Most Tesla owners have been asked, what if you run out of charge? Of course, everyone who drives with the T emblem on the hood knows it takes poor planning or pushing the limits to run out of energy in a Tesla.
Barring a catastrophic failure, the only reason a Tesla would lose its charge is if the driver ignored every warning, drove past every available charging station, and kept the pedal down until every drop was depleted from the battery. Nevertheless, the question remains, and some people are working on coming up with tangible solutions.
In September, a group called Charge Around Australia plans a long road trip without gas or spending a dime on electricity. The plan is to take a Model 3 9,380 miles (15,097 km) around the entire coastline of the Land Down Under to some of the most remote places on the planet. They will carry 18 lightweight, flexible printed plastic solar panels, which will be rolled up and stored in the trunk. They will roll out the panels for six hours daily to draw energy directly from the sun and charge up the Tesla.
These panels, produced using a wine label printer, pack a lot of power. In testing, the solar cells can produce approximately 20W/m2 in full sun conditions. However, production modules are projected to produce up to 50W/m2, with a 200 m2 installation producing around 60 kWh energy. That is enough to charge the Tesla for about two days of the trip or more than a week of typical commuting.
Professor Paul Dastoor, the Charge Around Australia lead, told Reuters he wants the creator of Tesla to find out about the project. “I hope if he finds out about it and Elon Musk will be very pleased, showing how our innovated technology is now combining with his developments to develop new solutions for the planet,” said Dastoor.
While certainly not as sleek as the printed solar panels, Daniel Derkacs posted a video (shown above) showing his mobile solar charging set up. His PV provides 1.2 kW of solar power. He installed six 175-watt panels on a bike rack on the back of his Model Y and two more panels on his roof. The system feeds to the trunk, where a battery and inverter are installed.
The comment section was not kind to Derkacs, who did a follow-up video addressing some negative feedback. He stressed that this system is for his daily commute and is not for long trips.
Derkacs' Response to Comments
These are two examples of people looking to get off the grid and power their Tesla directly from the sun and provide a different answer to the question, what will you do if you run out of power.
Cybertruck deliveries will start next year, but if you can't wait that long, you may want to head for Night City. Cyberpunk 2077 has teased that the highly anticipated vehicle in the real world may appear in the popular video game. But, if that's not enough, Elon Musk announced another exciting and unique feature for the futuristic-looking truck - it will be waterproof.
Let's start with the floating Cybertruck, which should not be a shock to anyone following the Tesla CEO. He bought the Lotus Esprit that James Bond used to jump off a pier and transform into a submarine in The Spy Who Loved Me. He purchased the movie prop for just under $1 million in 2013 and told USA Today, "I was disappointed to learn that it can't actually transform. What I'm going to do is upgrade it with a Tesla electric powertrain and try to make it transform for real."
In 2016 he tweeted that the Model S "floats well enough to be a boat," but he did not recommend trying it. Now he has claimed the Cybertruck could be used as a boat — briefly. Musk tweeted: Cybertruck will be waterproof enough to serve briefly as a boat, so it can cross rivers, lakes & even seas that aren't too choppy.
Cybertruck may appear in Cyberpunk 2077 game
Cyberpunk
In a later tweet, he gave some idea of the distance he has in mind: Needs be able to get from Starbase to South Padre Island, which requires crossing the channel.
Twitter user @Erdayastronaut shed some light on why Musk would be singling out that area and distance. The tweet reads: "One of SpaceX's biggest problems is attracting talent to work at Starbase, which is extremely remote. South Padre is an awesome place to live, but it's almost an hour drive to Starbase despite being only 5 miles from Starbase because of the shipping channel." A quick check of Google Maps demonstrates what the user is describing.
South Padre is only five minutes from Starbase if you cross the channel
Google
Musk's tweet also caught the attention of the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. Officials there seem to be a little concerned about the wording. The official account tweeted: Our derelict vessel crews are begging you to understand that anything that "serves briefly as a boat" should not be used as a boat.
CD Projekt RED also noticed Musk's tweet, and the makers of Cyberpunk used the opportunity to show two concepts of the Cybertruck as it would appear in Night City. Musk and Cyberpunk have had an ongoing relationship for a few years. Most recently, he demonstrated the power of the onboard computer's gaming system by playing Cyberpunk in a Tesla. However, CD Projekt RED did not mention if the Cybertruck in Cyberpunk would float.
Cyberpunk 2077 will be playable in the new Model S
Tesla now mentions 'Park Seek' or what we know as reverse summon on its website
Tesla
Tesla's team of Autopilot engineers is validating significant advancements to Full Self Driving Beta, including parking lot improvements. While Smart Summon and Reverse Summon were not specifically mentioned during the 3.5-hour AI Day 2022 event, parking lots were discussed, and Elon Musk gave a timeline of when enhancements are expected.
Reverse Summon or 'Park Seek' as Tesla appears to be calling it, is the opposite of Smart Summon. Whereas Smart Summon drives to you from a parking spot, users who activate Reverse Summon would have their Tesla drop them off at a location, perhaps closest to the entrance of a mall, and then find a parking spot. This feature was described by Musk on July 1, 2020, when he gave it a two to a four-month timeline.
Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s director of the Autopilot program, started the FSD portion of AI Day, saying, “FSD beta software is quite capable of driving the car. It should be able to navigate from parking lot to parking lot, city street driving, stopping for traffic lights and stops signs, negotiating with objects at intersections, making turns and so on.”
Several team members described how FSD has advanced and soon will be an integrated stack, meaning one code base that includes everything the program needs to navigate the car in a parking lot or on a busy highway. Musk is currently using this new stack, “it works quite well for me, but we need to validate it in all kinds of weather, like heavy rain, snow, dust and make sure it is working better than the production stack across a wide range of environments.”
Paril Jain, the Manager of Autopilot Motion Planning, expanded on what else will be included in the integrated stack, “we do expect to also include the parking lot stack as a part of the FSD stack before the end of this year. So, that will basically bring us to you sitting in the car in the parking lot and drive till the end of the parking lot, at a parking spot, before the end of this year.”
It has been previously reported that Reverse Summon would have three different modes to find parking spots that the owner prefers. The methods would include closest to the entrance, nearby a cart return, and the end of the parking lot for those who like to avoid tight spots that cause door dings. Musk said that the integrated stack is on track for release before the end of the year and maybe as early as November.
Tesla has also updated it's website to reflect this news, although no timeframe is given. The Autopilot section of Tesla's site now has a section titled "To your Destination." The description reads "When you arrive at your destination, simply step out at the entrance and your car will enter park seek mode, automatically search for a spot and park itself. A tap on your phone summons it back to you."
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