Elon Musk says Tesla will add a vector-space birds-eye view in future update
Not a Tesla App
A helpful feature luxury and even more affordable cars have had for a few years now is “birds-eye view” parking. When the feature is in use, it displays the car on-screen from an overhead perspective in its surroundings, giving you the ability the easily see how close you are to other cars or the curb when parking.
It’s really a somewhat magical feature and a great feature to show off to family and friends. Although Teslas are littered with cameras on all sides, they unfortunately aren’t all facing the right way in order to pull off a feature like this. There are some crucial areas that are missed such as the lower front.
Another reason Tesla hasn’t tried to implement such a feature is that it’s currently under a patent and they would have to license the technology in order to implement it in a similar way. Although it looks like Tesla has figured out a compromise to give customers a very similar feature.
We should have seen this one coming. If you have a Tesla with FSD hardware version 3.0, then you have slowly been seeing Tesla rendering more and more items on the screen. They will now render stop signs, speed limit signs and other traffic control signs, trash cans, cones, traffic lights, different types of vehicles, line markings and quite a bit more. It’s only a matter of time before what Tesla is rendering on the screen becomes a close approximation to the real world. In fact, their whole goal of FSD relies on them achieving this.
Well according to this Elon tweet, this is exactly how Tesla plans to achieve Birds-Eye View without infringing on any patents. When the driver shifts the car into reverse, the car visualization will essentially rotate to have a top-down view, much like we see when setting the car into park. This isn’t exactly what Birds-Eye View does in other vehicles, as those provide real-time camera feeds to show the car’s surroundings, but it will be a vector-space 3D model of Birds-Eye View if you will, which will hopefully be just as helpful.
Elon has also said that this feature will be tied to FSD since it will only be available due to the work that has gone into FSD. However I would not be surprised if Tesla changes their stance on this as many may consider Birds-Eye View a safety feature which Tesla has always included in every car.
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.
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.
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.
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