

News
Tesla’s driver monitoring just got more strict and robust, and it’s not just for Autopilot
Tesla is making its driver monitoring more strict and robust in an effort to track driver behaviors while the car is in operation, and it will even track the vehicles’ operators while it is not operating on Autopilot.
Tesla has utilized a number of strategies in an effort to end distracted driving, and one of the biggest was the introduction of the cabin-facing camera, which will capture things like drivers sleeping by tracking their eye movements. It can also tell when a driver is distracted by a phone.
All of the efforts are tracked by Tesla’s cabin-facing camera, which was installed near the rearview mirror on models several years ago. Since then, Tesla has made various improvements to its driver tracking, including stepping up the penalties for distracted driving by disabling the use of Autopilot for those who may be taking advantage of it.
Distracted driving causes accidents frequently, but when it comes to Tesla, it is a little different. Because of the company’s development of driver assistance packages like Autopilot and Full Self-Driving, when accidents occur, media articles are quick to suggest the features are responsible for the crashes. Tesla has been cleared of wrongdoing in several recent cases.
However, it appears Tesla is going to start tracking more driver behaviors, according to hacker Greentheonly.
Tesla is upgrading the driver-monitoring system by tracking how many times the driver has yawned during a trip, how many times they blinked and for how long, and driver posture, all in an effort to calculate how drowsy they might be.
The changes are also making their way to non-AP-using drivers, intending to keep an eye on those who are driving the car under their complete control.
But it also looks like they are planning to apply this even when not on AP (which is a very right move!) by seeing how well centered the driving is, how many lane keep assist warnings and corrections happened lately.
— green (@greentheonly) May 13, 2023
Greentheonly said code is being added, but Tesla has not propagated anything to the UI as of yet, so the changes have not taken effect as of the writing of this article.
The delay in making the code active could have to do with several things. Green notes that Tesla may be aiming to determine the number or frequency of behaviors that would deem a driver unfit to operate a vehicle while not using Autopilot.
The upgrades, when applied, will be just one of several safety features Tesla has made in recent memory, including changes to the Automatic Emergency Braking system.
I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.
News
Tesla has best month ever in Turkey with drastic spike in sales
Tesla managed to sell 8,730 Model Y vehicles in Turkey, outpacing almost every competitor by a substantial margin. Only one brand sold better than Tesla in August in Turkey, and it was Renault.

Tesla had its best monthly performance ever in Turkey in August, thanks to a drastic spike in sales.
Tesla saw an 86 percent bump in sales of the new Model Y in Turkey in August compared to July, dominating the market.
The performance was one of Tesla’s best in the market, and the company’s sales for the month accounted for half of all EV sales in Turkey for August, as it dominated and led BYD, which was the second-best-selling brand with just 1,639 units sold.
Tesla managed to sell 8,730 Model Y vehicles in Turkey, outpacing almost every competitor by a substantial margin. Only one brand sold better than Tesla in August in Turkey, and it was Renault.
Turkey reported 8,730 Tesla sales and 10.6% market share in August. BEV penetration is 21.3% and Tesla has 49.9% of this segment. 🇹🇷
• Market share is 558 basis points or 111% above the 3-month trailing average of 5.0%
• Tesla second best-selling brand
• Model Y best-selling… pic.twitter.com/qLhX7VQWXp— Roland Pircher (@piloly) September 2, 2025
Electric vehicles are, in some ways, more desirable than their gas counterparts in Turkey for several reasons. Most of the reasoning is financial.
First, EVs are subject to a lower Special Consumption Tax in Turkey. EVs can range from 25 percent to up to 170 percent, but this is less than the 70 to 220 percent rate that gas-powered vehicles can face. The tax is dependent on engine size.
Additionally, EVs are exempt from the annual Motor Vehicle Tax for the first ten years, providing consumers with a long-term ownership advantage. There are also credits that can amount to $30,000 in breaks, which makes them more accessible and brings down the cost of ownership.
Let’s not forget the other advantages that are felt regardless of country: cheaper fuel costs, reduced maintenance, and improved performance.
The base Model Y is the only configuration available in Turkey currently.
News
Tesla is upgrading airbag safety through a crazy software update
“This upgrade builds upon your vehicle’s superior crash protection by now using Tesla Vision to help offer some of the most cutting-edge airbag performance in the event of a frontal crash.”

Tesla is upgrading airbag safety through a crazy software update, which will utilize the company’s vision-first approach to enable better protection in the event of an accident.
Over the years, Tesla has gained an incredible reputation for prioritizing safety in its vehicles, with crash test ratings at the forefront of its engineers’ minds.
This has led to Tesla gaining numerous five-star safety ratings and awards related to safety. It is not just a statistical thing, either. In the real world, we’ve seen Teslas demonstrate some impressive examples of crash safety.
Everything from that glass roof not caving in when a tree falls on it to a Model Y surviving a drive off a cliff has been recorded.
However, Tesla is always looking to improve safety, and unlike most companies, it does not need a physical hardware update to do so. It can enhance features such as crash response and airbag performance through Over-the-Air software updates, which download automatically to the vehicle.
In Tesla’s 2025.32 Software Update, the company is rolling out a Frontal Airbag System Enhancement, which aims to use Tesla Vision, the company’s camera-based approach to self-driving, to keep occupants safe.
The release notes state (via NotaTeslaApp):
“This upgrade builds upon your vehicle’s superior crash protection by now using Tesla Vision to help offer some of the most cutting-edge airbag performance in the event of a frontal crash. Building on top of regulatory and industry crash testing, this release enables front airbags to begin to inflate and restrain occupants earlier, in a way that only Tesla’s integrated systems are capable of doing, making your car safer over time.”
The use of cameras to predict a better time to restrain occupants with seatbelts and inflate airbags prior to a collision is a fantastic way to prevent injuries and limit harm done to those in the vehicle.
The feature is currently limited to the Model Y.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk says this Tesla project will make up vast majority of company value
“~80% of Tesla’s value will be Optimus,” Musk said.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has not shied away from the idea that the company’s value is not reliant on its performance as an automaker.
That idea is even more prudent in today’s landscape than ever, especially as Tesla leans more on its prowess as an AI, autonomy, and robotics company rather than one that just makes electric cars.
Musk solidified that point on Monday, as he revealed that he believes the vast majority of Tesla’s valuation will rely on a project that the company has been developing for several years.
The CEO has long discussed how robotics will revolutionize the labor landscape in factories, households, and other workplaces.
He believes Optimus, as it is rolled out in the coming years, will truly take over as the main contributor to Tesla’s valuation, being worth about 80 percent of the company’s total market cap:
Those are the biggest factors.
~80% of Tesla’s value will be Optimus.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 1, 2025
This is a point Musk has previously discussed, but he has never listed a specific number in terms of what Optimus could mean to Tesla. In the past, he’s mentioned Optimus’s ability to generate long-term revenue potential, its value to the company, and its impact on the market overall.
Musk has said Optimus has the potential to be worth over $10 trillion in revenue:
“It’s one of those things where I think long term, Optimus will be — Optimus has the potential to be north of $10 trillion in revenue, like it’s really bananas. So, that, you can obviously afford a lot of training compute in that situation. In fact, even $500 billion training compute in that situation would be quite a good deal.”
Optimus has been a main point of discussion amongst analysts who cover the company. Piper Sandler recently released a note that said “Optimus should be moving/staging parts within Tesla’s facilities” by this time next year.
Analysts also said that Optimus could be a major benefit for companies to bring in to handle tedious tasks in manufacturing settings. If it is able to work 18-hour shifts, the firm believes Tesla could price it at $100,000 per unit.
Tesla talks Semi ramp, Optimus, Robotaxi rollout, FSD with Wall Street firm
Other firms, like Morgan Stanley, have said Tesla could replace its own staff by 10 percent with Optimus, saving the company $2.5 billion.
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