Connect with us

News

Tesla Million Mile Power Train?

Buried in a statement by Elon Musk concerning the new Ludicrous mode for the Model S P85D was news that a Tesla million mile power train is in the works.

Published

on

Lost in the storm of media attention that surrounded the announcement of the new Ludicrous mode for the Model S P85D, and upcoming Model X, was this remark from Elon Musk in his Three Dog Day blog post:

“While working on our goal of making the power train last a million miles, we came up with the idea for an advanced smart fuse for the battery.” Wait. What? A Tesla million mile power train is a company priority? How come the press hasn’t been all over this like groupies at a Justin Bieber concert?

In a comment to a story at CleanTechnica, poster onesecond had this to say:

I especially like their stated goal to make the electric drive train last 1 million miles! It is a whole step away from this consuming and throw away society which I find despicable given the environmental impact!

Tesla wants its car to last forever and offers upgrades to achieve just that. That’s a total change in philosphy from other car makers, who want you to buy a new car asap and therefore always roll out minor cosmetic changes to make your car look old. Instead Tesla is improving the actual car on the way! This should get a lot more coverage!

Advertisement

We couldn’t agree more, onesecond. Lost among all the hype about the P85D outracing polo ponies, Veyrons and just about everything except the Navy’s new rail gun, are all the reason why a Tesla is not your father’s Oldsmobile — or any other car currently in production, for that matter.

IMG_1333Sure, a Tesla costs a bunch of money. But if you amortize that cost over 1,000,000 miles, it makes it closer to an actual investment than any other car you can buy. While other cars are going off to the recycling yard, your Tesla will still be queen of the highway and just as desirable as the day it was new. That’s a concept lots of people have trouble understanding.

And it separates Tesla even further from other car makers. Tesla has led the way with wireless over-the-air software updates. It has deliberately refrained from relying on regular styling changes to sell more cars. It prefers to sell direct to the public rather than through an antiquated system of franchised dealers. And it is actively pursuing strategies to make its cars the longest lasting vehicles on the road.

So forget about the new Ludicrous mode and going zero to 60 faster than falling from the sky. The real news is that Tesla is working hard to make your car go 1,000,000 miles or maybe more. As an owner, that has to be the best news of all.

 

Advertisement

"I write about technology and the coming zero emissions revolution."

Advertisement
Comments

News

Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ Release Notes: new capabilities and features

Published

on

(Credit: Megan Gale/Twitter)

Tesla released the Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ suite to owners of Hardware 3 or AI3 vehicles today, adding several new features to the vehicles that were once believed to be capable of unsupervised self-driving.

Now, Tesla has released this modified suite to older Tesla vehicles, adding plenty of new features and capabilities.

Here are the full release notes for the suite:

  • Distilled the intelligence from HW4 V14 into HW3. This allows HW3 to directly learn how to handle scenarios using HW4 V14 as a guide. This process unlocks the improvements that have been made to HW4 including Reinforcement Learning (RL) and offline models for HW3.
  • Improved both proactive and reactive responsiveness across a wide variety of categories including navigation handling, merges and forks, pedestrian interactions, traffic lights, and vehicle cut-in scenarios.
  • Improved general comfort in nominal scenarios through fewer false slowdowns, smoother steering and more consistent lane centering.
  • Introduced parking, unparking, and reversing capabilities.
  • Added Arrival Options for you to select where FSD should park: in a Parking Lot, on the Street, in a Driveway, or at the Curbside.
  • Speed Profiles are now available at all times, to further customize driving style preference.

These improvements, according to Tesla’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, help distill the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute configurations of AI3.

Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ for older cars finally gets released

Advertisement

He added:

“It includes destination options and speed profiles on city roads, but more importantly significantly improved safety. We hope you’ll enjoy it, once the build ships wide.”

Tesla will continue to roll out the v14 Lite suite more widely in the coming weeks, the company said.

Continue Reading

News

Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ for older cars finally gets released

Published

on

tesla model 3 model y
Credit: Tesla Inc.

Tesla has finally released its Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ suite for older cars that equip the Hardware 3 or AI 3 chip, which have not been able to handle the newest versions of the company’s driver assistance software.

Tesla officially started releasing the v14 Lite suite to owners in the Early Access Program last night. The company’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, said that the rollout will continue over the next few weeks. The build distills the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute configurations of an AI3 car.

It also includes a variety of new features that were available to AI4 cars running v14, including:

  • Start Self-Driving from Park
  • Arrival and Parking Options
  • Speed Profiles

The release is highly anticipated because those owners with AI3 vehicles were early adopters into the FSD platform and were promised that their cars would be capable of achieving Full Self-Driving.

However, Tesla CEO Elon Musk admitted during the company’s recent Q1 Earnings Call that these vehicles would not be capable of achieving unsupervised Full Self-Driving, which is what Tesla had originally said.

Owners were not pleased with this answer, or the idea that their commitment to buying the suite outright for thousands of dollars would not yield the ability to drive without operating the car. Tesla gave some solutions for this, including a discount on a new car, or an upgrade to an AI4 or AI5 self-driving computer and new, upgraded cameras.

Advertisement

Tesla owners do not seem pleased with these options, as they require giving the company more money.

Nevertheless, it is important to note that Tesla came through for owners here by releasing v14 Lite before the end of Q2, something it had promised owners during the previous Earnings Call. Tesla has had trouble keeping up with timelines, but this is a big achievement for the team.

Continue Reading

News

Tesla Q2 delivery consensus confirms this long-standing theory

Published

on

Credit: Joe Tegtmeyer/X

Tesla released what analysts believe the company will report in terms of deliveries and energy deployments for Q2, but the figures seem to confirm a long-standing theory on the company’s vehicle division.

For years, Tesla was just looked at as a car company. Now that it has established itself as a powerhouse in energy, AI, and tech as a whole, the company is now less hellbent on achieving quarterly growth, on a sequential basis, at least from a major standpoint.

Tesla topped out its annual deliveries in 2023 at 1.81 million, and in the two years since, the company has reported a decrease in deliveries for the entire 12-month term both times.

With Tesla delivering 358,023 cars in Q1, a 6.3 percent increase over Q1 2025, but falling short of Wall Street expectations at 365,000-370,000 units, the narrative around vehicle deliveries and their importance continued to change earlier this year. Some might say it is convenient, but others might say it is the typical evolution of a company that continues to change over time.

Advertisement

For Q2, Tesla’s delivery consensus estimates sit at 406,024 units, analysts believe. They were surveyed from Daiwa, DB, Wedbush, Cowen, Canaccord, Baird, Wolfe, BMP Paribas, Goldman Sachs, RBC, Evercore ISI, Barclays, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, Truist, UBS, Jefferies, JPM, Needham & Co., HSBC, and William Blair.

Credit: Tesla

Tesla is also expected to report deployments of 13.8 GWh this quarter.

The change to Tesla’s overall narrative now leans less on vehicle deliveries and more on its other projects. Most notably, Tesla’s Robotaxi project has taken the priority over most of its other business ventures, and investors and the public are more concerned about the deployment of vehicles into the fleet, the operation of a driverless ride-hailing service, Cybercab production and operation, and expansion into new cities.

Tesla analyst realizes one big thing about the stock: deliveries are losing importance

This big narrative switch happened when Tesla indicated it was looking at making transportation a service by launching a ride-hailing service that will operate using Tesla’s Full Self-Driving suite. Once unsupervised operation begins, Robotaxi could be a new way for people to get around, all without a driver in their car.

Advertisement

Instead, they will rely on the billions of miles Tesla has accumulated from its real-world fleet.

It is important to note that Tesla remains significant in the automotive sector, and deliveries must continue as they have for years. Tesla still has a strong automotive business and needs to execute further on all facets to keep its investors happy.

Continue Reading