Tesla makes odd move and limits Standard Connectivity; will no longer include nav and more after 8 years

Tesla to limit Standard Connectivity to eight years

Tesla

Tesla has stopped offering free unlimited Standard Connectivity for new vehicle orders.

According to Teslarati, vehicle orders placed after July 20, 2022 will include free Standard Connectivity for a period of eight years.

The EV automaker will notify owners when their free Standard Connectivity is about to expire. Tesla’s Connectivity section on their Support page reads:

“All new Tesla vehicles ordered on or before July 20, 2022, will have Standard Connectivity features at no cost for the lifetime of the vehicle (excluding retrofits or upgrades required for any features or services externally supplied to the vehicle - e.g. telecommunications network). As additional features and services become available in the future, you will have the opportunity to upgrade your connectivity plan.”

At $9.99 per month or $99 for a year, Premium Connectivity is worth the upgrade right now.

The contrast between Standard and Premium Connectivity is quite drastic; there aren’t many reasons to argue for staying on Standard. I think the live traffic visualization and music streaming are worth $9.99 alone.

The features included in Premium Connectivity further enhance the vehicle’s features and are important for the full experience of owning a Tesla. Premium Connectivity also includes live traffic visualization, satellite-view maps, video streaming, Caraoke, live Sentry Mode view, and a few others.

“An important part of all Tesla vehicles, further enhancing the driving experience providing access to features that require data usage - including streaming music and media, live traffic visualization, and more,” reads the Tesla Connectivity page on their Support section.

Tesla has yet to say what the price of Standard Connectivity will be since the first cars to expire are still eight years away, but we can speculate it may end up being somewhere around $5/month.

Currently if you do not subscribe to Premium Connectivity, you can still use some of the premium features such as music streaming or watch Netflix if you're connected via a Hotspot or WiFi connection. However, Tesla has added a new footnote to their site that suggests this may not always be the case.

The new footnote reads that items such as music and video streaming, internet browsing, Caraoke and others are "Currently available over Wi-Fi for Standard Connectivity."

It appears that Tesla either has plans to make these features exclusive to Premium Connectivity subscribers or that they're at least leaving the door open to change their minds in the future.

Although Tesla doesn't explicitly call it out on their website, it's expected that you will not need Standard Connectivity to use the Tesla app and that functionality will remain intact with or without Standard Connectivity.

Tesla compares their Standard and Premium Connectivity options

Tesla

The features that will no longer work without Standard Connectivity will include maps, navigation and voice commands. There may be others as well if Tesla adds any new features that require connectivity in the coming years.

Tesla will still include WiFi and cellular connections in the vehicle so that the app and software updates continue to function properly, so this comes across as a small money grab by Tesla.

The actual bandwidth costs for Tesla are very small since Standard Connectivity doesn't feature any bandwidth extensive features. To take away a feature like navigation seems odd, especially since it takes up two-thirds of the screen in a Model 3 or Model Y and the owner has no way to replace the maps with anything else.

It may have been preferred for Tesla to raise the price of their vehicles by a few hundred dollars (assuming Standard Connectivity would cost $5/month or $60/year) rather than reduce the functionality of the vehicle.

If we look at this in a slightly different way, it looks like Tesla is essentially going to charge a monthly subscription for the use of its navigation system, which isn't a great look for the leader in car software.

This is one feature I hope Tesla backtracks on.

Follow

Follow

Follow

Tesla Increases Price of Model S; Starts Offering Free Lifetime Supercharging

Not a Tesla App

For the first time in quite a while, Tesla has increased the price of one of its vehicle offerings. The Model S Long Range and the Model S Plaid have both received a hefty price increase. However, not all is bad - as Tesla also added a new benefit for buyers.

Price Increase

The price increase for the Model S is $5,000 - currently only in the United States. This price increase will likely impact other markets, including Canada, in the coming days.

The Model S Long Range now starts at $79,990, while the Model S Plaid now starts at $94,990. The Model S and Model X now have the same starting price. Interestingly, that’s also the same pricing point for the Cybertruck AWD and Cyberbeast Trimotor non-Foundation Series. 

The vehicle configuration does not appear to have changed, so the new pricing is simply an increase rather than the addition or removal of features. Tesla previously cut the price of the Model S and Model X by 15% in 2023, so this could simply be an adjustment to ensure that the vehicle pricing stays in line with inflation and other factors.

Free Lifetime Supercharging

For those on the fence about ordering a Model S, Tesla has brought back Free Lifetime Supercharging when you order a new Model S on or after December 13, 2024. As always, Free Lifetime Supercharging is restricted to the buyer’s Tesla account and to that specific vehicle. It cannot be transferred to another vehicle or another owner after ownership transfer. It’s worth noting, that it also doesn’t exclude the owner from receiving Supercharger idle fees or congestion fees. There is currently no end date for this promotion.

There are currently no changes to the Model X, neither a price increase nor the addition of Lifetime Superchargering. However, when Tesla makes changes to one of their premium vehicles, it usually affects the other one as well. So be on the lookout for potential changes to the Model X offering in the coming days.

We’ve seen Tesla value Lifetime Supercharging at $5,000, so this falls in line with the price increase we’re seeing. It’s possible that Tesla will begin to bring back Lifetime Supercharging as a perk for buying into their more premium Model S and Model X cars, or this could be another temporary promotion to get buyers who are on the fence to go ahead and make their purchase while this promotion lasts.

Follow

Follow

Follow

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

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.

Follow

Follow

Follow