By Nuno Cristovao
Tesla has officially opened select Superchargers in the US to all compatible electric vehicles. This follows news that Tesla has retrofitted various Superchargers with its Magic Dock solution, which allows Tesla to easily support the standard CCS connector in addition to Tesla’s own NACS connector.
Europe
Tesla has previously opened Superchargers in several countries around the world, although this was significantly easier for Tesla since Tesla uses the standard CCS connector in most countries outside of the US and Canada. In the US, Tesla had to retrofit Superchargers to provide a solution that supports multiple ports.
Magic dock
Tesla needed to develop a solution to continue supporting its own NACS connector alongside the CCS connector. The Magic Dock does this in an elegant and simple way. The Magic Dock houses a CCS adapter inside that only snaps onto the Tesla connector when needed. Tesla owners can continue charging at these stations without any changes.
Cost for non-Teslas
Non-Tesla vehicles charged on Superchargers pay a slight premium over their Tesla counterparts. An early look at superchargers Tesla has opened up shows that Tesla is charging about $0.10 more per kWh to charge other electric vehicles. That’s about a 25% premium over Tesla’s standard rate, though Supercharger prices vary by station and time of day.
membership
Tesla also offers a monthly membership option for non-Tesla owners who want to reduce their price per kilowatt hour. For $12.99/month, non-Tesla owners can subscribe to lower their charge rate to the same as Tesla vehicles.
There are currently no other membership benefits, and non-Tesla owners are limited to the same Superchargers whether they have a membership or not.
Membership is only open to non-Teslas and won’t lower charging rates for Tesla owners, although it could be an interesting option if Tesla decides to consider it.
Idle Fees
Tesla charges idle fees for vehicles that remain at a supercharging spot after their vehicle has been charged. Idle charges vary based on station occupancy and are waived when station occupancy is less than 50%.
Tesla charges the same idle fees for Tesla and non-Tesla vehicles.
Compatible electric vehicles
If your electric vehicle uses CCS, or you have an adapter for your vehicle that plugs into a CCS1 connector, you can probably use Tesla’s Supercharger. The only other physical requirement is that your vehicle’s charging port must reach Tesla’s Supercharger cable without blocking access for others.
traffic jam
While Tesla owners are rightly concerned about issues like supercharger overload and dock lockup, Tesla is doing everything it can to minimize these issues.
Tesla has no plans to open all of its superchargers. Tesla told the US government it will open 7,500 Supercharger stations for all compatible electric vehicles. This number includes current and future Superchargers.
The most popular Tesla superchargers will likely remain exclusive to Tesla vehicles, as Tesla doesn’t want to exacerbate congestion at its busiest locations.
However, non-Tesla vehicles will bring additional traffic to smaller superchargers used in celebration, resulting in additional profits for Tesla that will allow them to continue expanding their supercharger network.
Without Tesla opening Superchargers to other electric vehicles, some Supercharger locations may not be possible. When Tesla decides to open a new charging location, one of the things they look for is the number of vehicles that will use the supercharger and how long it will take for Tesla to recoup the cost of opening the location.
dock blocking
Dockblocking will be a new term that we will unfortunately hear and experience more often. The term refers to vehicles at Supercharger locations that occupy more than one space and block access to other vehicles. Tesla Superchargers feature very short cables to reduce damage and risk. This works well for Teslas since their charging ports are all in the same place.
However, not all electric vehicles have a charging port that easily extends to the end of a supercharger cord. Depending on the vehicle, this may result in a vehicle taking up two spaces or crossing the line to reach the Supercharger’s cable.
stations open
Tesla appears to have opened about eight stations across the US yesterday. These stations are located in different parts of New York and California, but Tesla will be opening more stations soon.
In typical Tesla fashion, Tesla introduces changes slowly while gathering feedback. If Superchargers work as expected, Tesla will slowly open more Superchargers as old locations are retrofitted with its Magic Dock.
Although many Tesla owners worry about a worse experience when supercharging, this is not only a big win for Tesla, but also for sustainable transportation. Tesla offers some of the fastest and most reliable charging stations in the world, and this change will help convince more vehicle buyers to choose an electric vehicle.
By Kevin Armstrong
Tesla has announced a recall for 3,470 Model Y SUVs amid concerns that some second-row seatbacks may not be properly fastened, reducing the performance of the seatbelt system. However, unlike most Tesla recalls, which can be addressed through over-the-air (OTA) software updates, this issue requires a service visit.
The affected vehicles were manufactured between May 23, 2022 and February 5, 2023. About 4% of them may have one or more screws attaching the second row seatback frames to the lower seat frame that are not tightened to specification. This is a potential problem because the loads of the second row seat belt system pass through the lower seat frame and if the bolts are not properly tightened, the seat belt system may not function as intended in a collision, increasing the risk of injury.
How to determine if your Tesla is affected
The NHTSA plans to send letters to affected owners by April 25, with free repairs available at Tesla service centers. However, there is a faster way than waiting for the mail. The Tesla app notifies owners of pending recalls. Tesla owners can check their vehicle’s VIN at any time on the website. Remember that the VIN is conveniently located at the bottom of the app’s home screen. There is also a page on Tesla’s website that lists recalls. Affected owners must arrange a mobile service appointment or visit a service center to have the screws checked and tightened if necessary.
Tesla first discovered the issue on December 10, 2022 during an inspection at the Fremont factory. The Company conducted an investigation with its supplier from December 11th to January 27th, 2023 to determine the root cause. The reason and affected vehicles were identified by February 17, leading to a recall decision. In addition, Tesla is aware of five warranty claims between December 9, 2022 and February 14, 2023 that may be related to this issue.
Evidence of different terminology required
Elon Musk has commented on the term recall several times. Last month he tweeted: Definitely. The word “recall” for an over-the-air software update is anachronistic and just plain wrong!
While this shows that Tesla isn’t immune to the traditional recall when vehicles need servicing, it also highlights the problem with the wording. As more manufacturers catch up with Tesla’s technology, over-the-air updates should become far more common, making the word recall even more confusing.
For lack of better words, this recall follows a recent large-scale OTA recall of 362,000 Tesla vehicles regarding Full Self-Driving Beta software that NHTSA deemed unsafe for use at certain intersections. While the issue will be resolved through an OTA update, it continues to arouse strong opinions from those who disagree with NHTSA’s terminology and from those who believe Tesla’s FSD software is unsafe.
Tesla aims to improve its quality control and manufacturing standards, as outlined during its Investor Day event, and reduce the frequency of recalls.
By Nuno Cristovao
Tesla has released an update to the highly anticipated FSD Beta v11, which is currently undergoing internal testing. The update is version 2022.45.10 and it is FSD Beta 11.3.1. This update goes to employees who were presumably previously on FSD Beta 11.3. Beta 11.3 was version 2022.45.5.
Although full release notes are not currently available, a contributor has posted a photo of a portion of the release notes that includes a new visualization.
New visualization
In Beta 11.3, Tesla redesigned the blue path to fit the width of the vehicle and make it clear what objects might be in the vehicle’s path.
Tesla also added a red line to indicate where the vehicle should stop. It seems that this line has now been changed to white to better suit it aesthetically. However, it looks like Tesla also added chevrons to part of the path.
Our interpretation is that the chevrons only appear when the vehicle is slowing down, similar to how they appear on the freeway when the vehicle reduces its speed due to slow traffic in adjacent lanes.
Wide release to public testers
A few weeks ago, Elon Musk said he expects Tesla to have several updates to FSD Beta 11.3 before it goes for “wide release.” He mentioned that beta 11.3.2 might be the version that finally gets to most testers. It appears that Tesla continues to make progress and is getting closer to that goal.
This update likely includes bug fixes for Beta 11.3, but also appears to address some of NHTSA’s concerns, such as: B. slowing down before reaching a lower speed limit sign.
We don’t expect this update to go to public testers given the odd week version number (2022.45), but Tesla has released some versions that contradict what they’ve been doing lately (2023.6), so never say never.
We should have more information about the update soon.
