Tesla finally adds a blind spot indicator to the Model 3 Highland

Published

2 years ago

September 7, 2023

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Tesla revealed the Model 3 Highland refresh last week with a lot more features than we expected, but one oft-requested feature was missing. But now, Tesla has updated the Model 3 Owner’s Manual in the EU, which shows that a genuine blind spot indicator is included with the refresh.

Blind spot indicators have become a standard feature on many cars in recent years, giving a visual indication to drivers whether another vehicle happens to be alongside them in a difficult-to-see location when changing lanes.

But Tesla so far has not had this feature. Until now, it has relied on its Autopilot camera system and its visualization features to provide drivers with more information on what might be in their blind spots.

These features bring up a view of the side camera whenever a driver uses the turn signal, allowing the driver to see what’s there, and shows a visualization of the area around the car and the other vehicles in that area.

model 3 blind spot camera visualization — The current status of Tesla’s blind spot camera/visualization

But the issue here is that this means drivers need to look down and to the side at the vehicle’s center screen instead of looking out the windows/mirrors at what’s beside them when making a driving maneuver. It’s not too bad, but it’s not ideal, and at this point, many drivers are accustomed to having indicator lights near the A-pillar or on the side mirrors.

The situation is a little different on Model S and X, where those visualizations are provided in the driver’s instrument cluster, an additional screen in front of the driver, which the Model 3 does not have. This is a little easier for drivers to see than the center screen, but it’s still not the ideal situation when a driver is looking to their left or right to change lanes.

So finally, in the new Model 3 Highland refresh, we’re getting actual blind spot indicators inside the speaker grille next to the A-pillar. The European Model 3 owner’s manual shows what it will look like, and we’ve also seen it working for a short moment in a YouTube review of the car.

However, the Owner’s Manual does specifically say driver door. And we’ve only seen the LED light on that side, not on the passenger side. So this blind spot indicator might only be on the driver’s side of the vehicle, not the passenger side, which seems odd. Driver side blind spots are more pronounced because it’s harder to crane your neck around in that direction, but if it’s cheap and simple enough to add the indicator to one side, why not the other side too?

We have no indication that Tesla has added any new sensors to the vehicle, so it seems likely that it’s using the car’s autopilot cameras to detect cars in the blind spot, then lighting up the light if it detects one there when you’re trying to change lanes.

So far, this is the only Tesla to have a blind spot indicator. We don’t know if this feature will come to other cars any time soon, if it will only come to other models as part of a large refresh, or if Tesla only plans to put it on certain vehicles. (Ror example, perhaps it thinks the driver instrument cluster on the S/X will be enough.)

Electrek’s Take

Tesla has been known for “going its own way” in terms of standard features for quite some time, usually trying to leverage the many Autopilot cameras around the vehicle in order to replace sensors or indicators that come standard on other cars.

We’ve seen several examples of this, such as the “deep neural net” camera-based rain sensors (which don’t work great – mine triggered from seeing Styrofoam bits on the highway once), the vision-based park assist (which also doesn’t work great), and the removal of radar from its autopilot hardware (which is now going back in).

So it’s a bit of a surprise to see Tesla relent and move toward a standard detection feature that most other cars have, given that it has mostly been moving away from such in recent years.

I personally think that the blind spot cameras + visualization were pretty good and easy to use, so it’s interesting for Tesla to relent on this feature rather than some other ones that are a clear downgrade from industry-standard sensors. And strange if it’s only on one side, but we’ll have to wait for confirmation of that.

For more on the Model 3 Highland, check out our closer look at the Model 3 Highland from the IAA in Munich in this YouTube video below, though we didn’t get to test out the blind spot indicator ourselves on the show floor.

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Environment

I found this cheap Chinese e-cargo trike that hauls more than your car!

Published

3 hours ago

July 5, 2025

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I found this cheap Chinese e-cargo trike that hauls more than your car!

If you’ve ever wondered what happens when you combine a fruit cart, a cargo bike, and a Piaggio Ape all in one vehicle, now you’ve got your answer. I submit, for your approval, this week’s feature for the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column – and it’s a beautiful doozie.

Feast your eyes on this salad slinging, coleslaw cruising, tuber taxiing produce chariot!

I think this electric vegetable trike might finally scratch the itch long felt by many of my readers. It seems every time I cover an electric trike, even the really cool ones, I always get commenters poo-poo-ing it for having two wheels in the rear instead of two wheels in the front. Well, here you go, folks!

Designed with two front wheels for maximum stability, this trike keeps your cucumbers in check through every corner. Because trust me, you don’t want to hit a pothole and suddenly be juggling peaches like you’re in Cirque du Soleil: Farmers Market Edition.

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To avoid the extra cost of designing a linked steering system for a pair of front wheels, the engineers who brought this salad shuttle to life simply side-stepped that complexity altogether by steering the entire fixed front end. I’ve got articulating electric tractors that steer like this, and so if it works for a several-ton work machine, it should work for a couple hundred pounds of cargo bike.

Featuring a giant cargo bed up front with four cascading fruit baskets set up for roadside sales, this cargo bike is something of a blank slate. Sure, you could monetize grandma’s vegetable garden, or you could fill it with your own ideas and concoctions. Our exceedingly talented graphics wizard sees it as the perfect coffee and pastry e-bike for my new startup, The Handlebarista, and I’m not one to argue. Basically, the sky is the limit with a blank slate bike like this!

Sure, the quality doesn’t quite match something like a fancy Tern cargo bike. The rim brakes aren’t exactly confidence-inspiring, but at least there are three of them. And if they should all give out, or just not quite slow you down enough to avoid that quickly approaching brick wall, then at least you’ve got a couple hundred pounds of tomatoes as a tasty crumple zone.

The electrical system does seem a bit underpowered. With a 36V battery and a 250W motor, I don’t know if one-third of a horsepower is enough to haul a full load to the local farmer’s market. But I guess if the weight is a bit much for the little motor, you could always do some snacking along the way. On the other hand, all the pictures seem to show a non-electric version. So if this cart is presumably mobile on pedal power alone, then that extra motor assist, however small, is going to feel like a very welcome guest.

The $950 price is presumably for the electric version, since that’s what’s in the title of the listing, though I wouldn’t get too excited just yet. I’ve bought a LOT of stuff on Alibaba, including many electric vehicles, and the too-good-to-be-true price is always exactly that. In my experience, you can multiply the Alibaba price by 3-4x to get the actual landed price for things like these. Even so, $3,000-$4,000 wouldn’t be a terrible price, considering a lot of electric trikes stateside already cost that much and don’t even come with a quad-set of vegetable baskets on board!

I should also put my normal caveat in here about not actually buying one of these. Please, please don’t try to buy one of these awesome cargo e-trikes. This is a silly, tongue-in-cheek weekend column where I scour the ever-entertaining underbelly of China’s massive e-commerce site Alibaba in search of fun, quirky, and just plain awesomely weird electric vehicles. While I’ve successfully bought several fun things on the platform, I’ve also gotten scammed more than once, so this is not for the timid or the tight-budgeted among us.

That isn’t to say that some of my more stubborn readers haven’t followed in my footsteps before, ignoring my advice and setting out on their own wild journey. But please don’t be the one who risks it all and gets nothing in return. Don’t say I didn’t warn you; this is the warning.

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Environment

OPEC+ members agree to larger-than-expected oil production hike in August

Published

4 hours ago

July 5, 2025

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OPEC+ members agree to larger-than-expected oil production hike in August

The OPEC logo is displayed on a mobile phone screen in front of a computer screen displaying OPEC icons in Ankara, Turkey, on June 25, 2024.

Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images

Eight oil-producing nations of the OPEC+ alliance agreed on Saturday to increase their collective crude production by 548,000 barrels per day, as they continue to unwind a set of voluntary supply cuts.

This subset of the alliance — comprising heavyweight producers Russia and Saudi Arabia, alongside Algeria, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates — met digitally earlier in the day. They had been expected to increase their output by a smaller 411,000 barrels per day.

In a statement, the OPEC Secretariat attributed the countries’ decision to raise August daily output by 548,000 barrels to “a steady global economic outlook and current healthy market fundamentals, as reflected in the low oil inventories.”

The eight producers have been implementing two sets of voluntary production cuts outside of the broader OPEC+ coalition’s formal policy.

One, totaling 1.66 million barrels per day, stays in effect until the end of next year.

Under the second strategy, the countries reduced their production by an additional 2.2 million barrels per day until the end of the first quarter.

They initially set out to boost their production by 137,000 barrels per day every month until September 2026, but only sustained that pace in April. The group then tripled the hike to 411,000 barrels per day in each of May, June, and July — and is further accelerating the pace of their increases in August.

Oil prices were briefly boosted in recent weeks by the seasonal summer spike in demand and the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, which threatened both Tehran’s supplies and raised concerns over potential disruptions of supplies transported through the key Strait of Hormuz.

At the end of the Friday session, oil futures settled at $68.30 per barrel for the September-expiration Ice Brent contract and at $66.50 per barrel for front month-August Nymex U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude.

Environment

Podcast: Trump/GOP go after EV/solar, Tesla, Ford, GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more

Published

18 hours ago

July 4, 2025

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Podcast: Trump/GOP go after EV/solar, Tesla, Ford, GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more

In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss Trump’s Big Beautiful bill becoming law and going after EVs and solar, Tesla, Ford, and GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more

Today’s episode is brought to you by Bosch Mobility Aftermarket—A global leader and trusted provider of automotive aftermarket parts. To celebrate Amazon Prime Day July 8th through 11th, Bosch Mobility is offering exclusive savings on must-have auto parts and tools. Learn more here.

The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel.

As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.

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After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps:

We now have a Patreon if you want to help us avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming.

Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast: