Tesla gives owners a free 30-day trial of Enhanced Autopilot for the holidays
Tesla owners are starting to receive messages on their cars offering a free 30-day trial of Enhanced Autopilot, with the message “Happy Holidays!” from Tesla.
The messages started showing up on social media, posted by owners in Australia and New Zealand. Notably, this started happening when it was early enough for people to be awake in those countries, but while it was late night or very early morning in the US and EU.
So we don’t know yet if this is a global giveaway or only in the oceania region, but we suspect we’ll find out soon enough as the rest of the world wakes up and goes for a drive. We see no reason that it would be restricted to AU/NZ, so perhaps it just needs to propagate to the rest of the world as the day moves on.
The message reads “Happy Holidays! A complimentary trial of Enhanced Autopilot has been enabled for you to enjoy for 30 days.” It then describes to drivers how to enable various Autopilot features, which must be done while the vehicle is parked before the first time each individual driver profile attempts to use the system.
All Teslas come equipped with Autopilot, Tesla’s brand name for its driver-assist technology. Basic Autopilot includes traffic-aware cruise control, which follows the car in front of you, and autosteer, which keeps the car in its lane on highways.
Enhanced Autopilot is an additional package that adds more capabilities. Tesla has offered it as a separate package on and off over the years, and brought it back in June with its current price point of $6,000 (or $5,100AUD/$5,700NZD, in the countries we’ve seen this giveaway in so far).
Enhanced Autopilot includes these features, over and above Basic Autopilot:
- Auto Lane Change: Assists in moving to an adjacent lane on the motorway when indicator is engaged by driver
- Navigate on Autopilot (Beta): Actively augments Auto Lane Change by providing guidance to the driver to transit motorway’s on-ramp to off-ramp, including suggesting lane changes and navigating interchanges
- Autopark: Helps parallel or perpendicular park your car, with a single touch
- Summon: Moves your car in and out of a tight space using the mobile app
- Smart Summon: Your car will navigate more complex environments and parking spaces, manoeuvring around objects as necessary to come find you in a car park within your direct vicinity.
Then, beyond Enhanced Autopilot is Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving Capability,” which includes the above functions and also will start and stop the car for traffic lights and stop signs, and allows entry into Tesla’s “FSD Beta,” which comes with Autosteer on city streets.
All of these features still require active participation from a driver, and are considered “Level 2” autonomous driving systems, where the driver is primarily responsible for monitoring the driving environment. Thus they are not “full self-driving” yet, though Tesla has repeatedly claimed that cars with FSD will eventually be able to drive themselves without driver intervention.
Tesla does have a way for owners to “try out” FSD by purchasing an FSD subscription for $199/mo (assuming you have HW3.0, otherwise Tesla will charge you $1,000 for hardware you already bought, but you might be able to get that money back in small claims court). There is no similar subscription for Enhanced Autopilot, only the one-time purchase option.
But this trial comes at a somewhat awkward time. Currently, new Tesla owners are receiving cars without ultrasonic sensors, after Tesla abruptly removed them from new vehicles in October, saying they were redundant to Tesla’s all-vision sensing system.
As a result, Autopark, Summon and Smart Summon are all disabled on these new vehicles until Tesla upgrades their software to use vision sensors instead of the previous ultrasonics. This means that new cars won’t get to use three out of the five Enhanced Autopilot features during this trial period, unless Tesla pushes a vision update within the next 30 days.
Electrek’s Take
Since there is no other way to “try out” Enhanced Autopilot for most customers, this seems like an excellent way to show people what the system can – or can’t – do. Many owners are curious about whether the additional features would be worthwhile, but not a lot of people can toss several thousand dollars at something they don’t know will be worth it for them.
This will let those owners have a chance to try out the system for a pretty significant period of time – not just a couple days, but a whole month.
It doesn’t cost Tesla anything to activate this, and it might drive a few conversions if owners are happy with the system’s capabilities.
Personally, I don’t think EAP is worth the thousands of dollars being charged for it, at least not for me:
- Navigate on Autopilot is nice, but the main benefit it does is tell you which lanes to be in for highway interchanges, and possibly make those lane changes for you with auto lane change (though you still have to confirm the changes with the turn signal stalk).
- Autopark works really well, even in weird parking spots, and may be useful for people who are bad at or afraid of parallel parking.
- Summon is mostly a neat gimmick, but can be useful if you need to adjust your car in a parking spot and don’t want to get up and go to the car to do it. I’ve used it for this several times, which has been convenient in a pinch, in the right circumstances, and does impress people.
- And smart summon… well, I’ve never used it, because it has never worked in a situation where I’ve wanted to use it, but everything I’ve heard doesn’t make it sound all that smart (even CEO Elon Musk acknowledges that it hasn’t ever been very smart).
They’re interesting capabilities for a car to have, but I’d rather keep the thousands of dollars, myself. That said, the same may not be true for every other owner – and now everyone will have a chance to find out if it seems worth it to them or not.
Let us know in the comments below if you’ve gotten this message this morning, and where you are in the world. We’re curious if this is a worldwide giveaway, or only limited to AU/NZ.
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Tesla has quietly removed the Cybertruck’s range extender from the options in its online configurator.
Does Tesla still plan to bring the product to market?
When Tesla unveiled the production version of the Cybertruck in late 2023, there were two main disappointments: the price and the range.
The tri-motor version, which was the most popular in reservation tallies, was supposed to have over 500 miles of range and start at $70,000.
Tesla now sells the tri-motor Cybertruck for $100,000 and only has a range of 320 miles.
As for the dual-motor Cybertruck, it was supposed to cost $50,000 and have over 300 miles of range. The reality is that it starts at $80,000, and it has 325 miles of range.
However, Tesla had devised a solution to bring the range closer to what it originally announced: a separate battery pack that sits in the truck’s bed. Tesla called it a “range extender.” It costs $16,000 and takes up a third of the Cybertruck’s bed.
Even though the Cybertruck has been in production for a year and a half at this point, the range extender has yet to launch.
Initially, Tesla said that it would come “early 2025”, but we reported that it was pushed to “mid-2025” late last year.
At the time, Tesla also reduced the range that the removable battery pack adds to the Cybertruck to “445+ miles” rather than “470+ miles” for the dual motor – a ~25-mile reduction in range.
Now, Tesla has removed the option from its online Cybertruck configurator. It used to take reservations for the range extender with a “$2,000 non-refundable deposit”, as seen on the image above, but now it’s not in the configurator at all at the time of writing.
It’s unclear if Tesla is not planning to launch the product anymore or if it is just pausing reservations.
In its specs page, Tesla still lists the achievable range of both versions of the Cybertruck with and without the range extender battery:
Electrek’s Take
I’m curious. Is it dead, or does Tesla just want to stop taking reservations for it?
At first, I was curious about the product even though I didn’t think it would make up for Tesla’s significant miss on Cybertruck specs.
However, after it was confirmed that it takes up 30% of your bed and that it needs to be installed and removed by Tesla at a service center, I think it’s pretty much dead on arrival at $16,000.
It’s going to be a product limited to only a few people at best. And now that’s if it makes it to market.
With the option being removed from the configurator, there’s no production timeline available. Again, the last one was “mid-2025”, which is soon.
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Environment
EcoFlow members can save up to 65% on power stations while supporting disaster relief during the 2025 Member’s Festival
Portable power station specialist EcoFlow is kicking off its third annual Member’s Festival this month and is offering a unique new rewards program to those who become EcoFlow members. The 2025 EcoFlow Member’s Festival will offer savings of up to 65% for its participating customers, and a portion of those funds will be allocated toward rescue power solutions for communities around the globe through the company’s “Power for All” fund.
EcoFlow remains one of the industry leaders in portable power solutions and continues to trek forward in its vision to power a new tech-driven, eco-conscious future. Per its website:
Our mission from day one is to provide smart and eco-friendly energy solutions for individuals, families, and society at large. We are, were, and will continue to be a reliable and trusted energy companion for users around the world.
To achieve such goals, EcoFlow has continued to expand its portfolio of sustainable energy solutions to its community members, including portable power stations, solar generators, and mountable solar panels. While EcoFlow is doing plenty to support its growing customer base, it has expanded its reach by giving back to disaster-affected communities by helping bolster global disaster response efforts the best way it knows how– with portable power solutions.
EcoFlow and its members look to provide “Power for All”
Since 2023, EcoFlow has collaborated with organizations worldwide as part of its “Power for All” mission. This initiative aims to ensure access to reliable and timely power to disaster-affected communities across the globe, including rescue agencies, affected hospitals, and shelters, to support rescue and recovery efforts.
This fund most recently provided aid for communities affected by the recent Los Angeles wildfires, assistance to the Special Forces Charitable Trust (SFCT) in North Carolina following severe hurricanes, and support for non-profits engaged in hurricane preparedness in Florida and the Gulf Coast. Per Jodi Burns, CEO of the Special Forces Charitable Trust:
In the wake of devastating storms in Western North Carolina, reliable power was a critical need for the families we serve. Thanks to EcoFlow’s generous donation of generators, we were able to provide immediate relief, ensuring these families and their communities had access to power when they needed it most. We are so impressed with EcoFlow’s commitment to disaster response through their ‘Power for All’ program. It has made a tangible impact, and we are deeply grateful for their support and partnership in helping these families recover and rebuild.
In 2024, the US experienced 27 weather and climate events, each causing losses exceeding $1 billion, marking the second-highest annual total on record, according to National Centers for Environmental Information. The increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters underscore the critical need for reliable and timely power solutions during emergencies, much like EcoFlow and its members are helping provide through the “Power For All” initiative.
To support new and existing EcoFlow members, the company is celebrating its third annual Member’s Festival throughout April to offer a do-not-miss discount on its products and donate a portion of all sales to the “Power for All” fund to provide rescue power to those in need in the future. Learn how it all works below.
Save big and give back during the 2025 Member’s Festival
As of April 1st, you can now sign up to become an EcoFlow member to participate in the company’s exclusive 2025 Member Festival.
As a member, you can earn “EcoFlow Power Points” by completing tasks like registration, referrals, and product purchases and tracking your individual efforts toward disaster preparedness and recovery.
Beginning April 4, EcoFlow members will also be able to take advantage of exclusive discounts of up to 65% off select portable power stations, including the DELTA Pro Ultra, DELTA Pro 3, DELTA 2 Max, DELTA 3 Plus, RIVER 3 Plus, and more. However, these sale prices only last through April 25, so you’ll want to move quickly!
Click here to learn more about EcoFlow’s “Power for All” campaign. To register for EcoFlow’s 2025 Member Festival in the US, visit the EcoFlow website. To register as a member in Canada, visit here.
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Tesla is losing another top talent: its long-time head of software, David Lau, has reportedly told co-workers that he is exiting the automaker.
Tesla changed how the entire auto industry looks at software.
Before Tesla, it was an afterthought; user interfaces were rudimentary, and you had to go to a dealership to get a software update on your systems.
When Tesla launched the Model S in 2012, it all changed. Your car would get better through software updates like your phone, the large center display was responsive with a UI that actually made sense and was closer to an iPad experience than a car.
Tesla also integrated its software into its retail experience, service, and manufacturing.
David Lau deserves a lot of the credit for that.
He joined Tesla in 2012 as a senior manager of firmware engineering and quickly rose through the ranks. By 2014, he was promoted to director of firmware engineering and system integration, and in 2017, he became Vice President of software.
Lau listed the responsibilities of his team on his LinkedIn:
- Vehicle Software:
- Firmware for the powertrain, traction/stability control, HV electronics, battery management, and body control systems
- UI software and underlying Embedded Linux platforms
- Navigation and routing
- iOS and Android Mobile apps
- Distributed Systems:
- Server-side software and infrastructure that provides telemetry, diagnostics, over-the-air updates, and configuration/lifecycle management
- Data engineering and analytics platforms that power technical and business insights for an increasingly diverse set of customers across the company
- Diagnostic tools and fleet management, Manufacturing and Automation:
- Automation controls (PLC, robot)
- Server-side manufacturing execution systems that power all of Tesla’s production operations
- Product Security and Red Team for software, services, and systems across Tesla
Bloomberg reported today that Lau told his team he is leaving Tesla. The report didn’t include reasons for his stepping down.
Electrek’s Take
Twelve years at any company is a great run. At Tesla, it’s heroic. Congrats, David, on a great run. You undoubtedly had a significant impact on Tesla and software advancements in the broader auto industry.
He is another significant loss for Tesla, which has been losing a lot of top talent following a big wave of layoffs around this time last year.
I wonder who will take over. Michael Rizkalla, senior director of software engineering and vehicle firmware, is one of the most senior software engineers after Lau. He has been at Tesla for 7 years, and Tesla likes to promote within rather than hire outsiders.
There are also a lot of senior software execs working on AI at Tesla. Musk has been favoring them lately and he could fold Lau’s responsibilities under them.
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