Tesla is rolling out the ability to detect emergency vehicles

Yesterday Tesla started rolling out software update 2021.24.12. These incremental updates often focus on bug fixes before they're widely rolled out to the entire fleet. However, every once in a while we're introduced to some new features in a point release.

Tesla may render emergency vehicles in the visualization different from other vehicles

With software update 2021.24.12 Tesla has started to roll out the ability to detect and slow down for emergency vehicles. When Tesla released version 9 of the FSD Beta in July, they introduced new visualizations that show when a vehicle is actively braking.

The new visualizations were impressive and left behind the dotted, matrix-like visualizations of v8 betas. After the v9 release, Elon said that Tesla is working on detecting and reacting to more than just brake lights, but also additional things, such as turn signals, hazards, emergency vehicles and even hand gestures.

With this update, it looks like some vehicles are now getting the ability to detect emergency vehicles and react to them, while also alerting the driver.

Twitter user Analytic.eth discovered this new feature in the owner's manual that is in the car. Tesla creates dynamic owner's manuals, so they can show certain content only to vehicles that have a specific feature. So not everyone will be able to see this content in their owner's manual. In this case, Analytic.eth's owner's manual shows that his car now detects emergency vehicles in certain cases.

The owner's manual says:

"If Model3/ModelY detects lights from an emergency vehicle when using Autosteer at night on a high speed road, the driving speed is automatically reduced and the touchscreen displays a message informing you of the slowdown. You will also hear a chime and see a reminder to keep your hands on the steering wheel. When the light detections pass by or cease to appear, Autopilot resumes your cruising speed. Alternatively, you may tap the accelerator to resume your cruising speed.

Never depend on Autopilot features to determine the presence of emergency vehicles. Model3/ModelY may not detect lights from emergency vehicles in all situations. Keep your eyes on your driving path and always be prepared to take immediate action.""

It appears that Tesla is in the early phases of testing this feature. They're detecting emergency vehicles light only at night, when the feature would be more easily spotted. They're also giving the driver the ability to train the neural net by confirming or denying the presence of emergency lights, by tapping the accelerator if there isn't an emergency vehicle and they do not want the car to slow down.

Tesla executed a similar strategy with traffic light detecting where they asked the driver to confirm the presence of a green light by tapping on the accelerator.

This will help train the neural net by delivering possibly tens of thousands of images and videos to Tesla when a vehicle possibly didn't accurately detect an emergency vehicle.

Expect this feature to gain new capabilities and expand to additional vehicles in the coming weeks and months.

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Tesla Says 12V Power Socket Access Will Not Return With Sentry Mode

Not a Tesla App

It turns out that the big undocumented change in Tesla update 2024.32 that disables the 12V power and USB ports while Sentry Mode is active is not a bug but an intentional change.

A fan contacted Tesla Service to see if the change was intentional and what the reason behind the change was. Surprisingly, they received a response pretty quickly.

No 12V Power Access

Tesla has decided to restrict 12V power access for safety reasons—namely, to “reduce the likelihood of thermal events” when third-party devices are left powered on without users present. Tesla reached out to the fan in question by phone, and they seemed to be sticking to that line.

It seems that Tesla is resolute that it was due to safety reasons and that the change would not be “fixed” or allowed in a future software update – as this was an intentional change for safety reasons.

Other sources have reported that the change was due to potential misuse of the 12V power access, with people wiring 1200w microwaves and kettles or jury-rigging 240v to 120v adapters, which had apparently been the cause of multiple fires in Tesla vehicles within China.

Workarounds

Thankfully, for those who camp or need to keep their sub-trunk fridges powered while still having security in their vehicles, there is a simple, although inconvenient, workaround. You can enable Camp Mode, then manually lock your car (since Camp Mode turns off walk-away door locking) and turn off climate controls from the app.

While Sentry will NOT be active with this workaround, the car's power sockets remain powered. While this workaround is fine to use occasionally, it’ll be tiresome for those who use a fridge regularly.

We’re still hoping Tesla considers bringing the Cybertruck’s Power Control menu to the rest of its vehicles and is somehow able to limit the max draw from these outlets to prevent dangerous situations.

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Join Our Tesla Robotaxi Event Prediction Contest

Tesla

With the Robotaxi event just a day away, we thought it would be a fun idea to run a contest to predict what Tesla will announce tomorrow evening.

We’ve outlined a list of questions below; simply answer them on our forums or social media (X or Threads), and be entered for a chance to win some great prizes.

The individuals who have the most correct answers will win one of five prizes mentioned below. If more than five people get them all right, a random drawing will be held from the pool of winners.

We’ll reach out to the winners either by email or by DM on social media.

The Questions

1. Will Tesla let attendees experience Robotaxi at the event?

2. Will Tesla first start the network with human supervision (ridesharing), or with Robotaxis only?

3. What year will the network start? When will it become fully autonomous? (if announced)

4. When will Robotaxi production begin? (if announced)

5. Will it be Robotaxi or Cybercab?

6. Which of these Robotaxi Concepts will be the closest to the one announced?

7. Will Robotaxi include:

   1. Front-facing camera?

   2. Stainless-steel body?

   3. Steer-by-Wire or No Steering Wheel? (if announced)

   4. Which current Tesla model has the most similar door-opening mechanism?

   5. How many seats will the robotaxi have?

8. Will the robotaxi include AI5/Hardware 5, HW4 or something completely different?

9. Where will Tesla’s first Rideshare/Robotaxi location be established?

10. Will customers be able to purchase a Robotaxi?

Requirements

Please use the template below to answer the questions on social media or in our forums. You can post your answer as a comment to our forums, to our X post, or to our Threads post.

Once you do that, repost or quote post your favorite article from us.

1. Yes

2. Ridesharing

3. 2025/2027

4. 2025

5. Cybercab

6. Dominic's

7. Yes, Yes, SBW, No, 2

8. HW5

9. LA

10. Yes

Prizes

Prizes are generously provided by Enhance and Jowua, makers of some of the best Tesla accessories and amazing Tesla community members. Prizes will be mailed out directly by them. Winners will get to choose their prize from the list below. First place will have the first pick and so on. There will be five winners in total.

• S3XY Buttons (including a commander and wiring)

• S3XY Knob for Model 3/Y

• Tesla Gaming Controller - Multi-Device Wireless Controller (Wireless Charging)

• Tesla Gaming Controller - Multi-Device Wireless Controller (Wireless Charging)

• Tesla Gaming Controller - Multi-Device Wireless Controller (Wireless Charging)

Disclaimer

This is a Tesla event, and Tesla normally likes to hold their cards close to their chest. If an answer is ambiguous, we’ll go with the best choice decided by our staff. We’ll do our best to be fair. This

With all that said, we wish our entrants the best of luck, and we’ll announce the winners at the end of the week.

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