Connect with us

News

Tesla Firmware 6.1: Range, Routes and Parking Aid

Published

on

Following the review of  Firmware 6.1’s Trip Energy Prediction roll out I’ll be taking a deeper look at some of the other major features that came bundled with this version such as navigation routing and the reverse camera parking aid.

Range Display: Battery %

Range in Percentage

The Model S displays battery range based on a rated or ideal measurement as determined by the methodology in which the US EPA measures electric vehicle range.

This range always seems to be a hot topic of discussion amongst owners since, almost always, the actual mileage achieved is lower than what’s displayed on the car’s dash. This is especially true during the cold New England winter months when 265 miles of rated range turns out to be closer to 160 miles of actual range due to the effects of winter driving.

The grim reality is that range based on distance (mi/km) will vary depending on how you drive, the terrain you drive on and the environmental conditions during that time.

Tesla Firmware 6.1 solves this issue by giving drivers the ability to replace the display of range with the percentage of battery life remaining. Sure there’s the color-coded battery indicator but being able to see an actual value makes it much more relatable. On top of that the amount of battery remaining lines up nicely to the energy graph displayed through the Trip Energy Prediction feature.

Using this new way of measuring your range takes some getting used to but after a week of using it I kind of like it. It certainly beats using a rated range display that ends up being off by 40-50% during the winter months.

Advertisement
-

Route Overview

Route overviewTesla Firmware 6.1 also adds a new view for trip routing. A “Route Overview” option allows you to visualize your route using a north up view but with the ability to automatically zoom in as you approach your destination. There’s no need to manually pinch zoom anymore..

Enhanced Park Assist and Camera Guidelines

Camera GuidelinesI’m lumping these two features together but also keeping in mind that Park Assist is limited to those with the parking assist package.

With this new update putting the Model S in reverse will display both front and rear parking sensors making parallel parking and backing into tight spots that much easier. You also have the ability to manually trigger Park Assist as long as the car is traveling below 5mph. This is a great addition since it provides visibility for all four corners of the Model S.

Tesla finally put the rumors of having an inadequate graphics engine, that supposedly prevented the ability to render parking lines, to rest with the addition of the reverse camera guidelines.

I never had rear camera guidelines on any of my previous cars so this feature wasn’t on my wish list and I never really understood why so many people wanted them. Now that I have them I can see how it would be hard to ever go back to a car without them.

Rear camera guidelines was the #1 requested feature for years and Tesla has delivered!

Summarizing the feature, the Model S will overlay lines on the screen to indicate the path of travel when backing up. These lines move with your steering wheel and apparently the lines will change colors to ensure maximum contrast and visibility depending on the background. Here’s a video of it in action.

Summary

Tesla outdid itself with this the release of Firmware 6.1. It introduces a solid list of big features and improvements around range, routing displays and parking assistance. Combine this with the new feature to dynamically calculate range based on terrain and driving behavior, this is one of the best updates to date.

Advertisement
-

Stay tuned as I review some of the other enhancements that came bundled with this version.

"Rob's passion is technology and gadgets. An engineer by profession and an executive and founder at several high tech startups Rob has a unique view on technology and some strong opinions. When he's not writing about Tesla

Advertisement
Comments

Energy

Tesla Model 3 and Model Y can now do what only Cybertruck could

Tesla Model 3 and Model Y can power your home with Powerwall 3 during outages.

Published

on

By

Tesla has turned its two top sellers into backup batteries for the house.

Tesla Energy announced on Tuesday that Powershare Home Backup is now available for new Model 3 and Model Y vehicles paired with a Powerwall 3, saying the car can “extend your home backup by over 2 days.” Minutes later, Tesla’s main account quoted the post with a broader pitch: “With Powerwall 3, every Tesla can now serve as your home’s backup battery.”

Until this week, the Cybertruck was the only Tesla that could send power back into a home, and that capability only began working alongside Powerwall 3 last month, after years of ambitious targets.

Tesla’s updated Powershare page says every Model 3 and Model Y ordered in the U.S. or Puerto Rico on or after October 1, 2026 can use the feature. Some, but not all, earlier cars also qualify. Owners can check on the touchscreen under Software, then Additional Vehicle Information, where a capable car shows “Powershare Support: Enabled.” As Electrek reported, bidirectional power on the two cars runs through an inverter Tesla calls PCS2 Lite, and the company has not said when that part entered production on each trim.

The home side is simpler. A house that already has a Powerwall 3 and either a Wall Connector 3 or Universal Wall Connector needs no additional equipment, and Tesla says compatibility is enabled through a software update. When the grid drops, the Powerwall and the car work together, with up to 11.52 kW of continuous power available. Tesla’s “over two days” estimate assumes a home using 30 kWh per day and a car starting at a 90 percent charge. Standard trims are rated for up to two days, while the Cybertruck adds more than three.

There are limits. Powerwall 2 and Powerwall+ support is listed as “coming soon.” Model S and Model X are not included, and Grid Support, the program that lets Cybertruck owners in Texas send power back to the grid during demand spikes for bill credits, is not available for Model 3 or Model Y.

Advertisement
-

The rollout also lines up with something Elon Musk said more than three years ago. At Tesla’s March 2023 Investor Day, Musk said, “I don’t think very many people are going to want to use bidirectional charging, unless you have a Powerwall.” Tesla has now shipped the feature for its volume cars with exactly that requirement attached.

The Powerwall pairing was the hard part on Cybertruck. Tesla told owners in December 2025 that Powershare with Powerwall had been pushed to mid 2026, and lead engineer Wes Morrill explained that two devices capable of forming a home’s grid have to negotiate which one leads during an outage, across multiple generations of hardware. With that work done for the truck, Tesla was able to extend it to the Model 3 and Model Y within a month.

Ford and GM have offered home backup from their EVs for several years, but both require a separate inverter and backup hardware. Tesla’s version leans on equipment many Powerwall 3 owners already have on the wall. Powershare for the two cars also ships as part of software update 2026.38.3, the same release that began delivering Halloween Mode on Tuesday.

Continue Reading

News

Tesla ships ‘spooky’ Halloween Mode with creepy and fun features

Published

on

Credit: Tesla

Tesla is now starting to ship a “Halloween Mode” that is filled with some creepy and fun features; the company says, “This spooky update turns your Tesla into a haunted house on wheels.”

The update is just the latest in a series of updates that Tesla typically ships out in a seasonal fashion. The Spring and Summer Updates provided some fun novelty items while also packing some cool features that are actually useful for the ownership experience.

This one seems to be more fun-forward, and there are not any updates to the Full Self-Driving suite or overall operation of the vehicle. Instead, these novelty features are geared toward getting you in the mood for the Fall and Halloween.

Advertisement
-

New Ghost Costume on Car Avatar

Driver Visualization will now show your vehicle as a ghost, as an all-white sheet is draped over the vehicle. Pedestrians are turned into mummies or skeletons, and other vehicles are all a spooky green:

Credit: Tesla

Additionally, the Park Scene with your Tesla now displays that ghost costume draped over your vehicle in the foreground of a scary backdrop with Jack-o-Lanterns and a haunted house:

Credit: Tesla

Trick or Treat Mode

Trick or Treat Mode will enable the vehicle to play spooky sounds and flicker the lights as visitors approach. This might be a nice touch for when you’re handing out candy to kids on Halloween Night.

Other Features

Tesla is also adding a new Light Show, new Wrap Options, and a new Lock Sound with this update.

Credit: Tesla

Additionally, Photobooth has a new Halloween option:

Credit: Tesla

You will also be able to speak remotely through the app and transmit your voice to people outside, which is not a new feature, but the car will say it in a voice of its own, which is a new feature with that bullhorn-like feature.

Continue Reading

Investor's Corner

SpaceX reveals how its 1 Million AI satellite network will work and prevent space collisions

SpaceX reveals plans for one million Starmind AI satellites and calls out operators hiding maneuvers.

Published

on

By

Concept rendering of SpaceX Starmind constellation via Grok
Concept rendering of SpaceX Starmind constellation via Grok

SpaceX has put the largest satellite count it has ever published into writing, and it says that plan only works if every other operator in orbit starts sharing what it knows.

In a new Space Safety page highlighted Tuesday morning by Sawyer Merritt on X, SpaceX said it “plans to operate up to 100,000 Starlink satellites and up to 1 million Starmind AI satellites to meet the growing demand for broadband and supercompute.” Starlink has a little over 11,000 satellites in orbit today, so the target alone implies roughly a ninefold expansion of the broadband network.

Starmind is SpaceX’s orbital AI compute constellation. Elon Musk confirmed the Starmind name in June after an xAI trademark filing surfaced, and in August SpaceX said it was working with Nvidia on the compute payload. The FCC accepted the filing for up to one million satellites back in February.

FCC accepts SpaceX filing for 1 million orbital data center plan

SpaceX also released a new render of what a full Starmind constellation could look like. Alongside it, SpaceX VP Michael Nicolls explained why the satellites will not operate on their own. “We need to operate clusters of satellites in tight formation to get enough coherent compute to run AI models efficiently,” Nicolls said. “A cluster will be 10-ish satellites connected with 10 terabits or so of bandwidth between them, and interconnected to the broader constellation.”

That is the most specific detail SpaceX has given on how Starmind will be built. Instead of a million independent servers, the network would work as tightly packed groups of about 10 satellites acting as one compute unit, with Starlink’s laser links carrying results back to Earth.

Advertisement
-


Packing satellites that close together, at that scale, makes collision avoidance the central problem, and most of the Space Safety page is aimed at other operators. SpaceX said Starlink encountered collision risks with about 650 unique maneuvering third party satellites in 2026, and only about half of them shared data. Over six months, Starlink recorded roughly 164,000 more collision risks where the closest approach came within four hours of an unannounced maneuver.

Some operators keep maneuver plans private over proprietary concerns, while others cannot get government permission to share them. SpaceX called those policies “counterproductive,” saying they “largely only serve to create preventable collision risk between satellites.” Starlink is also offering a free ephemeris sharing and screening platform that returns risk results within a minute, backed by its Stargaze network of 30,000 optical sensors.

The push comes as the Starmind application draws opposition from astronomers and environmental groups. In a September filing with the FCC, SpaceX said each Starmind satellite could weigh up to 4,000 kg, nearly seven times the mass of a Starlink V2 Mini. Musk has brushed off crowding concerns before, telling viewers in June that “space is enormous” and that SpaceX already knows how to run very large constellations safely.

SpaceX’s Starmind page says its Gigasat factory in Bastrop, Texas, is designed to produce AI satellites at scale, with deployment of thousands of units starting as soon as late 2027.

Advertisement
-
Continue Reading