June 12, 2024
By Karan Singh
In a post on X, Tesla listed its achievements since 2018. Perhaps most interesting, Tesla stated it has successfully deployed two Optimus robots in one of its factories. The deployment is a pivotal moment – the first autonomous robots are now beginning to work in factories. This is one of the first examples of the industrial use of humanoid robots.
Optimus
Optimus, Tesla’s humanoid robot, has been designed to take on tasks that require a high level of precision, as well as everyday tasks typically performed by human workers. Tesla has invested heavily in Optimus, and just in the last two years, three major design revisions of Optimus, and four revisions of just its hands have been done. Tesla is placing Optimus pretty highly on its list of difficult challenges to tackle.
Elon Musk has previously mentioned he hopes to have Optimus perform tasks that are boring, repetitive, or dangerous for humans, such as picking up groceries, fixing or building cars, or even building houses.
Autonomy
One of the most unique things about Optimus is the fact that it uses the same core technology that lets Tesla’s cars drive themselves while supervised – as its core software. This enables Optimus to navigate autonomously – first around the labs and offices, and now around Tesla’s factories.
The adaptability of Tesla’s AI in this unique situation is a testament to Tesla’s engineering prowess, as well as FSD’s technology stack to work in unique environments – not on the road. Because Optimus uses AI that’s similar to Tesla’s FSD, it has clearly benefitted from the same updates that FSD V12 has benefitted from, with rapid advances recently moving FSD from its long-time Beta status to its newfound Supervised status.
As Tesla continues to refine Optimus and FSD, we’ll see some drastic advances in autonomous robots. Tesla has mentioned it plans to begin offering Optimus as a purchasable product in the future as it enters the humanoid robot market.
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Tesla Introduces Model Y Air Mattress for Camping
June 12, 2024
By Karan Singh
Tesla has introduced an OEM air mattress, now available in the North American Tesla store. The air mattress retails for $225 USD / $310 CAD.
The air mattress is currently only available in the North American store, and there is no indication when it will be released internationally at this time. Instructions are provided in all international languages and regions Tesla sells cars in, so it could be coming to other regions shortly.
Design
The air mattress is designed to fit within the lower trunk of the Model Y and is adapted to fit exactly within the Model Y’s rear half when the seats are folded down. The mattress will work with either the 5-seat or 7-seat config, as the 7-seater Model Y seats fold down fully flat.
Tesla includes the air mattress with a carry bag, an air pump and an adapter, as well as a pair of repair patches. The air pump plugs into a standard 12V cigarette lighter-style plug. You can find a 12V plug on the left rear side of the vehicle, near the trunk, and above the side-trunk storage.
Material
The mattress itself is a mix of foam and polyester. The foam is a high-density foam, covering the top 3 inches of the mattress. The entire mattress is wrapped in waterproof polyester, which should make it excellent for camping.
The included carry bag appears to be made of durable canvas material and includes a pair of straps for carrying. It’s the perfect size to fit comfortably within the under-trunk rear storage and should be easy to pack when planning trips.
Update: The mattress is now sold out, but you can sign up to be reminded over email when it becomes available again.
Tesla Features in Development: Karaoke ‘Recording Studio,’ New Trip Planner and Trailer Estimate Improvements
June 11, 2024
By Karan Singh
As Tesla rolls out update 2024.20 with adaptive headlight support in the U.S. and Canada, as well as improvements to adaptive headlights in Europe, it’s also testing out some things under the hood.
Every release includes other smaller changes that go unlisted. In addition, there are sometimes other code additions or features that aren’t active yet or development is still ongoing.
Shadow Mode
Sometimes Tesla runs changes in shadow mode, meaning that the change is in the software, but it’s running in the background. This is often useful if you have a working version of a feature, but are planning to replace it with an updated or improved version.
A good example is when Tesla started rolling out Park Assist for vehicles without ultrasonic sensors. For months, Tesla was running the updated Tesla Vision system in shadow mode and comparing its output to the values provided by ultrasonic sensors. By using the ultrasonic sensors as the “truth,” Tesla was able to constantly improve its vision-based replacement before finally rolling it out to users.
In update 2024.20, Tesla has several changes happening under the hood. Some of them are likely gathering data and others running may be running in shadow mode.
New “Voyage” Trip Planner
Tesla’s trip planner received a big update in December of 2022 and has been exceptionally performant. It provides accurate trip data, calculating in Supercharger stops – including wait times and station closures, and factors in elevation, user driving style, and traffic all into one package.
However, it has been a while since Tesla has made updates to the trip planner. Tesla hacker Greentheonly dug deep into 2024.20.1 and found a new trip planner called “Voyage” hidden in the update. It seems to be a full rewrite of the trip planner functionality.
At this point, no further details are available, but it could be integrated with 8/8’s Robotaxi announcement. It may be running in shadow mode now, letting Tesla gather data and compare it to the current implementation.
Updates to Maps & Towing
It looks like Tesla is also making some updates to maps, according to Green. He noticed that Tesla is using a new Google Places API that is used for points of interest.
There are also towing changes in this update, but don’t appear to be activated yet. They could provide more accurate range estimates. Previously, users would have to take into account the impact on range from trailer towing on their own. In the future, Tesla may be taking your trailer load into account when determining your range.
Caraoke to Gain Recording Mode
Caraoke, Tesla’s version of Karaoke, is also expected to gain a new recording mode according to Green. He spotted references to a new “Recording Studio”, enabling you to record your karaoke session. It would also give you the ability to add special effects to the recording. When Tesla adds this functionality, we could see it come with an export option that would let you save it onto a USB drive, letting you share it with friends on social media.
It’d be fun if Tesla also incorporated the cabin camera so that the recording featured everyone singing as well, but we may just have to wait and see how Tesla plans to incorporate changes to its Caraoke service.