Tesla to work on residential HVAC techniques with Bioweapon Protection Mode
41 days since announcement
July 20, 2022
By Gabe Rodriguez Morrison
Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the company is interested in making its own HVAC system for homes. “It’s on the future product list,” says Elon.
Tesla is known for having remarkable air quality inside their electric vehicles. They went as far as integrating large HEPA filters into most of their models, which Tesla calls Bioweapon Defense Mode.
The HEPA filter removes 99.97% of dust, pollen, mold, bacteria, and any airborne particles with a size of 0.3 microns (µm). The filter is adapted into an efficient HVAC system to prevent decreasing the vehicle’s range.
Last year, when Tesla announced a software update to make the Model S HVAC system quieter, Elon was asked about Tesla making a home HVAC system, to which he replied:
“Oh man, home HVAC that is super energy efficient, quiet & purifies the air would be great. We developed it for the car, but it can be scaled up for home use.”
Residential HVAC is a product that Elon has been talking about for years and really wants Tesla to manufacture in the future. More recently Elon said that it is on Tesla’s list of future products.
It’s on the future product list. Especially important in places like Austin, which has next-level amounts of pollen in the air.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 18, 2022
Back in 2020, Elon Musk spoke about his desire to create a “super efficient” HVAC system for homes.
HVAC and AI seem to be two areas that interest Elon. Last year Elon said that Tesla would look into adding an AI-based HVAC system into their vehicles (and now possibly into homes).
The system could take environmental readings into account such as the air quality in the area, whether the car is in stop-and-go traffic, and automatically control car features that would improve the air quality inside the car.
The car could automatically enable air circulation or even turn on Bioweapon Defense Mode.
Tesla is working on many other projects right now and the HVAC is not in an advanced stage of development yet. It is unknown when Tesla will officially unveil an HVAC system but this news confirms that the HVAC system is in fact on a “list of products” and can be expected in the distant future.
I’m dying to do super efficient, quiet home HVAC with HEPA & water distillation. It’s weird, but I really want to do it.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 23, 2020
August 29, 2022
By Nuno Christovao
According to Twitter user @ChrisZheng001, who has ties with the Tesla supply chain in China, the Model 3 and Model Y will be receiving a new steering wheel for the 2023 model year.
The new steering wheel will supposedly follow what has already been done with the new Model S; replacing the steering wheel stalks with touch-sensitive buttons on the steering wheel.
In a Model 3 or Model Y, the left stalk is mainly used for the vehicle’s turn signals, but it can also be used to activate or flash the car’s high beams. The button at the end of the stalk brings up the windshield wiper controls and wipes the windshield a single time.
As for the right stalk, it’s used to shift gears, enable autopilot and put the vehicle into park. The button can also be used to enable the vehicle’s emergency brake by holding it down.
In the Model S, which the Model 3 and Model Y are likely to mimic, these functions are moved to the steering wheel and the touch screen.
The steering wheel will likely be similar to the one in the Model S. However, it’ll likely be round since a major advantage of having a yoke steering wheel is to have a better view of the instrument cluster.
The upcoming steering wheel may be the one that’s featured in the new Tesla Semi photos.
Like the Model S, the touch-sensitive buttons wrap around the outside of the scroll wheels on the steering wheel.
On the left side you have the turn signals and high beam buttons, while on the right you have buttons for the windshield wipers and voice commands. On the Model 3, clicking the right scroll wheel starts a voice command, but in the Model S that’s used to engage Autopilot.
There is also a button for the horn, however, earlier versions of the Model S, unlike the center of the steering wheel also functions as a horn.
Other functions that were previously available on the steering wheel stalks, such as shifting gears are moved to the center touch screen.
Since the buttons and their designs are fixed, you can’t customize these buttons nor can Tesla change them through software updates.
I’d love to have seen tiny OLED screens for these buttons, similar to the Optimus keyboard that has a tiny screen for each key. That would leave room for customization or change down the road, although it would come at a cost and introduce additional complexity. Two things Tesla is trying hard to reduce.
In the summer of 2021, Elon Musk said that auto shift was coming to all Tesla models, so Tesla may have been planning this change for a while now.
It’s not clear whether existing vehicles with steering wheel stalks will also gain the ability to swipe to shift, but it’s possible since Tesla could use the existing steering wheel stalks as a backup solution if the touch screen isn’t working.
The backup solution in the Model S and likely future Model 3s and Model Ys are touch-sensitive gear buttons that appear underneath the wireless phone charger if the touch screen becomes unresponsive.
This upcoming change may be unexpected, but it’s not surprising, as Tesla often tries to reduce costs by simplifying designs and processes. Tesla also tries to reuse as many parts throughout their models as possible. While the Model S and Model X use a different steering wheel, it looks like the Semi may utilize the same steering wheel as the Model 3 and Model Y.
August 29, 2022
By Nuno Christovao
Tesla is set to release FSD Beta 10.69.1 tonight. Beta 10.69.1 is expected to be largely bug fixes, but it looks like it will go out to a wider pool than 10.69.
Tesla released the much-anticipated beta, version 10.69 to 1,000 beta testers late on August 20th.
Since then we’ve seen numerous videos of the beta in action. With so many changes in a release, some regressions are expected as well, which is why Tesla is being a little more cautious with this release.
Last night Elon Musk revealed some additional details on the next release. He spoke about who will receive the next update, which appears to indicate that the beta is still on track for tonight. In his tweet, he said that 10.69.1 will only be available to the existing testers on version 10.69, at least initially.
If there are no major issues found with the release, then Tesla will release it to another 10,000 testers, or roughly 10% of Tesla’s current FSD Beta pool after a few days.
If you were one of the first 10,000 beta testers in the US, then there’s a possibility you’ll get the latest beta this week, however, there’s no way of knowing whether Tesla will go out to testers in order.
Most beta testers in the US and Canada will not receive 10.69.1 and instead receive the next version, beta 10.69.2
That beta is expected to be a more stable build and go into “wide release,” which is expected to include all current FSD Beta testers.
Elon mentioned that 10.69.2 will “hopefully” go out next week.
FSD Beta 10.69 videos
More testers
If you’re currently enrolled in Tesla’s Safety Score in hopes of getting into the FSD Beta program, there may be a chance Tesla increases the beta pool after 10.69.2 is rolled out, but I wouldn’t expect that to happen before all current testers have received the latest beta and Tesla feels that the beta is performing well.
The last time Tesla added additional beta testers, they include owners with a Safety Score of 95 or higher, however, there were also reports of some users receiving it with lower scores.
If you haven’t been following the FSD Beta 10.69 release, you can view the release notes.
