By now, most of you have heard about the winter storm in Virginia that caused a huge traffic jam along Interstate 95 that stranded some people for 24 hours. There were people who claimed that such an event would cause problems for people who drive electric cars such as our Teslas.
Virginia traffic jam
NPR
There's a guy in Michigan who owns two Teslas, a Model X with the old-fashioned electric resistance heating and a Model Y with the newer heat pump heating. He calls himself Dirty Tesla because he lives on a dirt road, and he doesn't wash his cars much. He decided to do an experiment to see how his cars would fare in a traffic jam in cold weather.
Michigan has more than its share of cold weather. He picked a night where the temperature was predicted to vary between twelve and fifteen degrees Fahrenheit. Both cars were charged to 90% at the beginning of the test, and he left them out in his yard overnight, unplugged. He set the cabin temperature of both cars to 70 degrees, and he engaged the driver's seat warmer to level 3, the warmest level.
After 12 hours, both cars were fine. The Model X had used more electricity, but both were capable of going another 12 hours of simulated traffic jam without running out of juice. The car wouldn't last as long if the traffic jam happened when the car was at a lower state of charge, but that same thing would be the case in a gas car if it were stuck in a traffic jam with less than a full tank of gas.
Some of his commenters mentioned that if there were a winter storm that cut off electric power, then electric cars couldn't charge their batteries, but, he pointed out, gas pumps work using electricity. You can't fill your gas tank if the gas station doesn't have electricity.
He mentioned that keeping the car at a lower temperature than 70 degrees would prolong the availability of battery power. He suggested 60 degrees as a reasonable temperature. That's not an issue with a gasoline powered car. Since heat is just a waste product of keeping the engine idling, you can keep the interior of the car as warm as you'd like without using extra gas. One of the things he neglected to mention is that if a gas-powered car is stopped for a long period of time with its engine running, even if it's outside, there's a danger of carbon monoxide poisoning. There's no such danger with an electric car.
Here's some wintertime advice that's appropriate for both an electric car and a gasoline powered car.
He suggested keeping a blanket in the car during the winter. I thought that was such a good idea that I ordered some emergency space blankets to keep in my and my wife's cars. You might also want to keep some food that won't spoil, such as unsalted nuts. Keeping water in the car when you're not in the car is problematic since it could freeze and crack the container, but if you're going on a wintertime trip on a limited-access highway, you should bring some water with you.
Tesla stuck in Virginia traffic
Dan Kanninen, who used to work for the EPA drives a Tesla Model 3. He was caught in the traffic jam for 14 hours. He recently wrote about his experience in Teslarati.
Mr. Kanninen watched Netflix on his touchscreen while waiting for the traffic jam to end. He was comfortable in his car. At the end of the traffic jam, his car, the lowest range Tesla M3, still had 18% charge in it's battery. His car directed him to a supercharger. On the way to the supercharger, he saw long lines of cars waiting for gas stations to fill them up.
He made the point that EV owners who charge at home start each day with their programmed state of charge. That's usually 80% or more. Drivers of gasoline powered cars often start out with less than half a tank.
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Tesla has invested billions of dollars over the years toward vehicle autonomy. The mission continues as Elon Musk and Tesla now prepare to unveil their ride-hailing product, Robotaxi this August. Or, as Musk called it on Tuesday, Tesla CyberCab.
Early Days
Five years ago, during Tesla’s Autonomy Investor Day in April 2019, Elon Musk said he felt “very confident predicting autonomous robotaxis for Tesla in the following year [2020]”. At the time, Musk added a bolder claim, predicting that Tesla wouldn’t even make cars with steering wheels or pedals by 2022. While timeliness may not be Musk’s strong suit, he has a track record for getting things done that others were unwilling to try or thought were impossible. Musk later admitted he can be overly optimistic and said “sometimes I am not on time, but I get it done.”
Now, 5 years later, we have the robotaxi unveiling scheduled for August 8th. After the release of FSD v12, it’s clear that we’re much closer to autonomy than we were in 2019, although FSD v12 is still a far cry from full autonomy.
While Tesla still has the robotaxi unveiling scheduled for August, Tesla announced yesterday that it’d be prioritizing a simpler “next-gen” model that could be released by early 2025.
Latest Updates
On the conference call, Musk added that Tesla now has over 300 million miles driven with FSD v12 since it was launched just last month. He added that it's becoming “very clear that the vision-based approach with end-to-end neural networks is the right solution for scalable autonomy”.
Tesla said it has been investing in the hardware and software ecosystems necessary to achieve vehicle autonomy and a ride-hailing service. The company is confident that it can establish a scalable and profitable autonomous driving business by employing a vision-only architecture.
think of it [Tesla] as combination of Airbnb and Uber meaning that there will be some number of cars that Tesla owns itself and operates
Tesla = Uber + AirBnb
Later on, Elon Musk unveiled that the new service will operate and result in a mix between Uber and Airbnb where the Tesla driver decides if and when he wants his Tesla to be used and by whom. Tesla stated:
“We believe the Tesla software experience is best-in-class across all our products, and plan to seamlessly layer ride-hailing into the Tesla App.”
Tesla’s CEO clarified that the owners will be able to add or remove their car from the fleet “whenever they want” adding that it will be up to them to decide if they want to only let the car be used “by friends and family or only by five-star users or by anyone at any time”. The flexible program will, just like Airbnb, allow the owners to take the car out of the market when they want.
The upcoming ride-hailing service will enable users to easily request a Tesla vehicle, control the car's temperature, monitor its real-time location, and adjust the audio system. The only question is when.
“We have updated our future vehicle line-up to accelerate the launch of new models ahead of our previously communicated start of production in the second half of 2025”. This was one of the key sentences that were part of Tesla’s deck shared on Tuesday directly before its financial results.
Since Reuters’ report a few weeks ago saying Tesla had “scrapped” the highly expected cheaper model— which Elon quickly denied on X —retail and institutional shareholders started asking for more details on Tesla’s product roadmap for 2024 and beyond.
In the earnings conference call, Elon Musk reiterated that Tesla expects to launch the next model in “early 2025, if not late this year”.
“We've updated our future vehicle lineup to accelerate the launch of new models ahead of previously mentioned start of production in the second half of 2025. So, we expect it to be more like the early 2025, if not late this year. “
Over concerns of temporary production halts to update the factories for these new models, Musk said that Tesla will produce new models with certain aspects from their next-generation platform and current models. This will reduce the number of changes needed on production lines and allow Tesla not only to ramp up production faster but also to get the vehicles to market quicker.
Model Y Redesign
Tesla appears to hit that their next-gen vehicle will be less “next-gen” than they were initially aiming for, but to get a new vehicle out the door by late 2024, the process would already have to be in motion. Tesla may likely be referring to the redesigned Model Y, which is expected to reuse many parts from the new Model 3. Earlier this year, Tesla said that the redesigned Model Y will not be released this year, so it makes sense that they’re looking to speed up that production.
Tesla CEO concluded by saying that these measures will allow Tesla to reach a capacity of over 3 million units. Tesla produced 1.84 million vehicles in 2023. However, this year they’re ramping up Cybertruck production and introduced the new Model 3 into new markets.
And we think this should allow us to get to over 3 million vehicles of capacity when realized to the full extent.
Tesla reported on Tuesday its earnings results followed by a conference call where it teased its upcoming Robotaxi and its next-generation platform saying its “purpose-built Robotaxi product will continue to pursue a revolutionary ‘unboxed’ manufacturing strategy”.
Earlier in the day, Tesla announced the new Performance variant of its sedan Model 3 with deliveries in the United States starting already next month. The new version starts at $45,490 (after applying the $7,500 Federal EV tax credit) and goes from 0 to 60mph in 2.9 seconds.
TeslaFi logs your drives and charging sessions, letting you keep a log of your vehice's activity. We highly recommend checking them out if you use your car for business trips and would like to keep track of reimbursements, if you like to see how much you spend on charging or if you just love statistics. Visit their site and see everything they have to offer!
Tesla Android Project enables you to run Android apps in your Tesla. The platform is Open Source and you can deploy it on your own Raspberry Pi 4. Consider supporting the initiative by donating or purchasing the Compute Module 4 Bundle that delivers the best experience. Get $20 off by using the code: NotATeslaApp
The official Tesla app only notifies you if your car is broken into. By installing Sentry Pro on your phone, you will be notified for all Sentry Mode events. Stay connected and avoid potential surprises by receiving notifications. Stop constantly checking the cameras to ensure safety. Check only when necessary, save battery and get peace of mind. Get a 7 day free trial here!
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