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
• 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.)
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Ganesh Venkataramanan, Tesla’s project lead for its ambitious Dojo supercomputer project for the past five years, has left the company. Bloomberg reported this development, stating that the news was confirmed by sources familiar with the matter. Peter Bannon, a former executive at Apple Inc. and a director at Tesla for the last seven years, has now taken the helm of the project.
Venkataramanan's departure from Tesla last month is now stirring conversations about the potential impacts on Tesla's future initiatives. His contributions to the Dojo project have been pivotal, especially in designing the custom D1 chip that powers the supercomputer. Venkataramanan, with his extensive experience, including a significant tenure at Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), was a crucial asset in setting up Tesla’s AI hardware and silicon teams in 2016.
Dojo: A Cornerstone for Tesla’s Self-Driving Aspirations
The Dojo supercomputer is a critical element of Tesla's strategy to enhance its self-driving capabilities. Designed to train machine learning models integral to Tesla's autonomous systems, Dojo processes vast amounts of data captured by Tesla vehicles. This rapid data processing is essential for improving the company’s algorithms, with analysts suggesting that Dojo could be a significant competitive advantage for Tesla. In a recent estimation by Morgan Stanley, the project could potentially add $500 billion to Tesla’s value.
Elon Musk has been vocal about the company's commitment to the Dojo project, planning an investment exceeding $1 billion by the end of 2024. The project's importance was underscored in Tesla's decision to shift from relying on Nvidia Corp.’s supercomputers to developing Dojo, poised to rival systems from Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. and IBM.
Looking Ahead: Impact and Future Prospects
The recent leadership changes raise questions about the future direction of the Dojo project. Venkataramanan's exit, coupled with the departure of another critical artificial intelligence player from Tesla last year, Andrej Karpathy, signals a transition period for the company’s AI and self-driving teams.
However, Tesla's robust talent pool, blending experienced and emerging professionals, offers a silver lining. Bannon's promotion to lead the Dojo project is seen as a strategic move, leveraging his experience and insights gained from his tenure at Apple. Moreover, the recent installation of Dojo hardware in Palo Alto, California, marks a step forward in centralizing and enhancing the project’s capabilities.
Tesla’s ambitions for Dojo extend to making it one of the world’s top supercomputers. The company envisions reaching a computational capability of 100 exaflops* by October 2024, a testament to its commitment to advancing artificial intelligence and self-driving technology.
* Confused about "exaflops?" "Flops" stands for Floating Point Operations Per Second. It's a way to measure how fast a computer can process data. "Exa" means a billion billion, or 1, followed by 18 zeros (1,000,000,000,000,000,000). So, when we say a computer can perform 100 exaflops, it can do 100 billion billion calculations per second. That's incredibly fast!
Tesla is adding a new 'High Fidelity Park Assist' feature in this year's Holiday Update
Tesla
Following initial reactions to Tesla's 2023 Holiday Update, Elon Musk acknowledged the need for improvement, stating, "We need to step up our game." His post on X was followed by Tesla shedding more light on the Holiday Update than what was in the initial leak.
Call me old, but I remember a time when you bought a car, and that was it; the dealer and manufacturer didn’t give you anything else. So is the Tesla community acting a little bit spoiled here? Absolutely. But it also shows how high Tesla has set the bar with its previous Holiday Updates.
Initial Release and Feedback
The initial release of the 2023 Holiday Update, version 2023.44.25, received mixed reactions from the Tesla community, with some owners expressing disappointment over the lack of groundbreaking new features. But the newly announced features may serve as better stocking stuffers.
The initial rollout included something owners have been asking for, the blind spot monitor. The camera that turns on when you change lanes will now have a red color added if there is something in your blind spot. It’s not clear whether it will be accompanied by a tone.
Tesla’s blind spot warning in this year’s holiday update
Here are other features in the leaked update that are being tested by employees:
Navigation and Safety Features: Including symbols for speed cameras, stop signs, and traffic lights in navigation, and the automatic 911 call feature in case of an accident.
Trip Planning via Tesla Mobile App: Allowing for more detailed trip planning, including multiple stops and charging points.
Apple Podcasts Integration: Allowing users to sync with Apple devices for a seamless podcast experience, directly addressing the demand for a richer in-car entertainment system.
New Games and Enhancements: The update brought updates to Tesla Arcade, with Beach Buggy Racing and Polytopia Diplomacy updates, as well as the Vampire Survivors Chilling update.
Light Show Improvements: There’s a new light show that’s included with your vehicle. You’ll also be able to upload several light shows on a single USB drive and pick one from the vehicle, instead of having to use multiple USB drives, one for each light show.
More Live Sentry Mode Cameras: You will now be able to view the B-pillar cameras directly from the Tesla app. This brings the number of viewable cameras in the app up to seven. The only ones still missing are the alternative front-facing cameras that are telephoto and wide-angle, which wouldn’t bring much additional value. Although the B-pillars are viewable in the app with this update, they will still not be used to record during Dashcam or Sentry Mode events.
High-Fidelity Park Assist
Tesla's new parking assist feature will dynamically recreate scenes in real-time
Tesla
In response to the feedback and Musk's statement, Tesla unveiled additional features in its updated holiday update, including an improved park assist with enhanced visualizations.
This feature provides a 3D reconstruction of the vehicle's surroundings while parking, akin to a 360-degree camera system found in other high-end vehicles. The system is clearly leveraging improvements to Tesla Vision to create the surrounding environment, such as cars, pillars and walls.
This feature also appears to change the color of objects depending on how close they are to your vehicle. In the image we can see the pillars are orange, but if we look closer, the object behind the vehicle is also orange near the bottom. The sides of the vehicles next to the Tesla also have a slight hint of orange, indicating their proximity.
However, it looks like this feature may be even better than it initially looks. The vehicles in the image aren’t just predefined 3D models that Tesla created, like the ones used in Autopilot visualizations. These models appear to be dynamically created using vision, so that no two cars would look alike, much more similar to what LiDar is able to achieve. The visualization provides a true representation of the environment around the vehicle. You can see that each vehicle is made up from layers and have blurred edges toward the rear, where the camera would have a hard time seeing.
These 3D models could be a sneak peek at the future of FSD visualizations.
High-Fidelity Park Assist Requirements
A big question on everyone’s mind is who will receive this new park assist feature. Tesla didn’t address this in their post on X besides providing a disclaimer that the features in the holiday release are subject to model and region availability. Tesla often likes to test features in select markets before making them available everywhere. It’s hard to say whether that will be the case here. There likely aren’t any legal ramifications around providing visualizations, so that’s a good sign that this feature will be available in most regions, either in the holiday update, or soon afterward.
However, there are still questions around which models or hardware will be required. From the image shared, we can see it’s offered on a Model Y, removing any speculation of it possibly requiring the HD radar in the new Model S/X. We also don’t think it will require FSD hardware 4.0, so the remaining questions are whether it requires MCU 3, or the FSD package.
Given that Tesla is calling this Park Assist, it doesn’t appear to be linked to Auto Park, which is a FSD package feature. When Tesla rolled out visual and audio alerts for vehicles without ultrasonic sensors, it called the feature Park Assist, and that was available to all owners.
Whether this improved Park Assist feature requires a vehicle with MCU 3 will depend on the level of processing power required. It’ll certainly require more than the current visualizations given that its building the scene in real-time, so we’re hopeful that it’ll work on MCU 2 vehicles too, but we just don’t have enough information right now to make the call.
Custom Lock Sounds
Soon you'll be able to choose a custom locking sound for your car
Not a Tesla App
Tesla also announced a fun and whimsical feature that allows owners to customize the lock sound of their Tesla. No longer will you need to listen to the car’s horn when it locks as you walk away. Now you’ll be able to customize the lock sound of the vehicle. Tesla is including several options, including sounds like a screaming goat, a jingle, a rubber ducky, a quack sound, an old school horn and applause. However, you’ll also be able to upload your own file to create a truly unique experience.
You can pick anything, from a bird’s tweet to a favorite video game sound. You’ll only be limited by the maximum upload file size, which according to a Tesla engineer, is a 1MB file in WAV format, which is roughly about 40 seconds at good quality.
This feature is possible due to the vehicle’s external pedestrian warning speaker. So if you have Tesla’s Boombox feature or your vehicle makes a sound when traveling under 20 MPH, then you should receive this fun enhancement.
Rear Seat Audio and Gaming
You'll now be able to play games on Tesla's rear screens
Tesla
Enhancing the Tesla Arcade experience, passengers in the rear seats can now play games on the rear touchscreen. This feature, especially when paired with Tesla Arcade’s compatibility with PS4, PS5, Xbox Controllers, and rear-screen Bluetooth Headsets, is a welcome addition for families and long trips.
Much like the new Model 3, which received rear audio over Bluetooth support in the 2023.38 update, the new Model S and Model X will also receive this ability in the holiday update.
New Game - Castle Doombad
Tesla announced one other feature in the 2023 holiday update that hadn’t been previously leaked, and that’s a new game called Castle Doombad. Castle Doombad is a single player tower defense, puzzle-like game that’s currently available on iOS and Android, but has an upcoming release on PC and the Nintendo Switch. This game is expected to require MCU 3.
Release Timeline
The rollout of the 2023 Holiday Update is expected to follow a similar timeline to last year. Tesla announced that the update will roll out starting next week. However, it’s not clear whether this will also include FSD Beta testers that are on a 2023.27 update.
Like a spoiled child on Christmas morning, Tesla owners still ask, “Is that it?” Well… possibly, but there may be more to look forward to early next year as Tesla builds off of the new High-Fidelity Park Assist feature.
Advanced Smart Summon: Upgrading the Smart Summon feature to be more intuitive and efficient, especially in complex parking scenarios.
Reverse Summon / Park Seek: What happened to Tesla dropping its passengers and driver off at the location and then finding a parking spot on its own?
Enhanced FSD Visualizations: Expanding the Full Self-Driving visualizations to more regions or models or completely recreating the FSD visualizations using the same neural networks Tesla is using for the High-Fidelity Park Assist feature.
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!
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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!
TeslaBox delivers real-time video notifications for every Sentry and Dashcam event, continuously backs up all footage without hitting record, and enables remote file browsing. No wiring. Installs alongside your standard USB stick.
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