Tesla Model S Announcement End to Range Anxiety

Tesla Model S Announcements 

End to Range Anxiety

+ 6.2 Coming Soon

Today, Elon Musk held a press conference to end range anxiety, as well as to announce some great new features for the Model S.

Musk announced that Version 6.2 of the Tesla OS will be delivered OTA (Over The Air) and it will include some awesome new features as outlined below:

Ending Range Anxiety

Tesla announced a new feature named Range Assurance, which will be included in 6.2. This innovative new solution will make sure you never run out of electricity and you can learn much more on the Tesla blog.

Blind Spot Warning

My favorite new feature is named Blind Spot Warning. Every car has some kind of blind spot where the B pillar gets in the way of you being able to see over your shoulder. The new Tesla Model S user-interface is pictured below.

The next screen-shot below shows that the car in front of you is getting too close, and the Tesla has automatically slowed down the car from 65 to 63. It also shows that there is a car traveling just behind you on your left side, so you don't try to quickly turn into the left lane.

The next screen shows how the car will warn you, and not allow you to hit the car next to you. It achieves this by using the sonar built-in to the Model S. 6.2 will also introduce a new feature that will aggressively apply the car brakes if the car detects you are likely to collide with another car or object. Notice how the UI (User Interface) automatically dims the left and right side panel information, to call attention to the pending potential collision.

Version 6.2 will also add a Valet mode that decreases the cars performance, and locks the glovebox and frunk. It also stops the screen from showing any personal information.

Version 7.0 Preview

Elon Musk also mentioned that Tesla was working on a complete UI overhaul that would arrive as part of version 7.0. Elon said"

“We’re pretty excited about the progress we’re making there. The main test route that we’re evaluating is the San Francisco to Seattle route, and we’re now almost able to travel all the way from San Francisco to Seattle without the driver touching any controls at all. That’s a feature that requires a lot of validation testing, but we’re hoping that we can start releasing the first sort of auto-steering features in about three months or so."

He mentioned that Autopilot will only work on highways, since completely autonomous driving requires more preparation.


You can listen to the audio from the press conference below: