ground up, relying on as much additional data as possible while it trains vision. This is similar to how they train FSD on vehicles, using LiDAR rigs to validate the vision system’s accuracy. While Optimus doesn’t have LiDAR, it relies on all those other sensors on board, many of which will likely become simplified as vision takes over as the primary sensor.

Today, Optimus is walking blind, but it’s able to react almost instantly to changes in the terrain underneath it, even if it falls or slips.

What’s Next?

Next up, Tesla AI will be adding vision to Optimus - helping complete the neural net. Remember, Optimus runs on the same overall AI stack as FSD - in fact, Optimus uses an FSD computer and an offshoot of the FSD stack for vision-based tasks.

Milan mentions they’re planning on adding vision to help the robot plan ahead and improve its walking gait. While the zombie shuffle is iconic and a little bit amusing, getting humanoid robots to walk like humans is actually difficult.

There’s plenty more, too - including better responsiveness to velocity and direction commands and learning to fall and stand back up. Falling while protecting yourself to minimize damage is something natural to humans - but not exactly natural to something like a robot. Training it to do so is essential in keeping the robot, the environment around it, and the people it is interacting with safe.

We’re excited to see what’s coming with Optimus next because it is already getting started in some fashion in Tesla’s factories.

Is Tesla Close to Licensing FSD? GM Quits Cruise, BMW Praises Tesla

December 13, 2024

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

In a relatively surprising move, GM announced that it is realigning its autonomy strategy and prioritizing advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) over fully autonomous vehicles.

GM is effectively closing Cruise (autonomous) and focusing on its Super Cruise (ADAS) feature. The engineering teams at Cruise will join the GM teams working on Super Cruise, effectively shuttering the fully autonomous vehicle business.

End of Cruise

GM cites that “an increasingly competitive robotaxi market” and “considerable time and resources” are required for scaling the business to a profitable level. Essentially - they’re unable to keep up with competitors at current funding and research levels, putting them further and further behind.

Cruise has been offering driverless rides in several cities, using HD mapping of cities alongside vehicles equipped with a dazzling array of over 40 sensors. That means that each cruise vehicle is essentially a massive investment and does not turn a profit while collecting data to work towards Autonomy.

Cruise has definitely been on the back burner for a while, and a quick glance at their website - since it's still up for now - shows the last time they officially released any sort of major news packet was back in 2019.

Competition is Killer

Their current direct competitor - Waymo, is funded by Google, which maintains a direct interest in ensuring they have a play in the AI and autonomy space.

Interestingly, this news comes just a month after Tesla’s We, Robot event, where they showed off the Cybercab and the Robotaxi network, as well as plans to begin deployment of the network and Unsupervised FSD sometime in 2025. Tesla is already in talks with some cities in California and Texas to launch Robotaxi in 2025.

GM Admits Tesla Has the Right Strategy

As part of the business call following the announcement, GM admitted that Tesla’s end-to-end and Vision-based approach towards autonomy is the right strategy. While they say Cruise started down that path, they’re putting aside their goals towards fully autonomous vehicles for now and focusing on introducing that tech in Super Cruise instead.

NEWS: GM just admitted that @Tesla’s end-to-end approach to autonomy is the right strategy.

“That’s where the industry is pivoting. Cruise had already started making headway down that path. We are moving to a foundation model and end-to-end approach going forward.” pic.twitter.com/ACs5SFKUc3
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) December 10, 2024

With GM now focusing on Super Cruise, they’ll put aside autonomy and instead focus solely on ADAS features to relieve driver stress and improve safety. While those are positive goals that will benefit all road users, full autonomy is really the key to removing the massive impact that vehicle accidents have on society today.

In addition, Super Cruise is extremely limited, cannot brake for traffic controls, and doesn’t work in adverse conditions - even rain. It can only function when lane markings are clear, there are no construction zones, and there is a functional web connection.

The final key to the picture is that the vehicle has to be on an HD-mapped and compatible highway - essentially locking Super Cruise to wherever GM has time to spend mapping, rather than being functional anywhere in a general sense, like FSD or Autopilot.

Others Impressed - Licensing FSD

Interestingly, some other manufacturers have also weighed into the demise of Cruise. BMW, in a now-deleted post, said that a demo of Tesla’s FSD is “very impressive.” There’s a distinct chance that BMW and other manufacturers are looking to see what Tesla does next.

BMW chimes in on a now-deleted post. The Internet is forever, BMW!

Not a Tesla App

It seems that FSD has caught their eyes after We, Robot - and that the demonstrations of FSD V13.2 online seem to be the pivot point. At the 2024 Shareholder Meeting earlier in the year, Elon shared the fact that several manufacturers had reached out, looking to understand what was required to license FSD from Tesla.

There is a good chance 2025 will be the year we’ll see announcements of the adoption of FSD by legacy manufacturers - similar to how we saw the surprise announcements of the adoption of the NACS charging standard.