Tesletter - Issue 166 - Cabin camera updates

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Issue 166 - Cabin camera updates

Cybertruck

Cybertruck UI Photos 📷
Super cool screens extracted directly from Tesla's UI patent, some highlights:

UI to attach a trailer, with the cameras as well as some aerial view of the car and the trailer
Pitch and roll information directly on the screen
Stove controls and temperature, for those with the camping add-on
Map's destination card
Repeater image on the screen when towing and activating the turn signal
Calendar, weather, and news all on the screen at the same time
From the patent "Similarly, the representation 504 may include rocks, dips, inclines, and so on, of an off-road area surrounding the vehicle. In some embodiments, a drone may be stored in the vehicle. The drone may fly from the vehicle and perform a mapping operation of the surrounding terrain. For example, photogrammetry techniques may be used. This information may be provided to the vehicle, and used to render the representation".

Tesla Cybertruck’s Solar Panel Tonneau Cover comes to life in new patent
A while ago, Elon mentioned that a solar panel Tonneau cover could provide 15 miles/day. This week, Tesla filed for a parent that reveals that in fact, the Tonneau cover will be able to charge the truck: "Truck bed cover is in a closed position, it is configured to recharge the battery pack, the closed position of the truck bed cover enabling the plurality of solar electric cells to face a sun."

Software Updates

Tesla Vision and Cabin camera updates 📷
Tesla started delivering the first vision only 3s and Ys and here are some interesting findings:

The cabin camera is also used to detect if the driver is distracted while using Autopilot
Autopilot hard limit is 75 for now
You can't disable auto high beams while on AP
Summon and lane departure avoidance can't be enabled at the moment

Tested driver monitoring on 2021.4.5.11 📹
As we said above, Tesla's firmware 2021.4.5.11 is now using the cabin camera to monitor the driver's attention. In this video, the only new behavior happens when the driver is looking at his phone, the car is on Autopilot, and the car is close to other cars. When the driver was pretending to be asleep, looking through the window, or if cars weren't around, they didn't observe any difference in behavior.

Saved profiles for passengers "coming soon"™
In reply to a tweet by @jeremyjudkins, Elon hinted on Twitter that profiles for passengers may be coming soon. My wife and I switch driver and passenger roles pretty often, it would be awesome to get the passenger presets saved as well in addition to the driver ones!

Refreshed Model S & X

Plaid Model S walk around 📹
Really cool to see another one of these! This one has handles that are the same color as the car, I don't think I've seen that in any of the other prototypes spotted in the wild, I wonder if that is going to be an option.

The new Model S and X are powered by AMD Ryzen 📹
APU for standard MCU operations and a GPU, that's RDNA2 based for AAA games. Sweet.

Tesla value & Hardware updates

Tesla Files Patent for new battery pack for 4680 cells with enhanced safety and lower production cost
More patents published this week, in this one, Tesla's chassis, with two single-piece casting parts for the front and rear, allows the battery to be placed in the middle. This simplifies production as well as safety. These improvements result in a 10% weight reduction, a 14% increase in range, a significant reduction in the number of parts, and the overall increased structural integrity of the vehicle.

How Much Is My Tesla Worth in 2021?
Interesting article comparing the different models over time. It seems that the delays with the Model S refresh and the novelty of the Y are still holding those two pretty well. The article contains some pretty graphs as well as detailed information.

💡 Tip of the week
While on AP, if the car nags you to "apply force" apply firm pressure on only one side, don't wiggle the steering wheel. Alternatively, in the USA, you can use the scroll wheels for the car to know that you are there and paying attention.

🤓 What the acronym
As a Tesla fan, I find myself sometimes having to remember what are all those acronyms, here is a list of the ones you can find in this issue.

AAA - In the video-game industry, AAA is an informal classification used to categorize games produced and distributed by a mid-sized or major publisher, which typically have higher development and marketing budgets than other tiers of games.
AP - Autopilot
APU - (AMD) Accelerated Processing Unit
GPU - Graphics Processing Unit
MCU - Media Control Unit
UI - User Interface