This week, there have been official software updates, FSD updates, and unofficial reports of changes to Tesla’s customer referral program.
Tesla Referral Program
There are reports circulating that Tesla is going to make changes to its referral program…again. It seems the US auto manufacturer is looking to move the referral away from the free Supercharging that it previously being giving as an incentive to consumers to buy Teslas as well as to Tesla owners as a referral award.
However, this program looks to be changing to an app-based program to promote test drives and in-person referrals. Tesla has never been a company that spends millions on marketing or sales campaigns. It has always relied on car owners to promote the car brand and those owner who get a lot of referrals then win prizes.
Tesla’s Technoking, Elon Musk has mentioned before that his EV company would look at doing away with the referral program that gives away the free Supercharging miles that cost the company $23 million on Supercharger mile giveaways just in the last quarter.
The reports say that the change will use the Tesla Mobile App to get owners to offer test drives and the car owner and the potential buyer can link to the app to get referral points. This would also probably reduce the number of test drives at Tesla stores and perhaps Musk wants to limit the amount of Tesla stores, but we can only speculate and wait for the new referral program to rollout.
Software Updates
Earlier this week, Tesla released two software updates and availability is dependent on region and vehicle model.
Version 2021.4.15.6
- Cold weather improvements were made to improve the overall experience of the Tesla vehicle in cold weather. It also increased regenerative braking available in colder temperatures of 30-40°F.
- Voice recognition commands were updated for navigation, media searches, and phone calls.
- Some media enhancements were added such as Douyin can be accessed directly from the Tesla Theater app, QQ Lyrics is now available for you to sing along to your favorite songs on QQ Music, and music time is now displayed when streaming music over Bluetooth.
- Additional language support for Swedish and Slovenian support has been added.
Version 2021.4.16.1
Navigation has been improved with more intuitive maneuvers and accuracy. With more frequent voice guidance updates, you can navigate easily to any destination. This update is only compatible with the latest version of Navigation Maps.
FSD Subscriptions
Back in December 2020, Musk said that an FSD subscription would be made available next year and more recently, he said it would be coming this month. We can also expect the wider release of the FSD v9 beta by June, which is said to new vector-space visualizations.
Every Tesla shows visualizations on that helps drivers understand what the car is mapping, such as lane markings, cones, and other vehicles. If the vehicle has FSD HW 3.0 then drivers will see even more objects mapped such as trash cans, arrows on the road, traffic lights and more.
However, the current visualizations are matrix-like outlines that display stationary and moving objects in different colors. It’s a ‘simplified’ view but we knew this would not be the final product. The Technoking has recently said, a new FSD rendering approach is coming that will better representation of what’s shown on the screen.
Tesla has been completely rebuilding its neural networks and rewriting Autopilot software so that it can traverse city streets with much higher levels of reliability than we've ever seen before. It’s an exciting time for the Tesla company and drivers alike as the EV company is far ahead of the game and achieving what no other auto manufacturer has with advanced image processing.
