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Tesla helps owners in Hurricane Michael’s path with temporary range upgrade, free Supercharging
As Hurricane Michael approached East Coast with its monstrous power, Tesla Model S 40, S 60, and S 70 owners received an over-the-air update. The patch unlocked the full capacity of their vehicles’ battery pack, giving them up to 30-40 miles of extra range. Tesla owners who were fleeing from Michael also found that Supercharging was free in areas affected by the hurricane.
This is not the first time that Tesla has done this program. Last year, the electric car company rolled out a temporary upgrade for owners who were in Hurricane Irma’s path. Last month, temporary battery upgrades and free Supercharging were also given to owners who were fleeing from Hurricane Florence. The company’s temporary upgrade for those affected by Hurricane Michael was confirmed by Tesla on its official Twitter page.
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— Tesla (@Tesla) October 10, 2018
In a statement, the electric car maker noted that owners who receive the temporary range upgrade would likely see different badging on their vehicles after the over-the-air update. Owners will be notified later on when their electric cars will be reverted back to their original configuration.
“We are temporarily enabling your car to access additional battery capacity, as well as free Supercharging, in preparation for Hurricane Michael. We hope that this gives you the peace of mind to get to a safe location, and will notify you before returning your car to its original configuration later in October. Badging on your display may adjust during this period. Safe travels!”
Tesla’s temporary range upgrade is possible due to Model S 40, S 60, and S 70 vehicles being equipped with larger battery packs. When the company was manufacturing the Model S, Tesla opted to optimize its production by equipping its lower-trim cars with larger battery packs that were software-limited. Thus, Model S 40 vehicles were released with a 60 kWh battery pack that’s software-limited to 40 kWh. Later, Model S 60 and S 70 trims were fitted with 75 kWh packs that were restricted to 60 kWh and 70 kWh. Owners of these vehicles are given the option to unlock their vehicles’ full battery capacity as an aftermarket upgrade.
Apart from the additional battery capacity, Tesla is also enabling free Supercharging in areas that are on Michael’s path. Superchargers in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and selected chargers in Alabama – such as Auburn, Greenville, and Mobile – and Florida – DeFuniak Springs, Lake City, Live Oak, and Tallahassee – are free of charge, even for owners whose vehicles do not have free unlimited Supercharging.
It remains to be seen if the temporary range upgrade would be standard for Tesla’s fleet every time there is a natural disaster. That said, it is difficult to find fault in a goodwill gesture that could help keep lives safe. For now, Model S 40, S 60, and S 70 owners could rest assure that their cars can quite literally go the extra mile, especially in times of natural calamities.
Hurricane Michael caught the United States by surprise, intensifying and growing from a tropical storm to a full-blown hurricane in just two days. Leaving little time for preparations, Michael made landfall on Wednesday afternoon near Mexico Beach, FL, with the strength that’s just a few ticks shy of a Category 5 hurricane. While Michael has since weakened, it did leave behind a trail of devastation that left 800,000 customers without power in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Numerous homes, and even buildings were damaged by the hurricane as well.
Tesla announced its Spring 2026 software update, and it’s the most feature-dense seasonal release the company has put out. The update covers twelve named changes spanning FSD, voice AI, safety lighting, dashcam storage, and pet display customization, among other things.
The centerpiece for owners with AI4 hardware is a redesigned Self-Driving app. The new interface lets owners subscribe to Full Self-Driving with a single tap and view ongoing FSD usage stats directly in the vehicle.
Grok gets its biggest in-car upgrade yet. The update adds a “Hey Grok” hands-free wake word along with location-based reminders, so a driver can now say “remind me to pick up groceries when I get home” without touching the screen. Grok first arrived in vehicles in July 2025, but each update has pushed it closer to genuine daily utility. Musk framed the broader vision clearly at Davos in January, saying Tesla is “really moving into a future that is based on autonomy.”
On safety, the update introduces enhanced blind spot warning lights that integrate directly with the cabin’s ambient lighting, building on the blind spot door warning that arrived in update 2026.8.
Dog Mode has been renamed Pet Mode and now lets owners choose a dog, cat, or hedgehog icon and add their pet’s name to the display.
Dashcam retention now extends up to 24 hours, up from the previous one-hour rolling loop, with a permanent save option for any clip. Weather maps now show rain and snow with better color differentiation and include the past hour of precipitation data along the route.
Tesla has now established a clear rhythm of two major OTA pushes per year. As with last year’s Spring update, that cycle started taking shape in 2025 with adaptive headlights and trunk customization. The 2025 Holiday Update then added Grok to the vehicle for the first time. This Spring follows that structure: the Holiday update introduces new architecture, and the Spring update broadens it across the fleet.
Two notable features still did not make it. IFTTT automations, which launched in China earlier this year, were held back from this North American release for unknown reasons, and Apple CarPlay remains absent, reportedly still delayed by iOS 26 and Apple Maps compatibility issues.
Below is the full list of feature updates released by Tesla.
— Tesla (@Tesla) April 13, 2026
It appears that Tesla may be preparing to roll out some subscription-based services soon. Based on the observations of a Wales-based Model 3 owner who performed some reverse-engineering on the Tesla mobile app, it seems that the electric car maker has added a new “Subscribe” option beside the “Buy” option within the “Upgrades” tab, at least behind the scenes.
A screenshot of the new option was posted in the r/TeslaMotors subreddit, and while the Tesla owner in question, u/Callump01, admitted that the screenshot looks like something that could be easily fabricated, he did submit proof of his reverse-engineering to the community’s moderators. The moderators of the r/TeslaMotors subreddit confirmed the legitimacy of the Model 3 owner’s work, further suggesting that subscription options may indeed be coming to Tesla owners soon.
Did some reverse engineering on the app and Tesla looks to be preparing for subscriptions? from r/teslamotors
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving suite has been heavily speculated to be offered as a subscription option, similar to the company’s Premium Connectivity feature. And back in April, noted Tesla hacker @greentheonly stated that the company’s vehicles already had the source codes for a pay-as-you-go subscription model. The Tesla hacker suggested then that Tesla would likely release such a feature by the end of the year — something that Elon Musk also suggested in the first-quarter earnings call. “I think we will offer Full Self-Driving as a subscription service, but it will be probably towards the end of this year,” Musk stated.
While the signs for an upcoming FSD subscription option seem to be getting more and more prominent as the year approaches its final quarter, the details for such a feature are still quite slim. Pricing for FSD subscriptions, for example, have not been teased by Elon Musk yet, though he has stated on Twitter that purchasing the suite upfront would be more worth it in the long term. References to the feature in the vehicles’ source code, and now in the Tesla mobile app, also listed no references to pricing.
The idea of FSD subscriptions could prove quite popular among electric car owners, especially since it would allow budget-conscious customers to make the most out of the company’s driver-assist and self-driving systems without committing to the features’ full price. The current price of the Full Self-Driving suite is no joke, after all, being listed at $8,000 on top of a vehicle’s cost. By offering subscriptions to features like Navigate on Autopilot with automatic lane changes, owners could gain access to advanced functions only as they are needed.
Elon Musk, for his part, has explained that ultimately, he still believes that purchasing the Full Self-Driving suite outright provides the most value to customers, as it is an investment that would pay off in the future. “I should say, it will still make sense to buy FSD as an option as in our view, buying FSD is an investment in the future. And we are confident that it is an investment that will pay off to the consumer – to the benefit of the consumer.” Musk said.
Tesla has started rolling out update 2020.36 this weekend, introducing a couple of notable new features for its vehicles. While there are only a few handful of vehicles that have reportedly received the update so far, 2020.36 makes it evident that the electric car maker has made some strides in its efforts to refine its driver-assist systems for inner-city driving.
Tesla is currently hard at work developing key features for its Full Self-Driving suite, which should allow vehicles to navigate through inner-city streets without driver input. Tesla’s FSD suite is still a work in progress, though the company has released the initial iterations of key features such Traffic Light and Stop Sign Control, which was introduced last April. Similar to the first release of Navigate on Autopilot, however, the capabilities of Traffic Light and Stop Sign Control were pretty basic during their initial rollout.
2020.36 Showing Speed Limit Signs in Visualization from r/teslamotors
With the release of update 2020.36, Tesla has rolled out some improvements that should allow its vehicles to handle traffic lights better. What’s more, the update also includes a particularly useful feature that enables better recognition of speed limit signs, which should make Autopilot’s speed adjustments better during use. Following are the Release Notes for these two new features.
Green Traffic Light Chime
“A chime will play when the traffic light you are waiting for turns green. If you are waiting behind another car, the chime will play once the car advances unless Traffic-Aware Cruise Control or Autosteer is active. When Traffic Light and Stop Sign Control is activated, a chime will play when you can confirm to proceed through a green traffic light. To enable, tap Controls > Autopilot > Green Traffic Light Chime.
“Note: This chime is only designed as a notification. It is the driver’s responsibility to observe their environment and make decisions accordingly.”
Speed Assist Improvements
“Speed Assist now leverages your car’s cameras to detect speed limit signs to improve the accuracy of speed limit data on local roads. Detected speed limit signs will be displayed in the driving visualization and used to set the associated Speed Limit Warning.
“As usual, to adjust Speed Assist settings, tap Controls > Autopilot > Speed Limit.”
Footage of the new green light chime in action via @NASA8500 on Twitter ✈️ from r/teslamotors
Amidst the rollout of 2020.36’s new features, speculations were abounding among Tesla community members that this update may include the first pieces of the company’s highly-anticipated Autopilot rewrite. Inasmuch as the idea is exciting, however, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has stated that this was not the case. While responding to a Tesla owner who asked if the Autopilot rewrite is in “shadow mode” in 2020.36, Musk responded “Not yet.”
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