Tesla is preparing to launch non-Tesla Supercharger use in the US
@SawyerMerritt/Twitter
If you’ve bought an electric car, you know by now how frustrating it can be to find somewhere to fast-charge it. That’s why Tesla initially rolled out its Supercharger network of high-voltage chargers, and now they seem to be getting ready to allow other US electric vehicles to take advantage of the widely available network.
Although there haven't been many specifics on how the company would do this in the US, Tesla has made it clear that its intention is to make the global network of high-voltage Level 3 charging stations available to non-Tesla EV owners, and it has been running test programs abroad for several months now. According to Twitter user Sawyer Merritt, on the evening of August 16, 2022, Tesla offered a brief glimpse into how the program would work, by temporarily providing non-Tesla owners with membership options on the Tesla App.
It’s unclear whether the company made a mistake by briefly providing access to the program or they were just trying it out, but the membership options remained available through the app from around 9:30 PM to just before midnight, according to Merritt.
It seems like Tesla will be making a "pay per use" option and a membership advertised at just $0.99 per month available to non-Tesla EV owners. Merritt said that each account requires a separate subscription, and there is a daily charge cap of five sessions.
Merritt highlighted the cheap $0.99 monthly membership charge, especially when compared to the $4 per month that Electrify America charges, suggesting that Tesla's price of about $1 may be an effort to undercut its competitors.
The shift, which is anticipated to take place before the end of the year, is necessary in order to access additional federal funds intended to hasten the development of EV charging stations.As electric cars become increasingly popular, a higher priority will be placed on making sure drivers have easy access to charging stations for their cars. Tesla has a dominant market share in the electric car space, so it makes sense that they’d offer up the Supercharger network as a service to drivers of other electric vehicles.
This decision won't be without criticism, though, as the network is one of the biggest benefits of owning a Tesla and is significantly larger than any other fast-charging network in the US. However, the network can get congested at times, and it's unclear what will happen if more EVs are added to it.
Klaus Schmid on YouTube has posted a nice video overview of some of the major new features in this major update.
While most of the design changes appear to be limited to vehicles with AMD Ryzen chips, there are plenty of features to be excited about for Intel owners as well.
Parked Visualization
In the video, Klaus of course fiddles with the amazing-looking new vehicle model that is front and center while the vehicle is parked. You can freely pan, zoom, and play with the vehicle. The Cybertruck was the first vehicle to feature this new v12 design and even includes an easter egg when you tap on the glass multiple times. There’s no word on whether there are any easter eggs built into other vehicles.
The 3D model looks fantastic, but it's not immediately clear whether it's the same model that Tesla was using before this update or potentially a higher-resolution version, which could help explain the AMD requirement for this view.
The map while parked is now small and in the top-right corner of the screen. However, you can make the vehicle's visualization smaller so that it goes back to the older look with the visualization on the left and maps on the right.
The new parked visualization
Spotify Queue
Next, Klaus goes into Spotify, which now gives you the ability to queue up songs instead of just playing a predefined playlist or starting a new song immediately.
Quick Access to Car Wash Mode
Under Controls, you also now have quick access to Car Wash Mode, instead of having to remember it's under Service.
New Wiper Controls
The windshield wipers have been one of the most controversial topics on Teslas, mostly due to their automatic function not always working well. Tesla continues to add wiper controls to make them easier to manage.
In the last few updates, Tesla has now added various ways to control the wipers. You're able to add the wipers button to the dock at the bottom of the screen, use the newer multi-function control to control them with the left scroll wheel, and now Tesla is adding another way to control them.
Video of New Features
Easier Way to Change Wiper Speed
With update 2024.14.3, if you press the button on the left stalk to activate the wipers, you can now adjust their speed up by moving the scroll wheel up or down. Before this update, you could do something similar, but it required tilting the scroll wheel left/right, which wasn't as intuitive.
If you have your wipers on and set to a certain speed after installing this update, you’ll now also be able to tap the wipers button to cycle through the various speed options.
While this is a welcomed improvement, all the wiper control changes could be a little confusing for folks who don't follow Tesla as closely as we all do. In the end, the issue comes down to the automatic wiper function not working reliably, which is a little ridiculous since every automaker has already solved this problem with a $4 rain sensor. Tesla makes a lot of gambles, and I guess this one hasn’t panned out.
Full-Screen Visualizations
Owners outside of North America will finally be able to enjoy full-screen visualizations, although unfortunately, it doesn't include the full set of visualizations that are included with FSD. It appears that Tesla is keeping the full visualizations tied to FSD.
For drivers in North America who own or subscribe to FSD, which was recently lowered in price, the new full-screen view brings some improvements.
The new media player is now centered on the screen and includes additional buttons such as repeat, shuffle, search and more. You also get the small map in the corner which is useful to be able to see your next turn.
In addition, Tesla is now leaving the "Navigate to" module on the screen as well, so that you can set a new destination without leaving the admittedly nice full-screen view.
Update 2024.14.3 just started rolling out to owners yesterday, so it will be several weeks before most owners have access to this update. For now, check out all of our coverage and the release notes to see which features you can look forward to.
Tesla is starting to roll out its latest iteration of Autopark to additional vehicles. The feature that lets your vehicle park automatically was initially rolled out in North America to vehicles without ultrasonic sensors (USS). However, now with FSD v12.3.6, it's going out to vehicles with USS as well.
However, there are differences in how Autopark looks visually, depending on whether you have an infotainment unit that is based on the slower Intel Atom processor, or the latest AMD Ryzen processor.
What’s the Same
Both vehicles will receive the new Autopark and the functionality remains the same. The difference lies in the visuals and whether the vehicle is capable of displaying Tesla’s High Fidelity Park Assist. All vehicles will display available parking spots when you're traveling under 5 mph. You can then tap any of the spots to have your vehicle automatically park at the chosen location.
Intel Vehicles Will Still New New Visuals
Contrary to what was expected, vehicles with the older processor will still display some new visuals, beyond the parking spots. Think of it as a less intense version of High Fidelity Park Assist. Whereas Park Assist on AMD vehicles shows a complete 3D reconstruction of objects in 3D, Intel vehicles will display what looks more like a two-dimensional overhead view. However, it will still display road markings, like arrows and parking lines and even walls and barriers, but unfortunately, the view can not be spun in a 3D fashion like visualizations normally can.
This is a great summary of my AutoPark discoveries yesterday w/ FSD 12.3.6 on my Model 3 with Ultrasonic Sensors and INTEL Atom CPU.
The lines and objects displayed are different from the vector-based lines the vehicle normally displays on roads. FSD visualizations aren’t, in fact, recreating the environment they see, they’re simply detecting an arrow, line, or object and then replacing it with a pre-created 3D asset in the visualization. Although these reconstructions don’t look as sharp or pretty, they’ll mimic whatever is actually drawn on the road.
For vehicles with AMD processors, you'll see the previously released High Fidelity Park Assist (video below), which does look amazing.
If you’d like to always use High Fidelity Park Assist visuals even when you’re not using Autopark, then you’ll need to disable your ultrasonic sensors and give up the accurate measurements they display.
You can change your setting under Controls > Autopilot > Park Assist and toggle between Standard or Vision.
High-fidelity park assist is shipping this weekend to Tesla customers without ultrasonic sensors as part of the holiday release!pic.twitter.com/MEHL6w003r
If your vehicle has ultrasonic sensors, then the new Autopark is currently only available on FSD v12.3.6 , which is update 2024.3.25, but since Autopark only requires Enhanced Autopilot or above, it should be bundled with a non-FSD update in the future.
While the new Autopark is only available in North America, it is expected to be rolled out to additional regions in the near future as Tesla continues to test the feature.
If you're not sure if your vehicle has an Intel Atom or AMD Ryzen processor, you can double-check by going under Controls > Software > Additional Vehicle Information. You'll see your infotainment processor listed there.
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