Tesla is rapidly expanding their insurance offering
Not a Tesla App
Tesla Insurance is a competitively priced insurance product that offers Tesla owners a new option.
Tesla has a unique understanding of its vehicles, technology, safety features and repair costs, which help eliminate some fees associated with traditional insurance carriers. Tesla Insurance provides a convenient monthly payment and the ability to manage claims and coverage directly through the Tesla app.
It also puts you in control, since your insurance premium is in part based on your driving habits.
Where is Tesla Insurance Available?
The service is currently only available in select U.S. states, but it continues to expand to additional states. Tesla CEO, Elon Musk says it will also expand to Canada in the future.
Tesla Insurance is currently available to Tesla owners in the following states:
Arizona
California
Colorado
Illinois
Minnesota
Maryland
Nevada
Ohio
Oregon
Texas
Utah
Virginia
Who Can Purchase Tesla Insurance?
New and current Tesla owners can purchase an insurance policy in the Tesla app by tapping the profile icon located in the top-right corner and selecting ‘Get Tesla Insurance.’
If you've recently placed an order for a Tesla, you will need to wait until a VIN is assigned before ordering Tesla Insurance.
Tesla is rapidly expanding their insurance offering
Not a Tesla App
Additional Vehicles
Tesla Insurance will not only cover Tesla vehicles but also any other vehicles you may own.
You can add additional vehicles when submitting the policy.
However, Tesla Insurance is currently limited to vehicles and Tesla does not offer home insurance or other types of insurance policies.
What You Get with Tesla Insurance
With Tesla Insurance you can view documents, billing, payment details and make claims all from the Tesla app.
Like other insurance companies, there are a variety of plans with varying levels of coverage depending on your needs.
How Does Tesla Insurance Work?
Tesla collects data from the vehicle that helps assess how the vehicle is being driven.
Unlike other insurance products, Tesla does not require an additional device to be installed in the vehicle. Instead, Tesla uses features already included to determine how often the vehicle is driven, and how often the driver follows too closely or stops harshly.
This data is then used to help determine the driver's insurance premium.
The insurance premium also factors in the vehicle model, the insuree's location, and the distance the vehicle is driven.
Tesla Insurance users make monthly payments based on their driving behavior rather than factors typically used by other insurance providers, such as credit, age, gender, claim history and driving records.
Tesla Insurance Cost
Every insurer has different factors to determine their costs and their customers' likelihood of getting into an accident. While Tesla Insurance could save you money, it could also cost more than alternatives available in your state.
According to Tesla, "An average driver could save between 20% to 40% and the safest drivers could save between 30% to 60%."
Your Safety Score can have a large impact on your insurance premium
@GailAlfarATX/Twitter
Big reason to own a Tesla in the states where they offer insurance. next month insurance will be $60/month, down from 88 because of a 98 safety score maintained. Best car ever @elonmuskpic.twitter.com/fROEsx3Wfa
We've seen scenarios where Tesla Insurance saves someone hundreds of dollars a month, but we've also seen it cost significantly more than its competitors.
There are many factors that determine your insurance premium. If you're new to Tesla or haven't shopped around in a few years, we recommend getting a free quote from Tesla to see whether Tesla Insurance would save you money.
Tesla insurance price is insanely low. Six cars covered with two Plaids and includes my brother in the coverage for $599 per month! 9K miles/car $500 comp, $1k collision. Progressive wanted over $1k/month ??♂️ @elonmuskpic.twitter.com/rAWDjoxJi8
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.
In a relatively surprising move, GM announced that it is realigning its autonomy strategy and prioritizing advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) over fully autonomous vehicles.
GM is effectively closing Cruise (autonomous) and focusing on its Super Cruise (ADAS) feature. The engineering teams at Cruise will join the GM teams working on Super Cruise, effectively shuttering the fully autonomous vehicle business.
End of Cruise
GM cites that “an increasingly competitive robotaxi market” and “considerable time and resources” are required for scaling the business to a profitable level. Essentially - they’re unable to keep up with competitors at current funding and research levels, putting them further and further behind.
Cruise has been offering driverless rides in several cities, using HD mapping of cities alongside vehicles equipped with a dazzling array of over 40 sensors. That means that each cruise vehicle is essentially a massive investment and does not turn a profit while collecting data to work towards Autonomy.
Cruise has definitely been on the back burner for a while, and a quick glance at their website - since it's still up for now - shows the last time they officially released any sort of major news packet was back in 2019.
Competition is Killer
Their current direct competitor - Waymo, is funded by Google, which maintains a direct interest in ensuring they have a play in the AI and autonomy space.
Interestingly, this news comes just a month after Tesla’s We, Robot event, where they showed off the Cybercab and the Robotaxi network, as well as plans to begin deployment of the network and Unsupervised FSD sometime in 2025. Tesla is already in talks with some cities in California and Texas to launch Robotaxi in 2025.
GM Admits Tesla Has the Right Strategy
As part of the business call following the announcement, GM admitted that Tesla’s end-to-end and Vision-based approach towards autonomy is the right strategy. While they say Cruise started down that path, they’re putting aside their goals towards fully autonomous vehicles for now and focusing on introducing that tech in Super Cruise instead.
NEWS: GM just admitted that @Tesla’s end-to-end approach to autonomy is the right strategy.
“That’s where the industry is pivoting. Cruise had already started making headway down that path. We are moving to a foundation model and end-to-end approach going forward.” pic.twitter.com/ACs5SFKUc3
With GM now focusing on Super Cruise, they’ll put aside autonomy and instead focus solely on ADAS features to relieve driver stress and improve safety. While those are positive goals that will benefit all road users, full autonomy is really the key to removing the massive impact that vehicle accidents have on society today.
In addition, Super Cruise is extremely limited, cannot brake for traffic controls, and doesn’t work in adverse conditions - even rain. It can only function when lane markings are clear, there are no construction zones, and there is a functional web connection.
The final key to the picture is that the vehicle has to be on an HD-mapped and compatible highway - essentially locking Super Cruise to wherever GM has time to spend mapping, rather than being functional anywhere in a general sense, like FSD or Autopilot.
Others Impressed - Licensing FSD
Interestingly, some other manufacturers have also weighed into the demise of Cruise. BMW, in a now-deleted post, said that a demo of Tesla’s FSD is “very impressive.” There’s a distinct chance that BMW and other manufacturers are looking to see what Tesla does next.
BMW chimes in on a now-deleted post. The Internet is forever, BMW!
Not a Tesla App
It seems that FSD has caught their eyes after We, Robot - and that the demonstrations of FSD V13.2 online seem to be the pivot point. At the 2024 Shareholder Meeting earlier in the year, Elon shared the fact that several manufacturers had reached out, looking to understand what was required to license FSD from Tesla.
There is a good chance 2025 will be the year we’ll see announcements of the adoption of FSD by legacy manufacturers - similar to how we saw the surprise announcements of the adoption of the NACS charging standard.
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