Tesla's 2022 shareholders' meeting recap & video

August 5, 2022

By Dan Burkland

Tesla

Tesla held its 2022 shareholders' meeting yesterday. At the event, Tesla discussed a variety of products and features including FSD Beta 10.13, the Cybertruck, Tesla Superchargers, and a new Tesla factory.

You can watch the entire event below (starts at the 2 minute mark), or read Dan Burkland's recap, which was originally posted on dburkland.com.

Part 1 - Formal Shareholder Items

• Martin - Intro

Robyn Denholm

• Global fleet of cars and vehicles to avoid 8.4M metric tons of green house gas emissions

• Avoided emissions that were equivalent to ICE vehicles driving 20B miles

• By 2030 Tesla plans to sell 20M vehicles / year

• In June 2022 Tesla achieved the highest vehicle production month in their history

• Tesla continues to make an impact w/ Solar & Energy Storage business

• Tesla sold 4 GWH of energy storage products in 2021, enough to power 3M homes

• Solar demand has increased 4x

• Goal is for all factories to be carbon neutral

• Tesla already uses less water per vehicle than any other automaker

• Sustainability drives everything Tesla does

Stockholder Proposals

• Proxy Statement: document

Part 2 - Elon's Presentation / Q & A Session

• Attempting to achieve a 2M vehicle / year run rate by end of 2022

• Tesla just recently produced their 3 millionth vehicle

• Looking back 10 years ago, Tesla only made 2500 Roadsters and maybe a couple hundred Model S (August 2012)

• “Cleanest exponentials” -Elon Musk

• $TSLA shareholders have approved the 3-for-1 stock split

Tesla

• Important to note the increase in strong free cash flow is occurring before autonomy

FSD Beta 10.13

• “This year I swear” (FSD being released to public)

• “Made some significant architectural improvements with FSD Beta 10.13 release, might qualify for 10.69” -Elon Musk

• “It's gotta earn that” -Elon Musk

• “We are going to solve Chuck's turn” -Elon Musk

• “Roughly 90% success rate w/ Chuck's turn”

• “Might be next week” -Elon Musk

• “It's working well for me” -Elon Musk

• FSD will save lives by driving an order of magnitudes safer than people

• Tesla has the highest operating margin in the entire industry

Tesla

• Every time a competitor advertises for EVs Tesla notices an increase in sales

• Model Y is tracking to be highest vehicle by revenue by end of 2022 and highest by unit by end of 2023

Gigafactories

• Tesla will soon be ready to announce another factory location by end of 2022

• Tesla plans to eventually have 10-12 Giga Factories

• Each factory will have the capacity to produce 1.5-2M vehicles per year

• Fremont factory is highest output car factory in North America

• Elon thinks it's going to be a friendly competition between Berlin, Fremont, and Texas (Shanghai hard to beat)

• Tesla has produced more energy than it consumes (includes vehicle charging)

Tesla

• Tesla battery recycling is already happening at a rate of 50 packs per week in Nevada

• Continues to scale

• Not that many batteries to recycle since their longevity has been really good so far (more of a longterm play)

Master Plan: Part 3

• Will be focused on scaling

• “What are all the things needed to achieve a fully sustainable global economy”

• Cathode materials

• Aluminum, Etc.

• Goal is to reiterate this is absolutely doable and that we want it to be done as fast as possible

Tesla

Vehicle Structure

• Lighter

• Stiffer

• Better NVH

• Better in pretty much every way when compared to stamped underbody construction

Manufacturing

• Model Y requires only 30% of robots needed to produce vehicles as required by the Model 3

• Improved layout of factory where it is now a signal monolithic factory

Tesla

• Eventually all cars will be self driving but it will be hard to replicate Tesla's manufacturing capabilities

Working at Tesla

• Employees are free to switch between SpaceX & Tesla

• Factory safety has dramatically improved, Elon believes they now have the safest factories in the business

• Tesla has encouraged employees to submit suggestions on improving factory safety with a goal of 3 suggestions per employee (They have since met that goal and safety has increased as a result)

• 3M job applicants over last year

Supercharger Network

• 99.96% uptime

• Continue to deploy V3 Superchargers, V4 set to be deployed next year

• Elon mentioned that more good news regarding the Supercharger network is coming

Safety

• Tesla has a very detailed feedback loop when it comes to vehicle crashes

• Auto seat belt tensioning is an example of how Tesla continues to improve safety via OTA updates

• Activated via Autopilot AI when a crash is 99.99%+ sure to happen

FSD Beta

Tesla

• Tracking to well over 100M miles by end of 2022

• Wide spread release by end of 2022, will be available to anybody who requests it

AI Day: Part 2

• September 30th, 2022

• Elon believes Optimus will turn the notion of what an economy is on its head

Next Decade

• 10 years ago they had less than 3000 cars, now its more than 3M

• Elon thinks vehicle production should be able to exceed over 100M 10 years from now

Questions

Plans for Cash

• Tesla has used a small amount of its available cash for acquisitions and that will continue to be the case unless the right opportunity arrises (automation, software, manufacturing, etc.)

• Spending CapEx and R&D money as fast as they can without wasting it

• Share buyback may be in the cards as long as there isn't another force majeure event

Factories

• 12 factories seems to be the perfect number with a maximum production rate of 2M vehicles per factory

Cybertruck

• Specs and pricing will be different (a lot has changed since 2019)

• Inflation and various issues are to blame

• Production equipment & tooling will begin getting installed in Giga Texas, volume production still targeted by mid-2023

US & China Tension

• Elon hopes for peace and respect between the US & China

Supercharger Locations

• Permits are extremely hard to obtain in some areas (ex. Malibu)

• Tesla continues to prioritize new Supercharger locations by busiest locations

• Elon mentioned there will be an online poll where people can vote where they want new Supercharger locations built

• Trying to do more fun things when it comes to Supercharger locations (ex. Futuristic Diner in Hollywood)

4680 Output

• Tesla is making a decent number of 4680 cells each week and Elon projects that they'll be in high volume production by end of 2022

• 4680 production does not yet impact vehicle output however it will in 2023

Master Plan

• New master plan not yet ready, plan to finish it by end of August 2022

Supply Chain

• Most of commodities that go into Tesla vehicles are trending down (cost) over next 6 months which suggests that we are past peak inflation

• Elon thinks we will have a relatively mild recession for 18 months (just a guess) and that inflation should drop rapidly

Autonomy

• AI is going to increase utility of passenger vehicles by 4-5x

• Vehicles will still cost the same to produce so gross margins are expected to rapidly increase

• Elon still believes folks will have the option to own a car, rent it out when they aren't using it, or simply rent somebody else's vehicle (ex. Uber)

• “Optimus will bring the future to now”

Media

• Elon annoyed that most analysts don't drive Teslas which prevents them from having a good understanding of the Tesla customer experience

Succession

• Elon believes in strong product roadmap that will lead to success for quite some time

• Elon intends to stay with Tesla as long as he is useful, plans to continue to closely focus on factory & product design

• Tesla would continue to do well even if he was kidnapped by aliens (or returned to his own planet haha)

• The only publicly traded securities Elon owns are $TSLA and $TWTR

• Believes he has a good sense of where to point the engineering team at $TWTR to make it radically better

• Thinks Twitter would accelerate his original vision of x.com by 3-5 years and be something that is very useful to the world

Tunnels

• Elon wanted to clarify he is pro-train

• Elon believes tunnels could solve virtually any traffic problems around the world and allow above ground road space to be reclaimed for parks

Dojo & Tesla Communicating w/ Each Other

• Goal #1 is to be really good at video training

• Approaching at being the 3rd most powerful super computer in the world (geared for AI training)

• Fundamentally focused on NN training which has never been done before

• Some merit with Teslas communicating with each other but not needed for FSD (traffic, accidents, pot holes, etc.)

Tesla Semi Keynote: New Features, 46 Charging Sites, Upgraded Battery & More [VIDEO]

April 30, 2025

By Karan Singh

Out of Spec BITS/YouTube

Tesla’s Dan W Priestley attended the Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo in Anaheim, California, and provided an update on Tesla’s Semi truck program. The presentation covered several key developments on the status of Tesla’s Nevada Semi Factory, refinements to the Semi, and Tesla’s plans for charging and ramping production through 2026.

Let’s dig in and take a look at everything that was captured by the Out of Spec team at ACT Expo. The original video is embedded below if you’d like to watch it.

Semi Factory & Production Ramp

Priestley reaffirmed the timelines mentioned during Tesla’s Q4 2024 Earnings Call that Tesla will scale Semi production in 2026. To achieve this, Tesla has been actively building and expanding the Gigafactory Nevada site, specifically to support the production of the Tesla Semi. The dedicated Semi facility will have a targeted annual capacity of 50,000 Semi trucks.

Following the beginning of production, Tesla will utilize the initial trucks to integrate into its own logistics operations. This will serve as both a final real-world testing ground as well as an opportunity for Tesla to gather data internally. Tesla plans to begin subsequent customer deliveries throughout 2026 as the ramp-up continues.

Reuters also reported that Tesla is hiring over 1,000 new employees at the Semi Factory to begin the rapid ramping of the program.

Semi has already amassed 7.9 million miles with Tesla’s current testing and operational fleets, providing some real-world data and testing. Feedback for the truck has been exceptionally successful, with many drivers praising the Semi’s performance and comfort.

New Tesla Semi Features

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Tesla keynote without showing off some new things. The Semi will be available in 500-mile and 300-mile range configurations, now featuring updated mirror designs and a drop-down glass section to improve visibility and allow easier interaction with external elements—such as control panels at ports, for example.

New Electric Power Take-Off (e-PTO)

The Tesla Semi will also feature a new capability called Electric Power Take-Off, or e-PTO system. Similar to the PTO systems found on other vehicles, this will allow the Semi’s high-voltage battery to power auxiliary equipment at variable voltages. That includes being able to power things like climate-controlled reefer trailers, potentially replacing the noisy and polluting diesel generators traditionally used for this purpose.

Charging and Batteries

Out of Spec BITS/YouTube

Tesla is also working on an updated battery pack design for the final production design of the Semi. This new pack is designed to be more cost-effective to manufacture. The battery pack itself is slightly smaller than before, but the truck maintains the same level of range through efficiencies. Dan also confirmed during his keynote that the battery cells for the Semi will be sourced domestically inside the United States, helping to alleviate potential burdens due to tariffs.

On the charging front, Tesla is using MCS - the Megawatt Charging System - capable of 1.2MW - and designed specifically for Semi. The system uses the same V4 charging hardware found at Supercharger sites but focuses on that larger power output. Alongside a smaller physical footprint, Tesla will be able to configure these V4 cabinets for either dedicated Semi charging or for shared power scenarios with regular Superchargers. Tesla is also working on an integrated overnight charging product, but Tesla isn’t ready to talk about it yet.

46 Semi Charger Sites Coming

The 46 new MCS sites coming soon.

Out of Spec BITS/YouTube

Finally, Tesla has made substantial investments in a public charging network for the Semi. There are currently 46 sites in progress throughout the United States, and plans for significant expansion throughout 2026 and 2027. These sites are strategically located alongside major truck routes and within industrial areas to support long-haul and regional operations. Tesla is aiming to offer the lowest possible energy costs to operators to help incentivize adoption.

This was one of the best updates to the Tesla Semi we’ve received since its initial unveiling. It seems that the Semi will receive a big portion of Tesla’s attention in 2026, while Robotaxi and FSD Unsupervised take the stage this year.

The Tesla Semi has the potential to transform transportation even more dramatically than EVs already have, serving as a testament to Tesla’s mission to electrify the world.

Tesla’s B-Pillar Sentry Mode Recording Requires HW4, Not Just Ryzen — Breakdown of Spring Update Requirements

April 30, 2025

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

Sentry Mode is an invaluable tool for owners - capable of keeping the vehicle safe and secure even when you’re not around. This is especially true in recent times, with the misguided and unfortunate incidents surrounding Tesla ownership, including damage to Tesla vehicles, showrooms, and Superchargers.

B-pillar Camera Recording and Dashcam Viewer

With the 2025 Spring Update on 2025.14, Tesla is expanding Sentry Mode’s functionality for certain vehicles with some much-needed changes. Sentry Mode and Dashcam can now record footage from the vehicle’s B-pillar cameras. These cameras are located on the side pillars of the vehicle, between the front and rear doors.

This adds two crucially needed viewpoints, making Tesla’s Sentry Mode a truly 360-degree security system. These cameras also provide the best angles for capturing license plates when parked, so they will be greatly appreciated by owners in the event of an incident.

These vehicles are also receiving an improved Dashcam Viewer, which now displays the six camera feeds along the bottom and a new grid view. It also allows users to jump back or forward in the video in 15-second increments.

However, to the disappointment of many owners, not all vehicles are receiving these updates due to the additional processing power needed.

Limited to Hardware 4 Vehicles, Ryzen Isn’t Enough

We have confirmed that Tesla is only adding the additional camera recording and improved Dashcam Viewer on hardware 4 (HW4 / AI4) vehicles. The newer hardware presumably has the additional processing power and bandwidth needed to handle recording and saving the two additional video streams during Sentry Mode and Dashcam.

For the time being, owners of HW3 vehicles are not receiving this feature. This includes all vehicles with HW3, even those with AMD Ryzen infotainment systems. If you’re not sure whether your vehicle has HW3 or HW4, you can refer to our FSD hardware guide.

While there’s no doubt that recording two additional camera streams would be more computationally intensive, we hope that Tesla adds the improved Dashcam Viewer to HW3 vehicles in a future update.

Cybertruck Also Missing Improved Sentry Mode

Surprisingly, and most confusing for many - is the fact that the Cybertruck is also not receiving the improved Dashcam Viewer and B-pillar camera recording with this update. This struck us as odd, especially since the Cybertruck is currently the only vehicle with the improved, more efficient version of Sentry Mode.

Every Cybertruck is equipped with HW4 and AMD Ryzen infotainment units, so this clearly isn’t a hardware restriction. It’s possible the more efficient Sentry Mode is playing a role here due to the infrastructure changes. However, we expect Tesla to address this in a future update and eventually release these features for the Cybertruck as well.

Given the Cybertruck’s high visibility and its status as a frequent target for both positive and negative attention, many owners hoped that the Cybertruck would be one of the vehicles to receive this feature.

Adaptive Headlights

Tesla finally started rolling out its adaptive headlights in North America. While the new Model Y already came with the feature when it was released last month, other vehicles with matrix headlights are now receiving the feature in the Spring Update.

All vehicles with matrix headlights are receiving this feature, which includes the new and old Model 3, first-gen Model Y, and the new Model S and Model X.

If you’re not sure if your vehicle includes matrix headlights, check out our guide. What’s interesting here is that older vehicles that were retrofitted with matrix headlights due to an accident or user replacement are also receiving the adaptive headlights feature.

Legacy Model S & Model X

As with most updates, the older legacy Model S and Model X are not receiving all the features included in this update. Unfortunately, some of the features, which include the Blind Spot Camera on the instrument cluster, Save Trunk Height Based on Location and Keep Accessory Power On are limited to the new Model S and X.

Legacy S and X models will receive the Alternative Trip Plans feature, Avoid Highways (Requires Intel MCU) and the Keyboard Languages feature.

These vehicles are also receiving all the features in the Minor Updates section except for the visualization showing how far the door is opened, which is exclusive to the Cybertruck. These additions include improved music search results, contact photos in the phone app, automatic connecting to hotspots, the ability to show third-party chargers, view Supercharger amenities, and various improvements to music services.

While many users will be disappointed not to receive the B-pillar camera recording and Dashcam Viewer improvements, it’s important to remember that Tesla typically does a great job at bringing features to older vehicles, at least with the Model 3 and Model Y. If a feature isn’t added, it’s usually due to a hardware limitation.