One of the things that separate the Model 3 and Model Y from their bigger siblings is the adaptive air suspension.
The ride with an air suspension is much smoother than a traditional spring-based suspension. Tesla offers some excellent features to adjust the newer adaptive air suspension that allows you to customize your ride.
The Model S and Model X have a separate menu under Controls specifically for suspension settings. The 'Suspension' section allows you to view detailed metrics about your suspension, such as ride height, compression, rebound, and body acceleration. You can even view it all in real-time while driving the car.
Furthermore, you can tweak the vehicle's ride height from four pre-defined levels. You can adjust the vehicle's ride height from as low as 6.1 inches, all the way up to 8.9 inches.
You can also individually adjust the ride comfort and the handling of the vehicle.
Similar to Tesla's location-based auto-folding mirrors, you can also have your vehicle remember the ride height at a given location. The vehicle will then automatically raise or lower its suspension to your predefined height when you're arriving at that location.
Tesla lets you fine-tune your air suspension
This is useful when entering or leaving steep driveways that may cause the vehicle to rub against the pavement.
Adjusting Tesla's Air Suspension
Overall, the adaptive air suspension is a great feature, but it looks like it may be getting even better in the future.
Twitter user BLKMDL3 recently asked Elon to further improve the Model S suspension by automatically raising the car's height if a dip is detected in the road ahead.
Elon responded with a simple, "Yeah," as he traditionally has, but what makes this especially interesting is Tesla's recent look into terrain recognition.
In addition to detecting road edges among many other objects, Tesla hacker @GreenTheOnly has now found references in the firmware that Tesla is starting to detect elevation changes as well, which would be necessary to properly solve full self-driving.
So now when you tie BLKMDL3's request with Elon's response and the fact that Tesla is starting to detect elevation change in the road, it starts to paint a clearer picture.
If Tesla is soon able to detect visual changes in elevation then it's probable that Tesla will adjust the car's ride height when major elevation changes are detected.
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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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