Tesla rolls out vision-based park assist, but it could still use some work
Tesla has released a new software update activating its vision-based park assist feature, and videos are starting to roll in showing it in action.
In October of last year, Tesla abruptly decided to stop including ultrasonic sensors on Model 3 and Model Y vehicles. These ultrasonic sensors were used for short-range objects detection, particularly during low-speed maneuvers, like parking, to help drivers know how far they are from objects outside the car.
Tesla said at the time that it planned to move to a fully vision-based parking system, using the myriad cameras around its cars to estimate distances and provide park assist functions, without the added complexity of these additional ultrasonic sensors.
Since then, these vehicles have been delivered without sensors, but with no driver aids to help in parking. For these cars, Park Assist, Autopark, Summon, and Smart Summon would not be available until a software update came along to enable them.
Now, just under six months later, these software efforts have finally borne fruit as Tesla has started rolling out vision-based park assist in its 2023.6.9 update. It should be available on cars now or soon, so check for software updates if you’ve been waiting for this feature.
The update notes state:
Tesla Vision Park Assist provides visual and audio alerts of surrounding objects. This feature uses the occupancy network to predict high-definition outlines of objects 360 degrees around the car.
Note: Tesla Vision Park Assist is for guidance purposes onlv and is not a substitute for an aware driver. Please be attentive and avoid obstacles as required.
The update does not seem to activate Autopark, Summon, or Smart Summon, yet merely brings back the lost functionality showing drivers how far they are from various objects while parking their car.
Videos have started to surface on social media showing drivers testing out the new functions in their garages and driveways, and results so far seem… a little inconsistent.
It seems to work reasonably well in some situations, showing roughly similar graphics as the vehicles with sensors, but with the added benefit of detecting objects all around the vehicle, instead of just in front or behind. One driver found the measurements to be quite accurate in a well-lit and straightforward parking lot:
Though the lines are quite wiggly, significantly more so than they are when using ultrasonics.
In other situations, the system still seems like it needs work. Here, a driver pulls between two cars and toward a trash can, before the system deactivates and states “park assist unavailable” when he gets close enough to actually need it. Then, he gets out to compare the car’s 26-inch approximation with reality, and eyeballing the distance, thinks that it’s closer to “three and a half, four feet”:
And here, another driver tries to use it with a bike rack attached to the rear of his Tesla, and the system continually detects the rack as an obstruction, repeatedly telling him to stop even though there’s plenty of room behind the car:
Electrek’s Take
Well, it’s clear that the system still needs some work. Which, frankly, is not unexpected when it comes to Tesla’s history with similar things.
A couple years ago the company abruptly removed radar from its cars, moving to a fully camera-based system for its driver assist features (which it’s now reversing course on). At the time, this led to temporary limitations for new owners of non-radar cars, who had to wait for software updates to re-add those features.
The same has happened here with ultrasonics, which caught several customers by surprise. Tesla has sold a lot of cars in the last six months, and I know of at least one who hadn’t heard the news of the missing ultrasonic sensors and was quite annoyed to realize he had just bought a vehicle without a relatively standard modern feature that he had expected his brand-new high-tech $53,000 car would have.
Tesla owners have gotten used to similar things happening, and often give the company slack because actions like these are balanced out by the benefit of over-the-air updates, which improve cars and add features over time.
But this is such a basic and expected feature on modern vehicles, and it has been estimated that these sensors cost about $114 per car. That’s a significant cost but certainly not a massive one, but we’re six months in and so far we’ve only seen one of the four missing features reactivated for the cars in question.
Further, the feature just doesn’t look ready for prime time yet. A feature like this doesn’t need to work 50% of the time, or even 99% of the time – it needs to work 100% of the time because any dings or scratches don’t just go away the next time you park, they stay there for good. If drivers are going to rely on it, and use it in place of their eyes, it needs to be reliable. And if drivers aren’t going to use it in place of their eyes – as Tesla currently recommends that they don’t – then why don’t they just use… their eyes? What’s the point of the sensor if it’s just replicating what your eyes see?
One benefit of ultrasonics is to provide additional confirmation of distance through something other than vision. As in the first embedded video above, the driver could already estimate distances with his eyes, but the ultrasonics would give him additional information that he doesn’t have visually. If the car is just estimating visually the same way the driver does that, then it’s not giving any new information.
This doesn’t mean the system can’t improve. Surely it can and it will have access to more advantageous angles than the driver’s eyes do, and be able to look all around the car at once instead of only in one direction at a time (as it already can). And in certain situations, it already seems to do a good job. But for now, the visualization doesn’t seem a lot better than eyeballing, which is disappointing six months after the feature was unceremoniously eliminated. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait another six months for underwhelming results from Autopark, Summon, and Smart Summon.
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A hacker has revealed new details of Tesla’s upcoming stripped-down Model Y, which is likely going to be the automaker’s most affordable level yet.
Tesla has been teasing the release of “more affordable models” since last year, but there’s been confusion around what Tesla plans to release.
As we have reported for almost a year, CEO Elon Musk canceled Tesla’s planned “$25,000 EV” in favor of stripped-down versions of its Model 3 and Model Y.
Due to Tesla still referring to them as “new, more affordable models”, many people believed that Tesla would still bring to market new, cheaper models.
In fact, the automaker initially stated that it would arrive in the “first half of 2025.”
The first half of 2025 came and went without new, cheaper models. Instead, Tesla claimed that the “first build” of the new model was produced in June, and it will launch later this year.
In July, Musk finally confirmed that the first “new affordable model” is in fact simply a Model Y.
The new stripped-down Model Y is codenamed E41 and is expected to feature cheaper materials and fewer features than the normal Model Y, which starts at $45,000 in the US.
It is expected to be similar to what Tesla did with the new base Model 3 in Mexico, which features cloth materials instead of vegan leather, lacks a rear display, has no ambient lighting, and features a less advanced audio system.
However, we now learn that the new affordable Model Y will go further than a cheaper interior.
Green, a well-known Tesla hacker who often reveals new features in vehicles through looking deep in firmware updates, claims to have uncovered new details about the upcoming Model Y E41 through the latest Tesla firmware update.
The details are somewhat limited as he has to decode them from the firmware, but here’s the full list of what he has found out about the new cheaper Model Y:
- “Essential” and “essential with commodity” audio packages
- Backup camera without heater
- No “air wave” in the center console, which likely means no air flow control for the second row
- A new front fascia
- Simplified fiberglass headliner
- Simplified cabin lighting (footwell only)
- Simplified seat controls (single axis)
- No power mirror folding
- No puddle lamps
- No glass roof
- No second row display
- No Tire Pressure Monitoring System
- Simplified 18″ wheels
- Downgraded suspension
Tesla has yet to confirm when the new Model Y version will launch, but we previously reported that Tesla is likely waiting for Q4 as it is enjoying strong demand in Q3 from the end of the federal tax credit in the US.
Electrek’s Take
I like “simplified”. I don’t know if the term comes from Green or Tesla, but it certainly works better than “stripped-down,” even though it is also accurate based on what we are learning about the new version.
This didn’t work with the Cybertruck. Tesla quickly discontinued the “simplified” version, but the Cybertruck was already much less popular than Model Y.
I don’t know. This could work. It depends entirely on pricing. If it brings the base price down to $35,000, I can see some people going for it.
However, it will likely devalue Tesla’s “premium” brand and the Model Y significantly.
Also, most of the demand is likely going to come from Model Y buyers in the first place – cannibalizing Tesla’s own sales.
In short, it’s more of a placeholder to slow down the degradation of Tesla’s EV business amid its shift to autonomous driving and robotics, rather than a solution to return to EV growth. That’s a bummer.
Tesla needs brand-new EV models. It’s plain and simple.
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For decades, Briggs & Stratton has helped keep the lights on after the storm with its gas-powered generators. Now, the company is bringing that legacy into the modern electric era with a home backup battery — and a new partnership with EG4 is making it easier than ever to integrate Briggs’ batteries into your home solar setup.
As more home solar and hurricane-zone customers begin to explore battery energy storage solutions, Milkwaukee-based Briggs & Stratton is partnering with Texas-based EG4 to offer an all American-branded solution for battery backup power. And, while Briggs is already a known quantity, EG4 is making its own fans, too, thanks to the company’s focus on both user- and installer-friendly designs that put resilience and reliability first.
That dependability makes the EG4 inverters favorites among “preppers” as well. Its 18KPV inverters are EMP-hardened, promising reliable performance even after Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) events that would disable other electronics.
“Our collaboration with Briggs & Stratton combines EG4’s advanced energy storage systems with their proven generator and storage technologies to give customers more ways to achieve reliable, uninterrupted power,” said James Showalter, founder and CEO of EG4. “With this partnership we are making it easier than ever to build the right solution for energy independence.”
Simplify, SimpliPHI
Briggs & Stratton’s SimpliPHI battery packages start with one, two or three SimpliPHI-branded 6.6 kW batteries, designed as modular components to deliver a range of power options tailored to how much of the home or business the user wants to keep powered power during an outage. Is that 25% of their normal energy usage? 100%? Just add more batteries.
The companies explain that, with a 200A pass-thru for easy integration into most homes’ main service panels, the Briggs & Stratton + EG4 home solar battery system can be scaled up to 18 batteries for 119.7 kWh of energy storage and a maximum continuous power of 84 kW, or up to 90 hours of power at 100% load.
“We are excited to expand our closed-loop integrations with EG4,” explains Sequoya Cross, vice president of energy storage for Briggs & Stratton Energy Solutions. “We have been consistently impressed with their approach to the market, innovative design choices and products that reliably serve their customers.”
Briggs says its batteries are designed to last a minimum of 15 years. Pricing will vary depending on your backup needs and system design. Reach out to a local installer for a customized quote.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Briggs & Stratton.
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Porsche has announced a delay in some future EV models, which parent company VW says will cost it $6B in forward profits. It’s doing this amid a global boom in EV sales, instead committing to an inferior powertrain choice that will only make it more irrelevant as a company.
The world auto industry is currently electrifying rapidly. That electrification is largely being led, in this moment, by Chinese players, who are offering low-cost EVs with the latest battery and infotainment technology, not held back by a century of old-style combustion-engine thinking or by entities in government that are actively trying to kill their own country’s competitiveness.
The rapid rise in Chinese EVs has caught Western automakers by surprise, even though it has been clear for more than a decade that EVs are the way to go (as we’ve been saying here at Electrek for that entire time).
It’s resulting in huge disruptions in the global automotive market, with Western automakers being squeezed out of overseas markets, and even having trouble selling to their own domestic markets. Western countries have responded with emergency tariffs (a concept which never really helps), but Chinese brands continue to grow in Europe.
We’ve even seen some directly embarrassing moments, like a smartphone company, Xiaomi, deciding about three years ago to go from building smartphones to building cars, one of the most complex products known to man, and then beating Porsche on its home turf by setting the fastest-ever four-door lap record at Nürburgring with a stripped-down Su7 Ultra, beating the Porsche Taycan by over 20 seconds (Xiaomi later went back and beat the Taycan with a stock model by 2.5 seconds).
Remember: Xiaomi makes smartphones. Meanwhile, Porsche has been making cars for a century (and its founder even made a hybrid in 1902).
And so, in recognition of the fact that Chinese brands are eating their lunch, Porsche and VW have just announced that… they’re going to move even slower.
When competition moves too fast, keep up by… moving slower?
Porsche CEO Oliver Blume (who is also CEO of parent company VW) cited the “massive changes within the automotive environment,” on a call on Friday, some of which are detailed above in this article. His response to these massive changes, though, is to go in the opposite direction.
Porsche said it would slow down its EV rollout, delaying the launch of some EVs, and instead offering a planned ultra-luxury SUV positioned above the Cayenne as a combustion or hybrid model, rather than an electric one. An electric version may still come later, though.
Availability of current combustion engine models, including the Panamera, will be extended into the 2030s.
Porsche said as a result of these changes, its forward margin outlook would drop, and VW said that this would result in a reduction of around $6 billion in profits for 2025.
The move also reportedly has thrown the VW/Rivian software partnership for a loop, as VW’s new commitment to polluting combustion models means it will have to find another source for software, since Rivian’s software is meant for EVs, not combustion vehicles.
According to Manager Magazin, there is even a possibility that VW’s doomed internal software project, Cariad, will have to be tapped to build software for these combustion models.
Cariad was the darling of former VW CEO Herbert Diess, who was one of the industry’s most ardent EV advocates. But difficulties with Cariad resulted in Diess being ousted and replaced by Blume, who reorganized the division, adding significant irony to the situation that Cariad may now be thrust into increased relevance due to Blume’s delay in EV models.
Porsche is in opposite world on EV demand
Porsche says that “weak demand” for EVs is forcing it to make this move, even though EV demand continues to rise globally and specifically in Europe and Germany where Porsche calls home. EV sales are up 30% year-to-date in Europe and up 43% in Germany, along with being up 27% globally.
And for Porsche specifically, we have one very clear measurement of whether consumers want electric or gas cars: the Macan. Porsche sells both gas and electric versions of the Macan, and it turns out, the Macan version does way better: nearly 60% of the Macans Porsche sells are electric.
Porsche has seen sales declines itself this year, but those sales declines occurred in territories where EV sales are booming the most (Germany, China), and were driven by declines in sales of Porsche’s combustion models, not its EV models. In fact, electrified Porsche sales are up, while combustion-only sales are down.
CEO Oliver Blume said that he’s counting on “more flexibility” from the EU to soften its emissions standards and allow Porsche to keep putting these polluting vehicles on the road – vehicles which will continue to poison you well into the 2050s.
Blume says this despite the EU’s commitment last week to maintain the emissions targets Blume wants changed, and despite Blume’s cohort, Gernot Döllner who is CEO of Audi (also a VW subsidiary), correctly stating that bickering over emissions standards is “counterproductive” and that “the electric car is simply the better technology.” The EU did say it will review its 2035 zero-emission target early, but seemed open to only minor flexibility.
Meanwhile, climate change continues apace
Meanwhile, the background of all of this is that climate change (which transportation is the largest contributor to in rich countries) continues apace, and that polluting vehicles continue to poison humans globally in costly and destructive ways.
The world needs a solution to climate change, and the faster that solution comes the better. No matter how expensive it seems it might be to solve the problem that we collectively have spent the last century and a half causing (and have supercharged in the last 30 years), that cost will only get higher as time goes on and as more damage is done.
Many studies have pointed out that the faster we solve this problem, the cheaper it will be to fix, so every moment lost as a result of companies misjudging trends and committing to more-polluting models while hoping government will change to let them continue to pollute only represents more cost, death, and disruption for humanity and for all species on Earth.
In total, fossil fuels kill 8 million people per year and receive $7 trillion in subsidies from the ignored costs of this pollution. Porsche is committing to be a greater part of those deaths and health costs into the future with its move, and harming European industry in doing so, by giving up the future of the industry to faster-moving international competitors.
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