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Tesla Model 3-based ventilator critiqued by ICU nurse: “Very good job…well done.”
An Anaesthetics and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurse recently broke down Tesla’s video of its in-house ventilator system that is made from Model 3 parts.
YouTuber Chris Vanderstock is a nurse by trade and holds over 20 years of experience in a medical setting. His resume includes years of administering patients with real-life medical conditions anesthesia before surgeries and providing them with air via the operation of a manual resuscitator. Vanderstock has plenty of experience with critical care ventilators and how they operate making him a prime candidate to give Tesla’s engineering team relevant feedback toward its newly designed machine.
Vanderstock was initially impressed with Tesla’s utilization of its vehicle parts to create an efficient ventilator. “I reckon a good two-thirds of this ventilator is from existing parts that Tesla already has,” the veteran nurse said. After listing the parts that will be included in the ventilator, like the Model 3’s display, Vanderstock gave his kudos to the Tesla team. Tesla’s goal was to use primarily parts that it knew for reliability purposes, as well as not take away any parts from the medical community who are already struggling with providing hospitals with ventilators, to begin with.
The mixing chamber that is responsible for combining several gases to create breathable air for a patient who is having trouble breathing is a critical part of a ventilator. Along with the mixing chamber, several pressure monitors, along with volume sensors that will provide the patient with the correct levels of oxygen, are included in the Tesla ventilator. Vanderstock noted that this is one of the most crucial parts of a ventilator, as too much air into the lungs can overinflate them, causing more damage than there was initially. Tesla nailed this, according to Vanderstock. “Kudos to these guys.”
Perhaps one of the most exciting portions of the Tesla-made ventilator is the use of two filters, one on the patient end where air is distributed to a patient’s lungs, and one on the machine end, where the virus will be displaced as the patient exhales. This double-filter feature is a notable part of ventilators from Medtronic, a company that Tesla has been in talks with since late March. Vanderstock says the ventilator’s machine-end filter is crucial to keeping healthcare workers safe, as a non-filtered machine end could lead to the virus being spread to those in the room.
The only concern Vanderstock had about the ventilator was how Tesla planned to warm and humidify the oxygen that will go to a patient’s lungs. “When you are thinking about how we breathe, our nose, the turbinates, the structures behind your mouth, going down your trachea into your lungs, are all being warmed…by your blood supply. As air travels down, it gets warmed on the way, and obviously, you’ve got the mucosal layers that’s sending in a bit of moisture as well,” he remarked.
One of Vanderstock’s favorite features is the inclusion of the Model 3 dash screen that will display information like pressure and oxygen concentration to medical professionals. “The innovative infotainment system could potentially help patients. Very good job at Tesla, well done,” he said.
All in all, Vanderstock is exceptionally impressed with Tesla’s ability to create a ventilator that has such an effective manner in a short amount of time. “Nonetheless, great first effort,” he said.
While the machine will still have to pass through Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations, he believes this process could be expedited as ventilators are needed on the front lines of hospitals in some of the United States’ most prominent cities.
CEO Elon Musk has stated that ventilators, whether they are purchased or manufactured by Tesla, will be available for free with worldwide shipping as long as the hospital requesting the machines is in immediate need of them. Musk has already made over 1,200 donations to Los Angeles and New York City hospitals as the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to reach its peak this week, according to U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams.
Watch Chris Vanderstock’s breakdown of the Tesla Ventilator below.
A new report from Reuters claims that a transport authority in Sweden is pushing back against the approval of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving suite because it will travel over speed limits.
The report says the Swedish Transport Administration (TRV) recommends the European Union votes against FSD’s approval. TRV believes it should not be approved until Tesla disables FSD’s ability to speed.
TRV sent a letter to the European Union’s Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles (TCMV), which is set to meet on June 30 to discuss the potential approval of the Tesla FSD suite in the country. Tesla, which has received various approvals in Europe over the past two months, has not provided a comment.
Teslas operating on FSD do travel over the speed limit, depending on the Speed Profile that is chosen. Drivers have the ability to disengage FSD at any point; Tesla specifically states that those supervising the suite are responsible for its actions.
Let’s cut to the chase: humans operating any vehicle speed almost daily in the United States. Realistically, speed limits in the U.S. are more frequently treated as speed minimums. However, other countries are different, and driving behaviors are less aggressive.
TRV believes that “allowing automated systems to systematically exceed legal speed limits…risks undermining both the legal framework and the expected safety benefits of vehicle automation,” the report stated. It’s surprising that Tesla has not received this claim from other countries previously.
This could be a good argument to bring Max Speed back, the setting that previously allowed the driver to choose the absolute fastest the car would travel.
This would still put the responsibility of supervision in the hands of the driver. It would allow the driver to choose whether the car would travel over the speed limit or not, acknowledging that they set the speed, and if they get pulled over, there would be no ability to argue it.
However, it does not seem as if this is something Tesla will do, especially considering many U.S. drivers have requested the feature in an effort to eliminate speeding or at least tone it down. The company has not shown any interest in bringing it back.
Tesla has approvals for FSD in Europe in Estonia, Lithuania, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Belgium.
Tesla is going to let you guide Full Self-Driving with Grok in 3 months, CEO Elon Musk confirmed on X.
The response from Musk, which revealed Tesla plans to allow drivers to effectively control the car and its navigation more explicitly using Grok, puts the feature for about September.
A Tesla owner said that Full Self-Driving is great, but owners should be able to “converse with Grok like we can with an Uber driver.” She then used examples like, “Grok, turn right here,” and “Drop us off right here, we’ll walk due to traffic,” and finally,” Drop at entrance first, then park far away.”
Coincidentally, the final piece of dialogue would also mean features like Banish are potentially on the way soon.
This functionality will be there in about 3 months or so
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 18, 2026
Banish is also referred to as “Reverse Summon,” and would enable the car to self-park while dropping occupants off at their destination.
This would be a great way to improve the overall experience while supervising FSD. Navigation is already a major painpoint that many owners complain about. Manual overrides when a maneuver is requested or canceled (like using the turn signal stalk to override a navigation route), do not always work.
The feature could be especially useful in street parking scenarios in a city, where spots are sometimes tough to come by. Many of us who grab dinner in a more populated area will park a street or two over from wherever we’re going, because sometimes you know that’s the best you will get. If a driver using FSD could say, “Hey Grok, turn right here on Queen St. and park in that open spot on the right,” it could save a lot of confusion FSD might have on its own.
Musk teased that a similar feature was “coming” back in February:
Tesla Full Self-Driving set to get an awesome new feature, Elon Musk says
It is certainly surprising that Tesla is doing it at this point. The company’s more recent moves have been more evident of taking control and inputs away from humans and putting them in the AI’s hands more frequently. The biggest example of this was taking away Max Speed in AI4 cars, giving us Speed Profiles, and not having any input on the fastest speed the car will travel.
Of course, giving navigation preferences to Grok is availble already in Teslas, but not at the drop of a hat. Instead, you can suggest a certain route at the beginning of your drive.
Here’s an example of that from December:
🚨🏈 I am taking my parents and Fiancee to the @Ravens game next weekend and asked @Grok to help me route my @Tesla through a specific neighborhood to reach the correct Lot we will park in.
This is a great example of the new @grok nav integration with the Tesla Holiday Update: pic.twitter.com/rPp4I7q8Yv
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) December 13, 2025
Finally, the original post that Musk responded to mentioned a parking preference after dropping off the occupants, which describes the Banish feature that Tesla has teased for years.
We’re not sure if Musk was responding more to the ability to guide the car with Grok, or whether he also was including Banish in the three-month prediction timeframe.
A close-up image of a Cybercab engineering vehicle in Peabody, Massachusetts, reveals a compact triangular side repeater camera housing equipped with an integrated washer mechanism.
This seemingly small hardware addition could prove to be one of the most critical components for achieving reliable, unsupervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) — not just for the dedicated Robotaxi but potentially for existing AI4-equipped vehicles as well.
The washer system’s importance cannot be overstated in Tesla’s vision-only autonomy approach. Cameras are the sole sensory input for the neural networks powering FSD, constantly interpreting the environment for safe navigation. In real-world conditions, however, lenses quickly accumulate rain, snow, mud, dust, or road spray.
Many of us Tesla owners, especially those who deal with any sort of winter weather at all, know the all-too-common alert that pops up when cameras are obstructed:
Even brief obstructions can drop perception confidence, trigger safety disengagements, or force the vehicle to pull over, although these are relatively rare. Instead, most of the time, the camera will need a wipe from the owner next time they stop the car.
But unlike human drivers who can manually clear their view, a Robotaxi operating 24/7 without a steering wheel or mirrors must maintain pristine vision autonomously. The Cybercab’s side repeater washer delivers targeted cleaning bursts precisely where needed for merging, lane changes, and blind-spot monitoring — functions that demand uninterrupted visibility from the external cameras:
And this is how the side camera and washer look like on a Cybercab. This is from an Engineering vehicle in Peabody MA. pic.twitter.com/Re8VknpmLM
— Tobias Goebel (Unsupervised) (@tpgoebel) June 17, 2026
This hardware directly tackles a known pain point in current FSD deployments. Owners frequently report camera-related alerts during inclement weather, which is understandable, but needs to be solved for a true autonomous experience.
For a production Robotaxi fleet aiming for high utilization and minimal downtime, robust washer systems represent a foundational reliability upgrade; essentially, they’re a must-have. Early sightings suggest the design may extend to rear cameras as well, creating a comprehensive cleaning architecture that keeps the entire vision suite operational in harsh environments.
Without it, even the most advanced neural nets struggle when their “eyes” are compromised.
What Does This Mean for AI4 Cars?
This Cybercab detail raises timely questions for AI4 cars already on the road. While Hardware 4 delivers superior compute and camera resolution compared to earlier versions, production models typically lack dedicated side and rear washers. Tesla has included them on Model Y robotaxis that it is using in the fleet:
Tesla Robotaxi has a highly-requested hardware feature not available on typical Model Ys
As Tesla refines unsupervised FSD for broader release, the gap in environmental resilience becomes evident. Software improvements can help mitigate issues, but they cannot fully replace physical cleaning in heavy rain or muddy conditions. Analysts and owners increasingly speculate that AI4 vehicles may eventually require similar washer retrofits — or a future AI4.5 variant — to match the Cybercab’s all-weather readiness and support the same level of autonomy.
As testing progresses, the Cybercab’s washer mechanism highlights Tesla’s pragmatic focus on real-world robustness. It may well become the hardware piece that determines how quickly and reliably FSD scales from prototypes to everyday vehicles.
Tesla faces Full Self-Driving pushback in EU over ‘speeding’
Tesla teases greater Grok FSD integration and ‘Banish’ feature ‘in about 3 months’
