Tesla

Tesla owners wanting the latest and greatest should get used to a smartphone-style upgrade cadence, CEO Elon Musk has suggested, revealing the EV automaker's aggressive plans for new hardware roll-outs. The California car company has become notorious for pushing out wireless software updates that bring new features to owners' existing vehicles, at times to the consternation of safety regulators. However, as last year's Autopilot hardware upgrade conclusively demonstrated, not everything can be done with software.

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Tesla's latest Enhanced Autopilot update is finally rolling out today following months of delays. As CEO Elon Musk announced on Twitter, the update is coming to all Tesla vehicles with second-generation Autopilot hardware installed, known as HW2 models, which includes any Model S and Model X cars manufactured since October. Installed as an over-the-air update, it introduces new and improved semi-autonomous features.

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It looks like things are coming up Tesla today. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has closed its investigation into a fatal crash that was blamed on Tesla's Autopilot system, present in a variety of different Tesla models. The investigation was closed without any kind of recall, much to the joy of Elon Musk, who tweeted about the "very positive" final report.

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Tesla has begun pushing out its newest version of Autopilot to its latest-hardware cars, though drivers shouldn't expect to actually be able to use the tech initially. The roll-out is being delivered over-the-air, as is Tesla's standard practice, taking advantage of the connected cars' integrated modems. However, for the final round of testing, it'll only be observing - not taking part - in the driving process.

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For years Tesla's Superchargers have been the gravy-train for drivers of the upscale EVs, but as of this year's production that's all ending. Tesla's decision to begin charging for Supercharger access is, the company insists, all about funding its expansion rather than further lining its pockets. After all, Elon Musk & Co. point out, once the Model 3 arrives there'll be a significantly larger number of Tesla drivers on the road.

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An electric vehicle is really only as good as the charging network that supports it. After all, what use is all that energy efficiency and environment friendliness if you run out of charge in the middle of your trip with no charger in sight. That is why Tesla is investing heavily in its Supercharging system, not just in infrastructure and efficiency but also in its accessibility for Tesla EV owners. The latter apparently means giving brand new owners some free kWh every year on the birthday of their car's delivery some free Supercharging credits.

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Apple's Swift head has left the company and joined Tesla, it's been confirmed today, where he'll be the automaker's VP of Autopilot Software. Chris Lattner spent eleven years at Apple, most recently as Senior Director of the Developer Tools Department. There, he was primarily responsible for creating Swift, the programming language Apple pushed developers over to in 2014, and which was made open-source in 2015.

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Hot on the heels of the reveal of Faraday Future's FF 91, Tesla has its own news to share. Tesla may not be revealing a new car today, but what it is doing could potentially be just as big: the company announced today that is has flipped the switch at its Gigafactory in Reno, Nevada. It's here that Tesla will be producing lithium-ion battery cells for use in its electric vehicles and energy storage devices.

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Tesla's weekend has been busy, with the automaker starting the roll-out of Autopilot to its latest models, as well as extending the window for free Supercharger use. The software update, which according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk began distribution on December 31, 2016, will only be uploaded over-the-air to 1,000 cars initially. After that point, and assuming there are no in-the-field problems observed, it'll be more broadly distributed in the coming week.

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Driver assistance technologies like Tesla Autopilot are billed as ways to keep human drivers out of trouble, but it's always impressive to see just how well they can work. Footage of a Tesla in Autopilot mode predicting a likely crash on the road ahead, and stomping on the brakes to keep out of trouble, has emerged from an incident in the Netherlands. According to the video, shared by Hans Noordsij, the Tesla Model X sounded the forward collision warning and began slowing before the human driver had time to react.

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Tesla and Panasonic will build solar panels together in a Buffalo, New York factory the two have agreed today, with Panasonic pumping more than $255m into the venture. The deal, which is expected to see production kick off in the summer of 2017, marks a deepening of the business relationship between the two companies as the ambitions of each expands. Panasonic already supplies the lithium-ion batteries that Tesla uses in the Model S and Model X electric cars, for instance.

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Elon Musk is a busy man between Tesla and SpaceX, he also likes to tease company plans via Twitter and has recently teased a coming version of the Supercharger. If you are unfamiliar, the Supercharger network is a network of high-powered charging stations intended to combat range anxiety and allow freer EV travelling. Elon Musk recently teased Supercharger V3 and it sounds like a serious update.

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