Tesla might have hiked the price of Full Self-Driving for many customers, but others are getting a break. Electrek has discovered that Tesla quietly cut the price of a Full Self-Driving upgrade to $5,000, a $1,000 drop, for customers who
As helpful as Tesla’s Sentry Mode may be, it doesn’t provide much insight from the car’s cameras until there’s an incident. What if you could take a peek at any moment? You just might. Electrek reports that code sleuth Green has discovered hints at remote live access to your EV’s Autopilot cameras. You could track suspicious behavior before anything happens, or simply check conditions around your car before you walk to your driveway.
It’s not certain just how this would work, although you’d likely use for periodic drop-ins rather than non-stop viewing. Green noted that an Autopilot camera stream demands 30
Elon Musk warned that Tesla would hike the price of Full Self-Driving now that it’s in beta, and he’s being true to his word. The Verge reports Tesla has raised the cost of the package to $10,000 in the US for both new car buyers and upgrades, up $2,000 from before. And that price isn’t guaranteed to stay put — as usual, Tesla warns that the pricing is “likely to increase” as it rolls out new features.
Full Self-Driving, despite the name, doesn’t currently drive the car entirely by itself. You still need to pay attention and sometimes take the wheel.
The publication also found that Super Cruise was better at notifying drivers when it was about to disengage. GM’s tech not only provides a clear visual alert, but uses pre-mapped road info to notify commuters in advance that they’ll have to resume control. Tesla’s approach delivers either a loud alert or a subtle icon change when Autopilot disengages, and it’s frequently an abrupt cutoff.
It wasn’t a clear-cut victory. GM’s system tended to discourage taking over, and Tesla had clear advantages in ease of use. Both fared better than many of their rivals, though. The next-closest system was Ford’s Co-Pilot 360
At its surreal Battery Day event in September, Tesla said it planned to release a private beta of its long-awaited Full Self-Driving (FSD) software in “a month or so.” Now we have an exact release date (via Roadshow). Responding to a tweet from CleanTechnica, CEO Elon Musk said the limited beta will start rolling out on Tuesday, October 20th. “This will, at first, be limited to a small number of people who are expert and careful drivers.” Musk didn’t elaborate on how the company will go about deciding who to invite to the beta.
There’s no certainty Tesla will use the camera this way. It only activated the camera in June, and then for a voluntary program that captures pre-collision photos and videos to help with safety features. The brand currently checks for attention during Autopilot through torque applied to the steering wheel.
It wouldn’t be unheard of for Tesla to monitor driver attention, though. GM’s Super Cruise already uses a camera system to ensure you’re focused without requiring hands on the wheel, and Ford’s Mustang Mach-E will do the same. If Tesla added the feature, it could match its rivals and offer truly hands-free