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Tesla proudly hides ‘Octovalve’ insignia in Model Y, hints at next-gen thermal system
A number of the Tesla Model Y’s secrets are now coming to the surface, as auto veteran and teardown expert Sandy Munro continues his disassembly and analysis of the all-electric crossover. Among the most noteworthy of these secrets is the vehicle’s “Octovalve,” which could very well be an upgraded version of the Model 3’s unique “Superbottle,” which serves as the heart of the all-electric sedan’s thermal management system.
The Model 3 broke all conventions when it became evident that instead of using a different cooling system for the vehicle’s battery pack, cabin, and electronics, the all-electric sedan used one compact centralized thermal management system. Traditional automakers usually install several cooling systems in a car, since components are outsourced to different companies. Tesla opted for a different strategy with the Model 3, thanks to its vertically-integrated approach to its vehicles’ design.
Based on recent photographs taken by auto teardown expert Sandy Munro, the Model Y is also equipped with a novel thermal management system. But instead of a Superbottle, Tesla appears to have provided its latest vehicle with an “Octovalve” instead. Munro is yet to tear down and analyze the Octovalve, but just like its predecessor, it seems to be the heart of the Model Y’s cooling and heating system.
Interestingly enough, the use of the Octovalve instead of the Superbottle in the Model Y may be due to the all-electric crossover’s heat pump. Prior Teslas like the Model S, Model 3, and Model X have used electronic resistive heating systems, which are quick but less efficient than heat pumps.
This is speculation of course, but it appears that the Octovalve may be a novel way for Tesla to combine all heating and cooling systems in the Model Y in one unit. To make this possible, Tesla needed a customized, smart valve system that can perform all the cooling and heating tasks for the Model Y. Based on Munro’s previews, this definitely seems to be the case, as hinted at by the Octovalve’s own badge — an octopus with a snowflake on its head.
Elon Musk has mentioned the Octovalve in a previous tweet, while responding to a Tesla community member who inquired if the Model Y had a solution that is better than the Superbottle. Musk noted in his tweet that the Octovalve is pretty special on its own right, though he was quick to emphasize that all credit for the creation of the system is to the Tesla team, not himself.
“Yes. PCB design techniques applied to create a heat exchanger that is physically impossible by normal means. Heat pump also has a local heating loop to spool up fast & extend usable temperature range. Octavalve is pretty special too. Team did great work. No credit to me,” Musk wrote.
While discussing the Superbottle during the Model 3’s teardown, Sandy Munro stated that device, apart from giving serious technical and cost advantages for Tesla, is the very representation of the electric car maker’s vertical integration. By adopting such a device, Tesla pretty much saved on space, assembly costs, and final assembly time. Such is just not possible with other EVs such as the Chevy Bolt, an otherwise great electric car that utilizes three separate cooling systems.
“The Superbottle is a great example of how the normal automotive companies don’t work together, and Tesla does. That Superbottle crosses many lines that you can’t cross here (in Detroit). If I’m in charge of engine cooling or battery cooling, I don’t want nothing to do with cooling the cabin. And yet, we’ve got the motor cooling, the battery cooling, and electronics, all going through one little bottle that’s got some clever little ball valves that open and close to make sure that everything’s getting heated or everything’s being cooled to where it needs to be. We all thought that was the best thing in the whole damn car,” Munro commented.
Very little is known about the Octovalve and its actual functions for now, but if speculations are correct, it appears that Tesla has created something novel for its newest vehicle’s cooling and heating system once more. This bodes well for the company’s next vehicles as well, such as the Plaid Model S and Model X, the Cybertruck, the Semi, and the next-generation Roadster. Needless to say, it would be very interesting to see what vertically integrated solution Tesla creates for its next electric cars.
Elon Musk
Tesla confirmed HW3 can’t do Unsupervised FSD but there’s more to the story
Tesla confirmed HW3 vehicles cannot run unsupervised FSD, replacing its free upgrade promise with a discounted trade-in.
Tesla has officially confirmed that early vehicles with its Autopilot Hardware 3 (HW3) will not be capable of unsupervised Full Self-Driving, while extending a path forward for legacy owners through a discounted trade-in program. The announcement came by way of Elon Musk in today’s Tesla Q1 2026 earnings call.
🚨 Our LIVE updates on the Tesla Earnings Call will take place here in a thread 🧵
Follow along below: pic.twitter.com/hzJeBitzJU
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) April 22, 2026
The history here matters. HW3 launched in April 2019, and Tesla sold Full Self-Driving packages to owners on the understanding that the hardware was sufficient for full autonomy. Some owners paid between $8,000 and $15,000 for FSD during that period. For years, as FSD’s AI models grew more demanding, HW3 vehicles fell progressively further behind, eventually landing on FSD v12.6 in January 2025 while AI4 vehicles moved to v13 and then v14. When Musk acknowledged in January 2025 that HW3 simply could not reach unsupervised operation, and alluded to a difficult hardware retrofit.
The near-term offering is more concrete. Tesla’s head of Autopilot Ashok Elluswamy confirmed on today’s call that a V14-lite will be coming to HW3 vehicles in late June, bringing all the V14 features currently running on AI4 hardware. That is a meaningful software update for owners who have been frozen at v12.6 for over a year, and it represents genuine effort to keep older hardware relevant. Unsupervised FSD for vehicles is now targeted for Q4 2026 at the earliest, with Musk describing it as a gradual, geography-limited rollout.
For HW3 owners, the over-the-air V14-lite update is welcomed, and the discounted trade-in path at least acknowledges an old obligation. What happens next with the trade-in pricing will define how this chapter ultimately gets written. If Tesla prices the hardware path fairly, acknowledges what early adopters are owed, and delivers V14-lite on the June timeline it committed to today, it has a real opportunity to convert one of the longest-running sore subjects among early adopters into a loyalty story.
Elon Musk
Tesla isn’t joking about building Optimus at an industrial scale: Here we go
Tesla’s Optimus factory in Texas targets 10 million robots yearly, with 5.2 million square feet under construction.
Tesla’s Q1 2026 Update Letter, released today, confirms that first generation Optimus production lines are now well underway at its Fremont, California factory, with a pilot line targeting one million robots per year to start. Of bigger note is a shared aerial image of a large piece of land adjacent to Gigafactory Texas, that Tesla has prominently labeled “Optimus factory site preparation.”
Permit documents show Tesla is seeking to add over 5.2 million square feet of new building space to the Giga Texas North Campus by the end of 2026, at an estimated construction investment of $5 billion to $10 billion. The longer term production target for that facility is 10 million Optimus units per year. Giga Texas already sits on 2,500 acres with over 10 million square feet of existing factory floor, and the North Campus expansion is being built to support multiple projects, including the dedicated Optimus factory, the Terafab chip fabrication facility (a joint Tesla/SpaceX/xAI venture), a Cybercab test track, road infrastructure, and supporting facilities.
Credit: TESLA
Texas makes strategic sense beyond the existing infrastructure. The state’s tax structure, lower labor costs relative to California, and the proximity to Tesla’s AI training cluster Cortex 1 and 2, both located at Giga Texas and now totaling over 230,000 H100 equivalent GPUs, means the Optimus software stack and the factory producing the hardware will share the same campus. Tesla’s Q1 report also confirmed completion of the AI5 chip tape out in April, the inference processor designed specifically to power Optimus units in the field.
As Teslarati reported, the Texas facility is intended to house Optimus V4 production at full scale. Musk told the World Economic Forum in January that Tesla plans to sell Optimus to the public by end of 2027 at a price between $20,000 and $30,000, stating, “I think everyone on earth is going to have one and want one.” He has previously pegged long term demand for general purpose humanoid robots at over 20 billion units globally, citing both consumer and industrial use cases.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) reported its earnings for the first quarter of 2026 on Wednesday afternoon. Here’s what the company reported compared to what Wall Street analysts expected.
The earnings results come after Tesla reported a miss on vehicle deliveries for the first quarter, delivering 358,023 vehicles and building 408,386 cars during the three-month span.
As Tesla transitions more toward AI and sees itself as less of a car company, expectations for deliveries will begin to become less of a central point in the consensus of how the quarter is perceived.
Nevertheless, Tesla is leaning on its strong foundation as a car company to carry forward its AI ambitions. The first quarter is a good ground layer for the rest of the year.
Tesla Q1 2026 Earnings Results
Tesla’s Earnings Results are as follows:
- Non-GAAP EPS – $0.41 Reported vs. $0.36 Expected
- Revenues – $22.387 billion vs. $22.35 billion Expected
- Free Cash Flow – $1.444 billion
- Profit – $4.72 billion
Tesla beat analyst expectations, so it will be interesting to see how the stock responds. IN the past, we’ve seen Tesla beat analyst expectations considerably, followed by a sharp drop in stock price.
On the same token, we’ve seen Tesla miss and the stock price go up the following trading session.
Tesla will hold its Q1 2026 Earnings Call in about 90 minutes at 5:30 p.m. on the East Coast. Remarks will be made by CEO Elon Musk and other executives, who will shed some light on the investor questions that we covered earlier this week.
You can stream it below. Additionally, we will be doing our Live Blog on X and Facebook.
Q1 2026 Earnings Call at 4:30pm CT https://t.co/pkYIaGJ32y
— Tesla (@Tesla) April 22, 2026
Tesla confirmed HW3 can’t do Unsupervised FSD but there’s more to the story
Tesla isn’t joking about building Optimus at an industrial scale: Here we go
