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The Boring Company wins city council approval for 2-mile test tunnel beneath Hawthorne, CA

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Elon Musk’s The Boring Company has received approval to dig a 2-mile test tunnel beneath city streets in Hawthorne, California.

In a 4-1 vote among city leaders, Hawthorne’s City Council  gave The Boring Company the green light to build an underground test track along 120th street, north of SpaceX headquarters and Tesla’s Design Center.

The tunnel will be an extension to the existing tunnel entrance that’s located across the street from SpaceX headquarters and along Crenshaw Blvd. This is the same location where Musk’s first car elevator prototype is being tested. The serial tech entrepreneur demonstrated its abilities through an Instagram post in July, showing a Tesla Model S being lowered into a would-be electric skate and Hyperloop-capable tunnel.

The Boring Company test track will begin east of SpaceX and extend 2 miles along 120th street [Source: Hawthorne City Council]

The Boring Company test track will begin east of SpaceX and extend 2 miles along 120th street [Source: Hawthorne City Council]

The Boring Company will repurpose a tunnel-boring machine that was once used for digging sewage lines in San Francisco, according to SpaceX’s Brett Horton, senior director of facilities and construction, who also oversees The Boring Company project. Horton notes that construction of the 2-mile long test track will be undetectable because of the tunnel depth, which is expected to reach 44-feet below ground and well beneath underground utilities.

“You don’t see it, don’t hear it, and certainly don’t feel it,” said Horton. “Everything happens underground, we won’t have construction crews walking down the street. We won’t have excavators.”

Horton notes that the team will closely monitor impact of the tunneling and immediately cease work if the surface ground subsides more than a half-inch.

In regards to what the tunnel will be used for when complete? The company expects to test an electric skate prototype within the eventual 13.5 foot diameter tunnel, while the actual digging portion of the project will serve as a test bed for improving technology on its tunnel-boring machine.

“The test tunnel project would involve SpaceX engineers repeatedly testing personal vehicle types suitable for placement on the skates; refinement of the design and technology; and general data collection on performance, durability, and application,” said the Boring Company in its documents submitted to the city council.

Ahead of SpaceX’s crowning of the fastest Hyperloop pod, and Musk’s reinvigorated interest in building his own Hyperloop, Boring Co.’s latest project is certainly seen as a stepping-stone towards the build-out of a nationwide underground transportation network.

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Tesla to increase Full Self-Driving subscription price: here’s when

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla will increase its Full Self-Driving subscription price, meaning it will eventually be more than the current $99 per month price tag it has right now.

Already stating that the ability to purchase the suite outright will be removed, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said earlier this week that the Full Self-Driving subscription price would increase when its capabilities improve:

“I should also mention that the $99/month for supervised FSD will rise as FSD’s capabilities improve. The massive value jump is when you can be on your phone or sleeping for the entire ride (unsupervised FSD).”

This was an expected change, especially as Tesla has been hinting for some time that it is approaching a feature-complete version of Full Self-Driving that will no longer require driver supervision. However, with the increase, some are concerned that they may be priced out.

$99 per month is already a tough ask for some. While Full Self-Driving is definitely worth it just due to the capabilities, not every driver is ready to add potentially 50 percent to their car payment each month to have it.

While Tesla has not revealed any target price for FSD, it does seem that it will go up to at least $150.

Additionally, the ability to purchase the suite outright is also being eliminated on February 14, which gives owners another reason to be slightly concerned about whether they will be able to afford to continue paying for Full Self-Driving in any capacity.

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Some owners have requested a tiered program, which would allow people to pay for the capabilities they want at a discounted price.

Unsupervised FSD would be the most expensive, and although the company started removing Autopilot from some vehicles, it seems a Supervised FSD suite would still attract people to pay between $49 and $99 per month, as it is very useful.

Tesla will likely release pricing for the Unsupervised suite when it is available, but price increases could still come to the Supervised version as things improve.

This is not the first time Musk has hinted that the price would change with capability improvements, either. He’s been saying it for some time. In 2020, he even said the value of FSD would “probably be somewhere in excess of $100,000.”

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Tesla starts removing outright Full Self-Driving purchase option at time of order

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(Credit: Tesla)

Tesla has chosen to axe the ability to purchase Full Self-Driving outright from a select group of cars just days after CEO Elon Musk announced the company had plans to eliminate that option in February.

The company is making a clear-cut stand that it will fully transition away from the ability to purchase the Full Self-Driving suite outright, a move that has brought differing opinions throughout the Tesla community.

Earlier this week, the company also announced that it will no longer allow buyers to purchase Full Self-Driving outright when ordering a pre-owned vehicle from inventory. Instead, that will be available for $99 per month, the same price that it costs for everyone else.

The ability to buy the suite for $8,000 for a one-time fee at the time of order has been removed:

This is a major move because it is the first time Tesla is eliminating the ability to purchase FSD outright for one flat fee to any of its vehicles, at least at the time of purchase.

It is trying to phase out the outright purchase option as much as it can, preparing people for the subscription-based service it will exclusively offer starting on February 14.

In less than a month, it won’t be available on any vehicle, which has truly driven some serious conversation from Tesla owners throughout the community.

There’s a conflict, because many believe that they will now lose the ability to buy FSD and not pay for it monthly, which is an attractive offer. However, others believe, despite paying $8,000 for FSD, that they will have to pay more money on top of that cost to get the unsupervised suite.

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Additionally, CEO Elon Musk said that the FSD suite’s subscription price would increase over time as capabilities increase, which is understandable, but is also quite a conflict for those who spent thousands to have what was once promised to them, and now they may have to pay even more money.

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Tesla Robotaxi has a highly-requested hardware feature not available on typical Model Ys

These camera washers are crucial for keeping the operation going, as they are the sole way Teslas operate autonomously. The cameras act as eyes for the car to drive, recognize speed limit and traffic signs, and travel safely.

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Credit: David Moss | X

Tesla Robotaxi has a highly-requested hardware feature that is not available on typical Model Ys that people like you and me bring home after we buy them. The feature is something that many have been wanting for years, especially after the company adopted a vision-only approach to self-driving.

After Tesla launched driverless Robotaxi rides to the public earlier this week in Austin, people have been traveling to the Lone Star State in an effort to hopefully snag a ride from one of the few vehicles in the fleet that are now no longer required to have Safety Monitors present.

BREAKING: Tesla launches public Robotaxi rides in Austin with no Safety Monitor

Although only a few of those completely driverless rides are available, there have been some new things seen on these cars that are additions from regular Model Ys, including the presence of one new feature: camera washers.

With the Model Y, there has been a front camera washer, but the other exterior “eyes” have been void of any solution for this. For now, owners are required to clean them manually.

In Austin, Tesla is doing things differently. It is now utilizing camera washers on the side repeater and rear bumper cameras, which will keep the cameras clean and keep operation as smooth and as uninterrupted as possible:

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These camera washers are crucial for keeping the operation going, as they are the sole way Teslas operate autonomously. The cameras act as eyes for the car to drive, recognize speed limit and traffic signs, and travel safely.

This is the first time we are seeing them, so it seems as if Safety Monitors might have been responsible for keeping the lenses clean and unobstructed previously.

However, as Tesla transitions to a fully autonomous self-driving suite and Robotaxi expands to more vehicles in the Robotaxi fleet, it needed to find a way to clean the cameras without any manual intervention, at least for a short period, until they can return for interior and exterior washing.

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