Tesla deletes its blog post stating all cars have self-driving hardware
Tesla has cleaned up its website’s blog section, deleting all posts prior to 2019. This includes the post titled “All Tesla Cars Being Produced Now Have Full Self-Driving Hardware,” which was originally published October 19, 2016.
Prior to yesterday, Tesla’s website contained a backlog of blog posts reaching back to the beginning of the company. This includes famous entries like “The Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan (just between you and me),” and one that I really like to use to explain the basics of EV efficiency, “Roadster Efficiency and Range.”
Those articles are all missing from the website as of now. They can be found through archive.org, but everything prior to 2019 seems to have been deleted from Tesla’s servers.
It’s a shame, because a lot of the history of Tesla can be seen through those blog posts. While the data is still available, it’s harder to get to it when you have to look for it off-site.
But perhaps the most interesting missing article is the one mentioned above, “All Tesla Cars Being Produced Now Have Full Self-Driving Hardware.”
Tesla originally made this bold statement back in 2016, leading purchasers to think that autonomy was just around the corner, and that hardware upgrades wouldn’t be required to get us there. That statement remained on the website until yesterday, giving Tesla’s tacit approval to the concept that current Tesla vehicles still fall under the same promise – that if you buy a Tesla right now, it will eventually be able to drive itself.
Tesla has been talking about autonomous driving for years now, selling various levels of driver aids branded as “Autopilot” or “Full Self-Driving.” Cars have been through various iterations of capability, with different software and hardware updates on the path towards higher levels of autonomy.
So far, none of these systems are truly autonomous and able to drive themselves unsupervised by a human driver. Tesla is now calling its system “FSD (Supervised)” to drive home the point that the cars are not yet driving themselves.
Those required hardware upgrades have been a nagging issue when it comes to FSD.
Tesla has offered free upgrades to newer hardware to owners who purchased FSD, but when it started offering its FSD subscription service, it started charging owners $1,500 for hardware they already bought. After we reported on this, Tesla reduced the price to $1,000 – which is still $1,000 more than owners should have to pay for hardware they already paid for. Tesla, and its self-described “free speech absolutist” CEO Elon Musk, both retaliated against Electrek for our report on this matter.
The question has been asked in court as well, with some owners managing to get the paid-for upgrade they are entitled to or a full refund of their costs in small claims court. There are further cases working their way through the court system alleging Tesla has engaged in false advertising with its FSD claims.
With Tesla now moving on to further iterations of hardware, the question remains open about which vehicles will get the upgrades they already paid for, if those upgrades are found to be necessary for functional FSD. The cost of these upgrades could be significant, but given that every Tesla owner who has purchased a vehicle between 2016 and now was given the expectation that it has all the hardware for FSD, it would only be right that Tesla provide that hardware which it claimed all along that those vehicles were built and sold with.
As of now, all we know is that the blog post is gone, along with all the others prior to 2019. Tesla has not made any statement updating its promise that all Tesla cars produced since October 2016 come with self-driving hardware, whether to confirm that they still do or to say that the company has changed its mind for cars going forward.
We’d reach out for official comment, but Tesla doesn’t have anyone to reach out to – so, good luck figuring out what it is you’re buying.
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Fueled by incentives from the Illinois EPA and the state’s largest utility company, new EV registrations nearly quadrupled the 12% first-quarter increase in EV registrations nationally – and there are no signs the state is slowing down.
Despite the dramatic slowdown of Tesla’s US deliveries, sales of electric vehicles overall have perked up in recent months, with Illinois’ EV adoption rate well above the Q1 uptick nationally. Crain’s Chicago Business reports that the number of new EVs registered across the state totaled 9,821 January through March, compared with “just” 6,535 EVs registered in the state during the same period in 2024.
Those numbers represent more than 50% growth in EV registrations – far beyond the expected 12% first-quarter increase nationally being projected by Cox Automotive. (!)
What’s going on in Illinois?
While President Trump and Elmo were running for re-election, they campaigned on the threat promise of canceling the $7,500 federal tax credit for EVs. Along with California Governor Gavin Newsom, Illinois’ Governor JB Pritzker made countermoves – launching a $4,000 rebate for new electric cars and up to $1,500 for the purchase of a new electric motorcycle.
At the same time, the state’s largest utility, ComEd, launched a $90 million EV incentive program featuring a new Point of Purchase initiative to deliver instant discounts to qualifying business and public sector customers who make the switch to electric vehicles. That program has driven a surge in Class 3-6 medium duty commercial EVs, which are eligible fro $20-30,000 in utility rebates on top of federal tax credits and other incentives (Class 1-2 EVs are eligible for up to $7,500).
We covered the launch of those incentives when the program was announced at Chicago Drives Electric last year, but the message here is simple: incentives work.
SOURCES: Chicago Business, Ray Cunningham; featured image by the author.
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The electric construction equipment experts at XCMG just released a new, 25 ton electric crawler excavator ahead of bauma 2025 – and they have their eye on the global urban construction, mine operations, and logistical material handling markets.
Powered by a high-capacity 400 kWh lithium iron phosphate battery capable of delivering up to 8 hours of continuous operation, the XE215EV electric excavator promises uninterrupted operation at a lower cost of ownership and with even less downtime than its diesel counterparts.
XCMG is delivering on part of that reduced downtime promise with the lower maintenance and easier repair needs of electric equipment, and delivering on the rest of it with lickety-quick DC fast charging that can recharge the machine’s massive battery in 1.5-2 hours … but that’s not the slick bit. The XCMG XE125EV can be powered up without leaving the job site thanks to its BYD battery swap technology.
We first covered XCMG and its battery swap technology back in January, and covered similar battery-swap tech being developed by MOOG Construction offshoot ZQUIP, as well – but while XCMG’s battery tech has been in production for several years, it’s still not widely known about in the West (even within the industry).
XCMG showed off its latest electric equipment at the December 2024 bauma China, including an updated version of its of its 85-ton autonomous electric mining truck that features a fully cab-less design – meaning there isn’t even a place for an operator to sit, let alone operate. And that’s too bad, because what operator wouldn’t want to experience an electric truck putting down 1070 hp more than 16,000 lb-ft of torque!?
Easy in, easy out
The best part? All of the company’s heavy equipment assets – from excavators to terminal tractors to dump trucks and wheel loaders – all use the same 400 kWh BYD battery packs, Milwaukee tool style. That means an equipment fleet can utilize x number of vehicles with a fraction of the total battery capacity and material needs of other asset brands. That’s not just a smart use of limited materials, it’s a smarter use of energy.
You can check out all the XE215EV’s specs at this tear sheet, and get an in-person look at the Chinese company’s latest electric excavator this week in Munich, Germany.
SOURCE | IMAGES: XCMG.
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As “extreme” weather events become more commonplace, the demand for reliable and portable energy continues to rise. In response to that growing demand for dependable off-grid power, Volvo has developed the new PU500 Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) designed to take electrical power when it’s needed most.
Designed to be deployable in a number of environments at a moment’s notice, the Volvo Energy PU500 BESS is equipped with approximately 500 kWh of usable battery capacity (up to 540 kWh total). More than enough juice, in other words, to power a remote construction site, disaster response effort, or even a music festival – anything that needs access to reliable electricity beyond a grid connection.
That’s great, but what sets the PU500 apart from other battery storage solutions is its integrated 240 kW DC fast charger.
“With an integrated CCS2 charger, the PU500 is designed to work with all brands of electric equipment, trucks, and passenger cars,” says Niklas Thulin, Head of BESS Product Offer at Volvo Energy. “This ensures that no matter what type of electric vehicle or machinery you rely on, the PU500 can provide the power you need, making it a truly flexible solution for any grid constrained site or location.”
The integrated charger in the PU500 has the impressive ability to charge a heavy equipment asset (be that an electric semi truck or something like a wheel loader) in under two hours. Its on-board capacity allows to fully recharge up to 3 electric HD trucks or 20 electric cars per day, making it an incredibly versatile disaster response asset.
Electrek’s Take
As we often say over at The Heavy Equipment Podcast, “just because you’re working for the power company doesn’t mean you have power,” and there are hundreds of scenarios where the extra power provided by something like the new PU500 would be useful. Its ability to be palletized and easily moved or swapped out of a larger BESS array, too, just add to its flexibility.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Volvo.
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