Ride the Lightning: Tesla and EV Podcast Dec 14, 2025

Episode 541: Tesla Holiday Software Update Arrives

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Part

custom full self-driving chip

Rivian made its own computer chip that helps cars drive themselves. It processes data from cameras and sensors to decide how the car should move.

Car

Tesla Roadster

Tesla Roadster is a fast electric car that Tesla plans to sell. It will be very quick and can reach speeds over 200 miles per hour.

Part

Hardware 3

Hardware 3 is the chip inside a Tesla that lets it drive itself and run new software updates.

Concept

software update

Think of it like updating your phone’s operating system; the car gets new instructions that can improve how it works or add new functions.

Term

holiday update

During the holiday season, Tesla pushes a set of updates to many cars at once, adding new tricks or fixing problems.

Term

navigation commands

Instead of tapping on the map, you can say "Navigate to 123 Main St" and the car will plan the route for you.

Term

grok AI functionality

It’s like talking to a smart assistant inside the car; you can say things like "Take me to the nearest gas station" and the system understands.

Term

cabin facing camera

It’s a camera inside the car that watches what’s happening inside, like who is in the seats and how they’re moving.

Term

FSD

FSD is a software package from Tesla that helps the car drive itself, like steering and braking, without you having to do it all the time.

Car

Model 3

The Model 3 is a small electric car from Tesla that many people buy because it’s affordable and has good battery life.

Part

custom wraps

Custom wraps are like stickers that cover a car’s paint. They let you change how the car looks without repainting, and you can remove them later.

Concept

Tesla avatar

A Tesla avatar is a virtual character that shows up on the car’s screen. You can change how it looks, like its face or clothes, to make driving feel more personal.

Term

window tint level

Window tint level is how dark the car’s windows are. It helps keep the sun out and makes the inside cooler, but you have to follow local laws about how dark it can be.

Term

supercharger

A supercharger is a special charging point that can fill up your electric car very quickly, so you don’t have to wait long.

Concept

pilot station

Pilot stations are a few special charging spots that Tesla uses to try out new features before adding them everywhere.

Term

live occupancy

Live occupancy tells you if a charging spot is free or already in use, so you can plan where to park and charge.

Part

sensors in the seats that detect weight

The car has tiny sensors in the seats that can tell how many people are sitting, so it knows if there’s a passenger or not.

Term

phone key

You can use your phone to unlock and start the car instead of a key, as long as it’s near the vehicle.

Term

wireless charger

The car has a spot where you can put your phone and it will charge automatically, no need to plug in a cable.

Concept

range anxiety

Some people worry that an electric car might run out of power before they can find a place to charge it, which is called range anxiety.

Term

megawatt hours

A megawatt hour is a big unit that tells how much electricity was used or stored. One megawatt hour equals one million regular watt-hours.

Concept

autonomy plus subscription

Instead of paying a big price once, you pay a monthly fee to use the car’s smart driving features.

Term

neural network

It’s a computer system that learns patterns, like recognizing road signs or other cars, to help the vehicle drive safely.

Term

deep learning

It’s a way for computers to get better at tasks, like recognizing objects on the road, by learning from many examples.

Concept

ride sharing

Ride sharing is when people use a car together, like Uber or Lyft, so everyone shares the ride and the cost.

Concept

autonomous driving

Some cars can steer and brake on their own, but usually a driver still needs to watch out for traffic.

Part

LiDAR

LiDAR is like a laser radar that helps cars see objects around them by bouncing light off surfaces.

Part

Michelin Sport 4S tires

These are special tires made by Michelin that give cars a good grip on the road, especially when driving fast or turning sharply. They’re meant for sporty cars.

Term

ceramic coating

Ceramic coating is a clear spray you put on your car’s paint that makes it super shiny and hard to scratch. It also keeps water from sticking, so the car stays cleaner longer.

Term

paint correction

Paint correction is a careful cleaning that takes away tiny scratches and swirl marks from your car’s paint, making it look like new again.

Part

Paint protection film is a clear sheet you stick on your car’s paint to keep it looking new. It stops little scratches and rock chips from ruining the finish, and you can take it off later if you want.

LIVE

On this week's episode of Ride the Lightning, the Tesla and EV Podcast, Tesla has delivered

a stuffed stocking to its customers in the form of this year's holiday software update

that adds over a dozen new features to the cars.

Plus, more clear indications that Tesla is actually going to finally build the new

Tesla Roadster, Rivian unveils its new custom full self-driving chip and more.

What's happening friends alongside Daisy the Boxer and Lily the Silly Labrador Puppy?

My name is Ryan McCaffrey, welcome to episode 541 of Ride the Lightning, your weekly Tesla

and EV Podcast, publishing on December 14th, 2025.

We are firmly in the holiday season.

I am exhausted.

I was in LA again for what I calculated, well calculated.

I remembered I was in my hotel room going, how many times have I been down here this year?

And the answer is 8 times.

I went to LA 8 times this year.

Two of those were for Tesla stuff, were to interview Franz for episode 500 and then

just what?

What was that like a month or so ago?

Month and a half ago for the most recent one?

So yeah, a lot of trips to LA this year and had a great time.

I was there for a day job function, but man, I'm tired.

But the good news is I got most of my podcast prep done before I left so that I was able

to just touch it up and here I go here with episode 541.

Well I am recording on my normal Friday night, but as I mentioned at the top of last week's

episode I was recording early because I was heading down to Arizona to visit my parents

and well every now and again I do get burned by recording a little early, which is why

I always preemptively apologize for it when I do.

And sure enough, last week Tesla did in fact have a fairly rare big news drop on a Friday

because typically I have observed over the years.

They tend to do all of their big business announcement wise on Thursdays and well last

Friday they announced the holiday software update which as of this recording has begun

rolling out to lots of cars, not necessarily everybody just yet speaking for myself.

I have the holiday software update installing right now on our 2018, so on our hardware 3 car,

but my new car, the AI4 car, still has not received the update.

But I wanted to go through this holiday software update with you now because there's a lot

in here and it's just, you know, this is the biggest software update we get every

year part of the just awesomeness that I try not to take for granted with Tesla

is that they give us free updates all year long and they will add, you know, we don't

get big new features every time certainly, but we do get them on a regular basis and

then at the holidays the Tesla team always tries to make it a little extra special by

bundling a ton of stuff in there.

Now I know cynically you could say well maybe they're holding some of the features

that they could just release throughout the year so that they put them out in this

big holiday package.

I'm not listening or I'm not willing to argue about that I should say I'm willing to listen

to that but I'm not going to argue about it.

Point is every year we do get a big free software update that's always called the holiday

update and so I wanted to run through that with you now so first up there are over

a dozen here so this is going to take a few minutes.

The first one is more grok AI functionality it's grok with navigation commands and Tesla

says this is a beta implementation of this grok can now add and edit navigation destinations

becoming your personal guide to use navigation commands set grok's personality to assistant.

Well I haven't had a chance to try this out yet because obviously like I just said

I've only got it installing right now in one car still waiting for it in the other but this

one's pretty cool.

Tesla posted a demo video of this in action on their X account and the driver in this

video who happened to be in San Francisco told grok that he wanted to take a tour of

the city and wanted to stop at three famous locations so he speaks that requests that

of grok and the car planned a route for him through the city around the city that included

stops at all three so that one seems like it could be a really fun one for people particularly

when you're in a new place.

Feature number two the Tesla photo booth turn your car into a photo booth take selfies

from inside your Tesla and give yourself a makeover with fun filters stickers and

emojis share with others right from the Tesla app to access this go to toy box and then tap

photo booth.

What a great idea this one is like this is a genuinely like does it does it materially

change your day to day driving of course not but what a fun idea this is it's just

such a great way to get your friends and family involved in having fun in the car

which you know the clip I play at the very end of every episode since he first said it

some years ago from Elon where he tells Joe Rogan in his first interview on that podcast

he says that he says a Tesla should be the most fun thing like in your life the most

fun product in your life I'm paraphrasing here but this is a great example of that

the photo booth so you're getting again you're getting your friends and family involved everybody

in the car is getting involved having a little fun even if they're in the back seat the cabin

facing camera can still see them I mean I I do find it somewhat amusing to see Tesla

using the cabin facing camera all the time now for both practical day to day things

like FSD but also fun stuff like this there's also the zoom app from a couple years ago I

mean I remember I'm old enough to remember when I got my first Model 3 back in 2018 and

that cabin facing camera was in every single car but it sat completely dormant completely

unused for many years but Tesla is putting those cabin facing cameras to work now after

again loading them in every single car every Model 3 that's ever been built and then obviously

every Model Y that's ever been built and S's and X's from a certain point onward as well

so love seeing a little fun with the cabin facing camera feature number three in the

holiday software update dog mode live activity so this is for my fellow iPhone users out

there when dog mode is active you'll see a live activity on your iPhone featuring periodic

snapshots of your vehicle's cabin along with live updates on temperature battery and climate

conditions so I know I've said this before dog mode is my second favorite software update

ever well at least since I became a Tesla owner some everybody's timeline on that's

going to be a little different number one for me is sentry mode like adding a free security

system to the car dash cam system amazing dog mode though is a strong second on my list

of favorite software updates that I've ever gotten since becoming a Tesla owner so anytime

Tesla makes dog mode better it makes me happy and this is a nice enhancement in a live

activities is obviously a newer iOS feature it's a pretty useful feature on the iPhone in

fact just as I was flying today the airline apps tend to make use of it now United I would

say makes particularly good use of of the live activity function compared to Southwest

which is what I was on today where they don't do too much with it but anyway live

activities are a pretty neat little iOS feature I'm not sure if I don't want to get into

the whole Android versus Apple war because I know people have strong feelings about those

I have nothing against Android at all I've just never used it I know that they've got

a lot of great features and a lot of times they get they have features and androids

before iPhones do but anyway it's an iPhone feature for now and it's it's cool to

see this I mean Tesla is in fact already using live activities in another way which is with

super charging and some of you may have already noticed this that when you plug into a super

charger you'll get that live activity that tells you the status update of what's going

on with your your current super charging session so having all of that key dog mode

information right on my phone's home screen without having to go back into the Tesla

app then go back into the dog mode screen that is a really welcome feature love this

one speaking of Sentry mode which I was mentioning a minute ago as my favorite

Tesla software update ever there was an enhancement to that as well a dash cam

viewer update dash cam clips now include additional details such as speed

steering wheel angle and self-driving state so I want to give a shout out on

this one I'm not sure if he's gonna hear this but to my friend Gregor truck that's

his username on X Greg he's a really nice guy who lives in the Phoenix area in

Arizona he's a he's a an outspoken Tesla Cybertruck superfan I don't mean

outspoken in a bad way Greg but he's he's a vocal let's put it that way he's

a vocal Cybertruck superfan on X and he has been asking for this feature for

a while now and it's great to see the Tesla team deliver it because I mean in

practical terms it could be a benefit to insurance claims if say you can use this

to prove what speed you were going and if you are on FSD if you end up God

forbid involved in an accident this could really be of use in a legitimate

actual life-changing or at least extra security kind of way let's put it that

way on next Santa mode Santa mode now adds festive snowmen trees a lock chime

and snow effects for a 3d visual treat go to toy box and click Santa for this

one so it's nice to see Tesla just again continue to add to that we've

had Santa stuff you know the the reindeer the sleigh and the reindeer for a while

now and so it's that's been added to hey a new light show we've got a light show

update Tesla says new light show jingle rush play instantly or schedule it up

to 10 minutes in advance either on a single vehicle or sink with friends you

can also control interior lighting add display color effects and create

longer custom shows so again more fun more fun with the cars here I do like to

play every time that Tesla adds a new light show to the cars which so far has

been each of the last couple of holiday software updates I like to play the new

ones for my extended family at Christmas when we're all together so I will do

that again this year probably on Christmas Eve with jingle rush next custom wraps

and license plates for your in-car display personalize your Tesla avatar with

window tints custom wraps and license plates use one of many preloaded

designs or create and upload your own using a USB flash drive to make your

vehicle unique access this in the toy box where you tap paint shop so this one I

like this if I can set my tint level to what it is approximately in real life

and I can put my custom license plate on my on my on-screen version of my car

that's that's fun that's just a nice little silly little thing that just

again makes Tesla ownership just a little like 1% more fun so I appreciate Tesla

leaning into the customization culture that is definitely very strong in the

Tesla community with this one getting back to more functional improvements we

have navigation improvements reorder your navigation favorites and set home

or work by dropping a pin anywhere on the map you can also view suggested

destinations based on your recent trips and habits while parked so I want to

key in on the first four words of that description reorder your navigation

favorites being able to finally after all these years reorder my navigation

favorites is kind of the silliest little thing that I couldn't be more excited

about like the ratio of how like minor this feature is in the grand scheme of

things to my my actual excitement level it's like it's an inverse

relationship here it's a tiny little thing in the grand scheme but I'm

really excited about that because now I can I can really get my favorites list

in the order of basically preference of most favorite down to my least favorite

favorite so thank you Tesla software team for this one while we are in

practicality land here's one supercharger site map you can now see a 3d view of

select Tesla superchargers by tapping view site map this is only currently

available on 18 pilot stations so Tesla says when navigating to a pilot location

the site layout and live occupancy in other words available stall occupied stall

or down stall will be displayed upon arrival I am gonna have to make a go

go and make a point to try this one because one of the 18 or so stations that

this is being piloted at is one that in fact as it coincidentally happens I was

just there like a week ago and I go there on a semi regular basis because it's

near the in-and-out burger that I go to all the time or at least the one I tend

to go to when I go to in and out burger so I wonder if this is gonna be

eventually rolled out to every supercharger or if they're piloting

this because they're not sure if it's gonna get utilized if it's gonna be

worth putting the resources into in order to roll it out to every supercharger

I guess we'll find out I suppose the the best thing I can do if I want this

feature to make it to be implemented for every supercharger is to go use it

so like I said I'm gonna I'm gonna have to go try this one out another

super practical one here maybe the most practical of all the updates in the

holiday software update this year is automatic HOV lane routing navigation now

includes an option to use high occupancy vehicle carpool lanes or HOV lanes your

route will automatically select the carpool lane when eligible based on

time location passenger count and road restrictions to activate this go to

controls navigation and then tap use HOV lanes so this one yes it is what you

think it is I've had at least one or two listeners call in asking for this

over the years and that is asking for the car to know whether or not to use

the HOV lane based on how many passengers that it knows are in the car

either via the sensors in the seats that detect weight in the seats and or via

that cabin facing camera so here it is Tesla is doing that I also love that

it knows what time now that that it's you know that you need to have

multiple passengers in order to to legally use the HOV lane and what

times like on the weekends typically where just anybody can use it so this is

probably going to be super beneficial to a lot of you particularly if you

commute to and from your job each day another super useful feature in fact

this one I think my wife is going to very much appreciate is phone left

behind chime your vehicle will chime a few seconds after the doors close

if a phone key is inside the cabin or a phone is left on the wireless charger

and no occupants are detected phone key detection requires a UWB supported

device go to controls locks phone left behind chime to turn this one on so again

a small but significant safety feature here speaking about my wife so she

has sometimes left her phone in the car when she drives to her favorite jogging

spot and she occasionally forgets to turn it off because she's a human being

and that's fine and I know because I get the push notifications on my phone

since obviously both cars are on on both of our phones so I'll get the

push notification telling me that the car has been left unlocked and then

I'll just text her back so this one will be most welcome for her that the car

will now let her know if she has if she's left the phone in the car when she

goes jogging charge limit per location you can now save a charge limit for

your current location while parked and it will be applied automatically next

time that you charge there go to controls charging to sort this one

out so if you tend to charge somewhere on a semi regular basis where you only

want to top it up a little bit you know maybe it's at a public non super

charger station where the cost per kilowatt hour is super high so you

only want to have it like do a few bucks worth rather than charge like all

the way up to your charging limit so now you can do that on a per location

basis we are almost done by the way just a couple more here the next one is a

SpaceX ISS docking simulator become an astronaut and prove your skills by docking

with the International Space Station control and guide the spacecraft in this

3d docking simulator game using a set of controls based on actual interfaces

used by NASA astronauts go to arcade and SpaceX ISS docking simulator to play it

so a fun little way to kill a few minutes at a supercharger for this one that's

what it seems like probably the best the most frequent use use case for this

one's gonna be and then under other improvements we have enable or disable

wireless phone charging pads in controls charging for s3x and y or controls

outlets and mods if you have a Cybertruck so for people that want to turn that

wireless charging pad off for instance if you know you don't want your phone to

cook on there because it's already reached the charge limit well there you

go you can turn it off next in other improvements add Spotify tracks to your

queue right from the search screen and scroll through large Spotify playlists

albums podcast hello audiobooks and your library seamlessly without paging good

stuff there then take the vibes up another level with rainbow colors during

rave cave accent lights color will change along with the beats of your

music go to app launcher toy box and light sync to activate that I will

probably give that one a try because I love the rave cave and then finally lock

sound now includes the light cycle from tron so go to toy box boom box lock

sound to find that good stuff you know maybe not the sort of top tier features

like in terms of like if we're if we're ranking if we're assigning each of

these new features a rank like in terms of coolness or usefulness like and we've

you know S tier is the top then ABC you know this maybe maybe isn't an S tier

holiday software update compared to some other years but it's a really good one

like there's a nice legitimately good mix of genuinely functional things here

and then some fun stuff so I wanted to see what you guys thought of the holiday

software update and thus I made it the subject of this week's patreon poll the

question was simply what new feature in this year's holiday software update are

you most excited about I think this poll set the record for most number of poll

choices ever there's like I don't even know it's maybe 1214 let's see

36 oh it's it's like it's a lot it's maybe like 15 plus thank you to the almost

300 people who kindly stopped by my patreon page to cast your vote this week a

reminder you do not have to be supporting me on patreon to vote in each

week's patreon poll it's free open to everybody just swing on by patreon.com

slash Tesla podcast and cast your vote in each week's poll the poll

typically goes out on Tuesday night so the winner of this week's poll pretty

handily I would say it had more than double the number of votes of any other

choice with 37% of the vote grok with navigation commands is the winner of

this week's poll second place was the phone left behind chimes so clearly my

wife will not be the only person looking forward to that one that got 18% of

your votes then 16% went to the dash cam viewer update that adds the time stamps of

or excuse me it stamps the clips with your speed steering angle and whether

or not fsd was activated everything else was single digit some didn't even get

a single vote so those are the the clear winners in this week's patreon

poll so again thanks to everybody for taking the time to swing on by and

cast your vote continuing along this week a congratulations to giga shang hi

and everybody that's worked their past or present they built their four millionth

vehicle this past week Tesla made a very brief announcement on their ex

account saying quote produced our four millionth vehicle at giga factory

shang hi thanks to all our owners and supporters and there are no doubt

plenty of you I don't know if I have very many listeners in China but those of

you in Europe who do not have a model why those of you driving a I guess it really

would be a model three so those of you driving model threes in Europe you have

a giga shang hi built car if you've got a three or a why in Australia and I've

got plenty of Australian listeners that's a giga shang hi built car so if

you're curious about the timeline here I had to go back and look this up

this four million vehicle milestone it's in almost exactly like almost to the

day six years that they've achieved this and considering that the model why

Tesla's obviously highest volume vehicle by a lot didn't exist when giga

shang hi first opened and thus the early days of that factory were model three

only the output at giga shang hi is genuinely pretty darn incredible at least

on the Tesla scale and to that end it dwarfs dwarfs what other Tesla's other

factories produce in fact for a bit more context Tesla as a whole just hit eight

million total vehicles produced by the entire company back in June so six

months ago it was eight they hit eight million so giga shang hi has contributed

nearly half very nearly half of the cars that Tesla has ever built in just

six years and that so really compared to those other three factories man you

have no disrespect to to Berlin or Fremont or Texas but shang hi boy has

been has been on turbo mode for its entire six-year run here next this week

Tesla is gamifying supercharging a bit in a fun way and you could win free

supercharging for the life of your car at least as as long as you own it that

is Tesla posted on X saying celebrate your year with Tesla in January free

supercharging will be awarded to nine outstanding users who explored their

charging passport with the top three in each category below category one

longest distance between superchargers visited in other words if you visited

one in Alaska and then visited one in south Florida in Miami you've got a

chance to win in that category number two category two most energy charge so

that's that's gonna be your pardon the pun power users and then category three

most unique supercharger sites visited meaning not Kettleman City as in a

unique site that is unlike other sites but the most the highest number of

different superchargers visited Max Deziger from the Tesla charging team posted

on X as he often does when the Tesla charging team makes some kind of

announcement he said quote despite investing billions in superchargers

range anxiety is often the number one concern for buying a Tesla with

passport we want to one inspire more customers to hit the road I'm already

motivated by the longest trip badge to have customers share their passport

amplifying the elect the epic journeys they're taking with superchargers word

of mouth from friends showing their actual trips feels the most trustworthy

range anxiety turned into range confidence so thank you max well of those

three categories and I guess it's if I were to kind of generalize this a

little bit I feel like only the real road warriors out there are gonna have a

shot at winning this really appealing prize of having free supercharging for

the duration of the time that you own the car but I guess I suppose that's the

point of on Tesla side right they want to reward those who use their cars and

use the superchargers the most so I can't be too mad about that I guess I

suppose my only constructive nitpick to that would be that most people's lives you

know that lot of lot of us we love our Teslas we love these cars we love the

superchargers but most people's lives I think it's fair to say don't allow

them to have really any shot in any of those three categories I'm not saying

that it's not a fair contest I'm not trying to say that but maybe Tesla could

say randomly choose three more winners since they're doing these in sort of

groups of three winners per category randomly choose three more winners

among everybody who's visited at least one supercharger in the last year

right just make it add a little just random drawing to it because the

downside I think in my humble opinion I say politely of awarding this to people

who are already using the superchargers a lot is that they're already doing the

thing that Tesla is trying to encourage if if you grab a few more random

winners who aren't necessarily road warriors because they're just their

lives are structured in a way that doesn't necessarily allow that it might

encourage them to do more driving and more supercharging but again just a minor

maybe hopefully constructive bit of feedback there I do think this is a

great program and I think it's awesome to see it so good luck to all of you

going for it on this or maybe getting ready to go after it for next year for

2026 and by the way if you're wondering wait what's charging passport make sure

that your Tesla app is updated then open up the Tesla app go into the charging

menu of the app and you should see your charging passport lit up like a Christmas

tree in the middle of the screen tap that and it will show you your stats for

the year and your achievement badges I just want to give you mine real quick

because they are fun these are for I'm gonna give you my spirit of adventure

stats our 2018 car because that's the one that we supercharge all the time

because it's got free lifetime supercharging whereas my new one the

Soul of Adventure I I don't think I've supercharged it once since my three free

months of supercharging that came with the purchase of the car expired back in

March so on the spirit of adventure I only visited seven unique superchargers

clearly I did not road trip in either car this year I had a total of 86 charging

sessions I added a total number of miles total number of supercharging miles

added 7479 and I have a bunch of charging badges 1 2 3 4 5 6 of them I got

the charging streak badge where I supercharged at least 10 weeks in a row

and in fact my streak was 12 it says the I got the mega charger badge you

charged a total of 2.5 megawatts mega watt hours it was technically 2554 kilowatt

hours which obviously translates to 2.5 megawatt hours to generate that amount

of energy you would have to walk on a treadmill for 327 days straight my next

badge is green driver which I got for adding at least 5,000 miles worth of

mileage via supercharging they say that's 249 gallons of gasoline replaced with a

mission-free energy then I got the sustainable saver badge by which I got

for saving at least $300 in gasoline savings and in fact mine by charging with

Tesla instead of using gas you saved an estimated $1,176 love that and then

my last two badges were the supercharger badge where it's I charged most at

superchargers versus charging at home which of course again for for that car

that's what's worked well for us because it lives outside and it's easier to

just supercharge it on the weekends when we're out and about you charged two

megawatt hours at superchargers adding 5,908 miles of range and then I

got the first supercharge badge which was I guess everybody gets that one if you

just supercharge once the first supercharger you visited this year was in

San Bruno, California on January 2nd so I did not waste a lot of time before I

got to charge in that's really fun I really like seeing Tesla do that I know

you know was it was it Spotify I think that kind of pioneered that with

the year your year in review and now like everybody's doing it but so what

it's fun like I'm glad to see Tesla getting in on that as well before I

continue with plenty more Tesla and big Rivian news this week just a quick word

from my friends at X care your EV warranty might be expiring before too

long depending on how long you've had the car slash how long or how often

how far you've been driving it so what is next well you don't want

something like a dead battery flat tire roadside surprise those things can

happen though so when your factory coverage ends the higher risk begins

that's where X care EV protection comes in it is the number one rated EV warranty

yes even chat GPT and grok say so if you ask them X care covers what others

don't from the EV battery and drive unit to towing rental coverage and 24 7

roadside help because if your EV stops X care does not check your vehicles

eligibility today at X care dot com that's X C a R E dot com or talk to a

real person right now at 844 755 4186 that's X care dot com or call

844 755 4186 you guys know I am a now two-time customer of X care we've got

the second policy in effect on our 2018 so I'm not worried about anything that

might pop up on what is a now seven-year-old car and that's only gonna

get older so drive with confidence with X care oh and by the way I hope all

of you who are kindly supporting me over on patreon.com slash Tesla podcast

enjoyed this week's I won't say special but it was a it was a particularly

unique lightning round this week the extra bonus mini episode that I do

exclusively over on patreon each week this one was my one-year ownership

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serious but I talked through the entire experience thus far after my first year

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information head on over to patreon.com slash Tesla podcast next up this week

more signs that the new Tesla Roadster is finally actually going to get built I

saw this on Tesla tipster Sawyer merits feed but it was first spotted by

Tesla Yoda on X who does follow me so if you're out there Tesla Yoda you I must

thank sorry that was that was probably really bad that's right we're here to

have fun Tesla has posted two new jobs related to the next-gen Roadster

specifically in addition to the first one that I had already told you about

I don't know a month or so back on the podcast the new job postings are

a manufacturing vision engineer for battery vision on the Roadster specifically

and then there's technical program manager in battery manufacturing for

Roadster so the manufacturing vision gig is based out of Palo Alto so

presumably at Tesla's engineering headquarters whereas the other two job

listings this other new one and then the one I had first told you about a

month or so back those are in Fremont presumably at Tesla's advanced battery

facility on Cato Road which is just down the way from the Fremont factor I'm

talking like it's like maybe a mile away for those of you that aren't familiar

so anyway here's part of the manufacturing vision jobs job description

quote scale advanced inspection and control systems for next-generation battery

products this position will help drive technological advancement in this area

as part of a small specialized team Tesla is demanding or is a demanding and

fast-paced environment where you will work with a highly motivated team on

extremely challenging projects and quote again this is on top of that first job

posting that was spotted for this car that I talked about on that recent

episode and the reason that I mention this I promise I'm not going to

mention every single Roadster job listing that gets listed on the

Tesla careers website but the reason why these first few are of

particular interest to me is because this is not exaggeration there were

exactly zero job postings for anything specifically related to the Roadster

prior to these few recent ones so this truly genuinely is the first

indication that this car is finally going to convert from vaporware into an

actual product that people can buy so bring on April 1st if in fact April

Fool's Day is going to be the day that the unveiling happens and if it is that

means there's less than four months to go before we finally see this car and

its production intent version finally in I guess this isn't actually even

really Tesla news specifically it's in them it's in the Tesla verse it's fun

news about the upcoming expansion of the boring companies Vegas Loop according

to the Las Vegas Review Journal newspaper the boring company plans Vegas Loop

Airport rides in early 2026 rather than just tell you I'll let the folks

from the Las Vegas Review Journal tell you here is their news clip on it

boring company plans to offer Vegas Loop Airport rides in early 2026 the

company's president Steve Davis said during a live chat on X last week

Davis said the Vegas Loop has more than 10 miles of tunnels dug and about four

miles of it are operational he said the next step will be opening the

University Center Loop which will feature the first station to serve

Harry Reid International Airport boring has a site on Paradise Road across

from the Thomas and Max Center and one at Palo Verde near the Airport

Connector Review Journal transportation reporter Mick Akerz tells us more

airport officials have confirmed they put in the further permit to be able

to offer those rides earlier last month they got approval by the NTA to

offer above ground rides up to four miles but they have to include rides

within the loop itself that's it's going to target the airport rides

itself because there are two areas where they can kind of come out of

ground and go to the airport and they're both right near it you know

V they're not actually within the airport footprint and so they're going

to have to be above ground for some portion of that travel for more on the

Vegas Loop plans visit LVR J.com I've said it before and I'll say it

again I can't wait to get to Vegas at some point to try this out I've

got family there so I do have a built-in excuse so at some point I

will find my way to Las Vegas and definitely try out the boring loop at

least now whenever my time to visit Vegas does arrive I'll be able to just

try it out straight from the airport so that's that's a nice bonus but I love

seeing the expansion of this again I've I've lauded Las Vegas leadership

repeatedly because I just I'm so impressed with them for commit like

trying a new technology trying something new that makes sense for their

city and the way it's laid out and the weather and it's it just seems like it's

been a hit you know there's continued expansion plans for this in Vegas so

love to see it by the way if I have any Las Vegas listeners out there I just I

don't know why this pops into mind but I guess cuz I've been making pizza now

with my my home pizza oven that my wife got me last Christmas and but if

you're in Vegas either you live there or you're gonna be visiting I will I have a

pizza rec a recommendation for you it's in downtown Las Vegas so not the strip

but downtown and it's called Pizza Rock it is a restaurant from San Francisco's

own world-class pizza Iolo Tony Jim and Yanni and I go to Tony's a lot

not like a lot but I I go there at least a couple times a year two three times a

year probably which I guess for me is a lot just incredible pizza and yeah Pizza

Rock I haven't actually been to Pizza Rock but I've looked at like I've

checked it out and it's got some of the same pizzas from the menu like so

there's it is it is a Tony's pizza joint and thus even though I haven't

actually been there I can definitely endorse it as a Tony Jim and Yanni

joint so do take a look on the fact try the New Yorker if you go it's done in a

proper coal-fired oven and it is a tremendous pizza that anytime I've ever

recommended it to someone and they actually try it they actually go to

Tony's here in San Francisco nobody has ever come back to me with anything

less than like thank you that was the pizza was awesome so there you go

there's my there's my free plug for for Pizza Rock in Vegas alright let's move

on to other EV news which is very much headlined this week by Rivian who held

its own AI and autonomy day this week and unveiled its own version of an

FSD computer as well as its next steps in their roadmap towards autonomy

towards self-driving vehicles I'm gonna just tip my cap to Tesla Roddy I was in

LA for work and I wasn't able to watch this and then I came right home and had

to do the podcast so I'm gonna I'm gonna tip my cap to Tesla Roddy and read you

their article on it which I thought summed it up pretty well because I did

I mean I saw a bunch of stuff on social and so here's here's the gist of it

courtesy of Tesla Roddy Rivian unveiled itself driving chip and autonomy plans to

compete with Tesla and others at its AI and autonomy day in Palo Alto this week

Rivian a mainstay in the world of electric vehicle startups said it plans

to roll out an autonomy plus subscription as well as a one-time purchase

option priced for the subscription at 50 bucks a month 49.99 per month and if

you want to do the one-time purchase $2,500 for access to its self-driving suite

Rivian CEO RJ Scarron said it will learn and become more confident and robust as

more miles are driven and it gathers more data this is what Tesla uses through

a neural network as it uses deep learning to improve with every mile

traveled RJ said quote I couldn't be more excited for the work our teams

are driving in autonomy in AI our updated hardware platform which includes our

in-house 1600 sparse trillion operations per second inference chip will enable us

to achieve dramatic progress in self-driving to ultimately deliver on

our goal of delivering level four this represents an inflection point for the

ownership experience ultimately being able to give customers their time back

when in the car end quote at first Rivian plans to offer the service to

personally owned vehicles and not operate as a ride hailing service however ride

sharing is in the plans for the future as RJ said quote while our initial focus

will be on personally owned vehicles which today represent a vast majority of

the miles in the United States this also enables us to pursue

opportunities in the ride share space end quote Rivian is not using a vision

only approach as Tesla does and instead will rely on 11 cameras 5 radar sensors

and a single LiDAR that will face forward it is also developing a chip in

house which will be manufactured by TSMC a supplier of Tesla's as well not to

mention like half the world side note the chip will be known as RAP one and will be

about 50 times as powerful as the chip that is currently in Rivian vehicles it

will also do more than 800 trillion calculations every second RAP one powers

the autonomy compute module three known as ACM three which is Rivian's third

generation autonomy computer ACM three specs include 1600 sparse INT 8 trillion

operations per second the processing power of 5 billion pixels per second RAP one

features Riv link a low latency interconnect technology allowing chips to

be connected to multiply processing power making it inherently extensible and

then RAP one is enabled by an in-house developed AI compiler and platform

software as far as LiDAR Rivian plans to use it in its forthcoming R2 cars to

enable SAE level for automated driving which would allow people to sit in the

back and according to the agency's ratings will not require you to take

over driving Rivian said it will also roll out advancements to the second

generation R1 vehicles in the near term with the addition of UHF or universal

hands-free which will be available on over three and a half million miles of

roadway in the United States and Canada as Rivian says you can it'll be able

to work on any road with clearly defined lanes Rivian will now join the

competitive ranks with Tesla Waymo Zooks and others who are all in the

race for autonomy well there you go thank you to Tesla Roddy for that

excellent summary and first of all I'd like to say congratulations to Rivian

because while a lot of other automakers have autonomous driving plans or some

kind of autonomous or semi-autonomous driver assistance features Rivian is

the first one outside of Tesla to actually design custom hardware specifically

for the task and I'm leaving Waymo out here because they're not a consumer you

can't buy a Waymo so that is the kind of commitment that it's gonna take is

designing and manufacturing your own custom design chip purpose-built chip

so glad to see that now second I do like the pricing here 50 bucks a month is

obviously half the price of what Tesla is charging that seems by comparison quite

reasonable for a subscription and 2,500 bucks to buy it outright also seems

pretty darn reasonable whether you're comparing it to the 8,000 of Tesla or

just taking it as a number on its own in a vacuum 2,500 bucks now if Rivian

really wanted to make potential customers happy in other words they could

there's one thing they could do that could really help people get people off

the fence and and get them to buy it it's they they should make it a one time

$2,500 purchase that lives on your account rather than on the car as Tesla has it

thus allowing you to take it with you if you were to buy a new Rivian like an

R2 or a future R3 and and get rid of a previous one traded in sell it

whatever so I'd love to see them do that that is something that Tesla

owners have been asking for for years and the FSD transfer has been kind of the

the semi-permanent band-aid solution to that but boy would I love to see Rivian

just go all the way and just say yep if you spend the 2,500 bucks then it's

it is you own it and as it is on your account your Rivian account so you can

take it with you to a future vehicle hopefully they'll do it we'll see but

honestly you know it's great to have an attempt at competition with Tesla in the

again personally owned vehicle autonomous driving space that said Rivian

does have a long way to go they've given demos just like Tesla had done

many years ago actually executing on it in the real world and having enough

resources to allocate to it to iterate on those autonomous driving efforts

quickly are going to be crucial if Rivian is going to achieve its goals and

maximize its systems potential you know I think about it and the general the

general parallels to Tesla here are somewhat amusing in kind of a

coincidental way it's I'm not trying to say it's there it's like a dead-on one to

one apples to apples thing here but just let's just take a couple steps take a

couple steps with me real quick so Tesla offered driver assistance features on

the Model S and the Model X in the earlier days as Rivian has now with

R1S and R1T but it wasn't until the cheaper more mass market Model 3 came along with

more hardware and better hardware built into every single car just as Rivian is

doing with R2 that really set Tesla up to to be able to take the next real step

towards autonomy so it there is sort of that S to S leading to three R1S leading

to R2 parallel of the both the sort of their progression in moving down market

but also their progression in their autonomous efforts as well now of

course people are already pointing to the hardware differences and they are

substantial between Rivian set up and Teslas Rivian as you heard there is

using LiDAR as well as radar cameras whereas Tesla of course famously dropped

radar years ago and they've never been believers in LiDAR it is a camera it is

a vision-only approach for Tesla so time will tell if one or the other proves

to be quote-unquote better like we can all see what version 14 is doing as a vision

only product in our cars right now and it's pretty darn good is it hand it is

it eyes off no we're not quite there yet but Tesla is making pretty sweet

progress with the vision-only system so it'll be great to see what Rivian can

do with the additional hardware that they are equipping all of their future

vehicles with because you know I'm just it's it's really it's two different

approaches to the same problem right it's not necessarily that's that one's

better than the other could Rivian end up surpassing Tesla because of

hardware yeah they could will vision could vision only end up being good

enough meaning meaning a lot safer than a human even if maybe on some technical

level the Rivian setup is is better in some measurable way yeah maybe but it's

again it's it's just two different approaches to the same problem and it's

a good thing that Rivian's also trying to solve that problem I am rooting

for them because more safer driving autonomous vehicles on the road or at

least autonomous capable vehicles that's a good thing for all of us whether you

own a Rivian or not whether you own a Tesla or not made Tesla certainly has

had a heck of a head start on Rivian but on the flip side that head start has

also allowed Rivian to learn from the path that Tesla has paved and it

allows Rivian to potentially advance their efforts more quickly than Tesla

advanced theirs because of course Tesla was at the tip of the spear with this

they were they were really forging new ground now for me personally if I were

buying an R2 would I pay $2,500 for that lifetime package the

answer is yes but I wouldn't do so until Rivian actually deployed something

meaningful to customers and that that may be coming soon with the with the

hands-off with this this you know the three and a half million miles worth

of US roads so that that hopefully is coming soon but yeah if I were buying

an R2 I would need them to deliver me something first something tangible that

I that actually works before I'd use it and and I feel like a lot of Tesla

owners that maybe are also buying a Rivian for the family or maybe

switching over to Rivian potentially for you know the this it's all one

happy EV family here but I think a lot of Tesla customers out there bought

FSD on a promise and for some of you have waited years or in some cases even

parted ways with your car before you ever got anything even remotely

resembling FSD and so I suspect there there are people that are keen to not

make that same this decision again to purchase on a promise people are gonna

want to actually see it in action before spending the money and I would be in

that group if I were buying an R2 a couple more things for you know it's

been a super busy week of news here Subaru has announced that its new EV

called the trail seeker will start at 40k 39 990 when US deliveries start in

early 2026 another tip of the cap to our Tesla tips or friend Sawyer Merritt

who posted this on his account after Subaru made their official announcement of

their new mid-size crossover EV it's got a 74 kilowatt hour battery the range is

up to 280 miles put a pin in that for a second up to 150 kilowatt peak

charging speed of course it's got NACS it's got an 8.3 inch ground clearance

it's rockin 375 horsepower a 0 to 60 time of 4.4 seconds it can tow 3500 pounds it

has a battery preconditioning system and it's more than six inches longer and an

inch taller than the Subaru Salterra there are three trims premium which is

your $40,000 one limited which is 44 and trail seeker touring which is 46 5 so this

sounds pretty solid and I do like the look of it I think it's a nice looking

car however I'll just say I am a bit concerned about the up to 280 miles of

range does that mean I don't have the answer to this yet does that mean that

the $40,000 version gets less than 280 and that you have to get the either the

44,000 or maybe even that top-end 46 and a half thousand dollar version to get the

280 miles a range because obviously as we all know Tesla's Model Y standard

also starts at 40k but you get 321 miles of range there which is a massive

50 well excuse me 40 mile difference on that still there are people out there that

are just not gonna buy a Tesla for whatever reason whether they're Subaru

loyalists or whatever so even if the trail seeker doesn't necessarily match

up perfectly to the Model Y standard it is still a good thing to get more

lower-cost EVs into the marketplace in order to welcome new people into the EV

tent and the last story that I have for you this week before I get to a few of

your phone calls in this week's ride the lightning hotline is about next year's

Porsche Taycan it's gonna get a unique new feature and that is simulated

gear shifts oh and it's it's goes further than you think it does saw this one on

drive Tesla Canada who writes Porsche is reportedly preparing pardon me to

introduce simulated gear shifts across its EV lineup a feature designed to

bring back the driving engagement many enthusiasts miss in modern electric

cars the first model to showcase what Porsche is calling a virtual

transmission will be the refreshed Taycan expected to hit showrooms in late

2026 as a 2027 model dealers were briefed on the plan during a closed door

conference in Atlanta last month where Porsche confirmed sales teams should

be ready to introduce the technology when order books open in August of

2026 while the company isn't officially commenting it also isn't denying the

information instead noting in comments to website the drive that researching

features like this is a standard part of its development process if the idea

sounds familiar that's because Hyundai is high-performance Ionic 5n put fake

gear shifts and sound effects on the map and Porsche's own engineers have

taken notice Frank Moser who oversees Porsche's two-door product lines recently

admitted the Korean EV changed perceptions internally quote it was eye

opening Moser said after testing the Ionic 5 with GT vehicle boss Andreas

pre-oranger pre up pre-on injure there we go I got it quote they did

something which was impressive end quote it appears the Stuttgart team

now wants its own take on a feature that adds physical rhythm and predictability to

EV acceleration a driving sensation many purists feel is missing from single-speed

electrics Porsche isn't simply bolting on a sound profile engineers from its dual

clutch and automatic transmission units have reportedly been calibrating virtual

shift points to feel shockingly close to a real gearbox one prototype

driver told the drive he quote could not tell the difference compared to a

traditional torque converter setup however the feature won't be available

via software update for existing Tycon owners the simulated shifts require

paddle shifters something absent from earlier model years the new hardware

will arrive with the refreshed cabin and updated Porsche communication

management system importantly Porsche is expected to let drivers choose when

they want the theatrics Moser has said that EVs should still be able to cruise

silently without artificial jolts or engine noise meaning the virtual

transmission will simply be another toggle on performance mode now look I

know some of you might laugh at this because it is kind of like pumping the

sound of horse of horse hoofs clopping on cobblestone streets through the

stereo speakers of a gas powered car 30 years ago or even much longer ago but

here's the thing this feature is not really for you or me i.e. people who

have already been converted to EVs it's there to convince those Porsche

enthusiasts who haven't been won over by electric to come on over it's there to

try and replicate an enjoyable part of the enthusiast internal combustion

engine cars experience so that those people are finally willing to give

EVs a try now personally I love manual transmission gas cars I will tell

you I still miss my five-speed manual DeLorean it was fun to row the gears I

do miss that sometimes obviously my Tesla both of them are worlds quicker and you

know it's just they blow away the 40-something-year-old DeLorean by

every metric of course but it is fun for me to row the gears in a manual

transmission car for me the first EV I ever drove I've told this story was the

original Tesla Roadster which I will note had zero sound insulation in the cabin

or between you and that single rear electric motor and so when you got on the

accelerator in that car it sounded like the Millennium Falcon going into light

speed and for me the first time I experienced that even though I drove to

that test drive in the DeLorean in a manual transmission car I found that

sort of light speed hyperspace EV you know the motor wine sound I found it

delightfully intoxicating in its own unique way and just as a quick aside I

know I've said this before I'm gonna say it again in case anybody the right

people from Tesla are listening I'm really hoping that Tesla skips the sound

deadening on the motors in the new Roadster so that I can really hear

those four motors wine yes I fully expect the new Roadster to have four

motors by the time it makes it to production because three motors has

been done it's been done for years now both from certainly from Tesla and from

others as well but anyway the EV movement here is still small that's

something to keep in mind people like you and me we are still just a tiny

fraction of car drivers out there if putting in paddle shifters with

simulated gear shifts helps bring more Porsche drivers into the EV tent that

is a good thing in fact what I would really love to see is for somebody to

do a story about a year after this new Taycan comes out to see how many

owners of that car people that buy the 2027 model Taycan how many of them

are still using the paddle shifters after one year of ownership because I

would be willing to bet not because it's dumb or but just I'm willing

to bet that if if that helps get them in the car that after a year of

ownership a large portion of them I won't say necessarily a majority but a

substantial number of those owners will have turned that feature off after a

year of ownership or within a year of ownership but again if it helps

convince them to buy the EV in the first place then it is worth it

all right that is everything in an extremely busy week of Tesla news but

I've still got a few of your ride the lightning hotline phone calls teed up

and ready to go those are coming up next hi this is Frans von Holthausen and

you're listening to ride the lightning with Ryan McCaffrey the Tesla

unofficial podcast wow I can't believe the podcast has already gone on for 70

minutes there's just so much to talk about this week I do want to get to a

few of your ride the lightning hotline phone calls so I will do just that here

in just a moment but first I want to tell you how you can call in if in fact you

feel motivated to call in and potentially be featured on an upcoming

episode so if you've got a Tesla or EV related question comment or discussion

topic feel free to drop me a line in one of two ways either use your

smartphone's built-in voice recording software record your question and

please try to keep your call to 90 seconds or less

so that I can get to as many callers each week as possible

then email that file to me at teslapodcastatgmail.com or you can take

that same 90 second or less call and actually call in with it and leave a

message on the ride the lightning hotline

it's a toll-free number you can dial at any time and that number is

1-888-989-8752 that number again

1-888-989-TSLA and if you know someone special out there with an upcoming

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you can give them a unique gift of recorded voices from friends and

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the recordings can be podcasted or put on to a keepsake

visit life on record.com to learn more first up this week

is Andrew from Ottawa following up to my recent poll about your favorite Tesla

feature. Hey Ryan, it's Andrew from Ottawa, Coen.

Coen has a bit of a follow-up to your poll of what is your favorite

FS or sorry Tesla feature and I have to say it's got to be

FSD maybe that's biased because of previous background first

but the the anti-fatigue and sharing long road trips

is just a must-have so I decided to do a bit of due diligence recently

I went into a bunch of dealers and test drove a bunch of vehicles

so I drove the Ford Mach-E, the GM Blazer EV, the Hyundai Onyx 5, the Polestar 3

and it was it was great to experience what each manufacturer had to offer

but one of my main questions was do you have any kind of

driver assistance features and then what if they do what is your road map

towards making those more available and two of the ones that had lame keeping

help laughed when I asked like do you have do you have plans to bring this on to

city streets and they said only Tesla does that and

that was really disappointing but echoes your sentiment into

the future of other manufacturers if FSD is officially solved at some point

it's simply a non-starter for me for any future vehicle purchase that doesn't have FSD

and so that's just really disappointing that there is no one else in there

anyway thanks for all the great work you do happy holidays and take care

I appreciate your call Andrew and happy holidays to you as well

to respond to what you had to say first of all good on you for going out and

making a point to test drive a bunch of other EVs I think that's awesome in fact

I really need to find the time to go do that myself I've driven a few others over

the years but I need to get back out there anyway I think to your point about

future vehicle purchases hinging on FSD or a similarly advanced driver assistance system

I think that's a policy that's going to be adopted by a lot of Tesla owners out there

who either have to have or have tried out the FSD software via one of the free trials

like in fact the one that just went out recently with 14.1.2 I mean Tesla's moat if you will

used to be the superchargers you would buy a Tesla over any other EV because of the super

chargers but Tesla in its mission to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy

didn't just want people buying its cars over other EVs it wanted people buying EVs over other

gas powered cars and that's why the supercharger network got shared with the rest of the industry

does it help that it's a revenue driver for Tesla yes both of those things can be

true at the same time certainly but I firmly believe that Tesla making that decision regardless of

revenue impact is a hugely good thing in the company's mission but as you rightly point out

Tesla still has a moat a new moat a bigger moat one that will be even harder for competitors be

they gas powered vehicles or electric vehicles alike to match and that is FSD even as other EVs

software gets better their range gets better etc it's going to be FSD and autonomy that are going

to bring people to Tesla specifically and it's going to be really fascinating to watch that

play out over the next probably three to five years or so call it the rest of this decade I guess

cheers Andrew thank you for your call uh next up this week as Lily the silly Labrador chomps away

on what I guess is a bison horn it's literally a horn from some animal I think it's a my wife

got it while I was out of town seeing my parents last weekend and it's she loves it she's just

chewing away on that thing anyway if you're hearing that in the background that's what it is

Dimitri from Montreal is up next hi Ryan this is Dimitri calling from Montreal Canada I hope

you're doing well I'm a longtime listener first time caller and first of all I wanted to say a

big thank you to everything that you're doing for the Tesla community I'm running on FSD version

14.2.1 and the feature requests that I'm calling about is very similar to what to what your previous

caller called in about setting the speed limit at which you want the car to drive so sometimes you

want to put it a bit above the speed limit sometimes you want the car to drive under the

speed limit for various reasons like let's say rain or it's at night or some any other reasons

or snow but currently the right scroll wheel doesn't allow you to do that what it does it

changes between speed profiles when you scroll it up and down but it also does the same thing

when you push the scroll wheel left and right so what I like to suggest is that instead of having

two different actions do the same change the same menu keep the left and right pushing

for changing the speed profiles but bring back the scrolling up and down or you set the actual

speed limit at which you want the car to drive so then you would solve the problem that's the

previous user mentioned and the same thing for me I find trying to change the speed limit but

it doesn't want to set the speed limit so let me know what you think and wishing you and the

dogs very nice day take care bye bye hi Demetri thank you for your call and for your kind words

for what little it's worth I agree with you it is silly that the right scroll wheel functionality

is duplicated between the wheel and the left and right clicks of the wheel I agree that it

would be a great use of the wheel if you could set the maximum speed now the reason why I say

that my opinion is worth so little here is because when this change was made in version 14

a tesla ai team member posted on x I actually I can't recall if I mentioned it on the podcast

or not maybe I didn't but a tesla ai team member said something on x to the effect of

all input is error on fsd and so that's why they removed the ability to set your max speed

which of course had been there in every previous fsd version and that wording of course

is something that elan would say and thus my guess is that elan did say that in a meeting

with the ai team about fsd version 14 and that's why that functionality was removed

I mean I'll say this we've seen tesla walk back decisions that they've made before

like say with the price of fsd the deletion of the turn signal stock to name a couple of examples

and so I'm with you that I would like to see them put this back in put in the max speed back in

but if I'm being honest and I'm not trying to be a downer here but I'm not optimistic that

they're going to put it back in in this case because tesla is on such a focused mission

here with autonomy and I just don't see them putting more user control back into the system

they're going to continue to automate it and remove the human from the equation

more and more and more until they've managed to completely remove the human

and they're getting there so I hope I'm wrong because again I think it'd be good to have

that max speed at at your literal fingertips but we'll see what happens thanks for calling

in dimitri I've got just time for one more call this week it is david with a used tesla question

hey ryan this is david um I have a question if you buy an x or a y no x or an s does super

charging come free with the car when it's been used period uh just had that question

so I didn't know if uh a used s or x it comes with super charging anytime you buy one off over

a used car lot thank you bye hi david I appreciate your call uh you're probably not gonna like my

answer because that answer is it depends older s's and x's should have it when it's not been traded

back into tesla and you're buying from a third party newer ones however probably won't because

tesla got rid of that perk mostly in recent years so here's something that is a little more

constructive if you can physically go look at the car yourself that you're considering at the

used car dealer go into the car menu screen the controls in the lower left corner then tap

charging you will see in the middle of the page a line for last paid super charging session

so in my 2018 model 3 performance that as I mentioned earlier has free lifetime super

charging on it it shows the location and the date of that super charging session

and then shows zero dollars and zero cents for the amount paid if you see that in the car that

you're looking at then that car should have free lifetime super charging on it I hope that's helpful

david good luck in your search and thanks for your call and thank you again to everybody

for taking the time to send in your phone calls I promise I will get to more of your

calls on next week's episode so keep them keep them coming if you heard something this week that

you'd like to respond to whether it was just one of the news stories or my opinion on something

whatever it might be or you've got a question feel free to fire them my way a real quick here

as I get towards the end of the podcast as for what's going on with me in my car as well

not much because like I said I was away on business this week but I will remind you

I am still looking to sell my set of original 20 inch sport wheels silver in color silver sport wheels

from my model three performance if you are interested in those they will make your generation one model

three look excellent in my humble opinion yes there's a range trade off I'm certainly not

going to try to hide that but if you're interested in those wheels they come with

Michelin sport 4s tires that have about half the treadwear still left on them but if you're

interested in those please reach out to me the best way in this case would probably be via email so

Tesla podcast at gmail.com I want to give a quick shout out to loyal listener Joey Combs

who wrote to me to let me know that he had started a ride the lightning subreddit

that is pretty cool if you'd like to join the subreddit it's r slash RTL pod RTL pod if you

want to join it I will certainly pop in there on a semi-regular basis hopefully it can organically

kind of get going get off the ground on its own time for your Tesla pro tip of the week

it comes from Chad go ahead hi Ryan this is Chad I'm a long-time listener I just had a pro tip

I thought might be useful for folks I recently upgraded my wife's iPhone to the 17 and then

inherited her previous phone which is a 16 and I found that the key wasn't working

with with her old phone or my new phone and it turned out that in order to make the

lock work properly for the on on the model s it required that I delete her old profile with

the same phone it seems as though that the software doesn't allow for the same phone to be

under two separate profiles so if anybody's having problems with their

locks after inheriting the phone that's probably the issue I thought everybody would

like to hear that thank you for all you do Ryan I'll look forward to hearing this thanks

thanks for that constructive suggestion Chad I think that will be useful for many folks out there

and to share a related anecdote when I moved from my iPhone 12 to my iPhone 17 a couple months ago

I cloned the phone that's one of the options they give you when you're going from

an old and new and new one so I cloned it to move all my stuff over however

my teslas didn't like that I ended up having to set up the phone key again now it only took

a moment and I do quite literally mean a moment it was super quick and painless

but I will point that out just in case anybody might be getting a new phone over the holidays

so that you'll know to expect that little tiny extra step and if anybody else out there has

a good tesla or ev pro tip of the week I would love to hear it so that I can learn from it and

share it with all of you so you guys can learn from it too so send it in the same way that you

send in the regular ride the lightning hotline calls which I gave you the two easy call-in

methods for at the top well or just a little while ago anyway it's not what is the puppy doing

what's going on down there pups she just jumped up and smacked her poor back into the the desk that

I'm recording this podcast on you okay all right there we go anyway refer back to the hotline

section from a little while ago to get those call-in instructions some friends have ride the

lightning to let you know about here before I step away for the week starting with abstract

ocean.com they got a million great aftermarket tesla accessories in fact just clicking on the best

sellers for model y so 20 bucks they've got door noise reduction seals they've got the premium

rear footwell lights so those they go under the the chairs of the first row on the risers to

kind of literally brighten up the second row of the car which I think is pretty cool those

are 40 bucks available in four different colors by the way they also have multicolor front and rear

footwell lights for both three and y that's pretty nice they've got logo covers if you want to just

put a black cover over your existing tesla t badge to to just change up its appearance a little bit

get rid of the chrome you could get the model three and y performance pedals the aluminum

pedals they're just they pull right off and the new ones go right on those are 25 bucks

available in two colors there as well so the point is they've got a million great aftermarket

accessories for all the teslas whether you have the old y the new y the three whatever you got

check them out at abstract ocean.com and make sure to use the coupon code RTL podcast all

one word at check out to get 15% off of your first order my friends at every amp go to everyamp.com

slash RTL they sell the snap plate which is the front license plate bracket that I recommend

because it's a nice clean minimalist look but it doesn't stick to the car with automotive tape

meaning if you ever want to get rid of it it can be like it was never there but when it's

on it's on there securely it's a great great product I do definitely recommend it if you either want

or are legally required to have a front license plate on your car there are two flavors there is the

regular snap plate which is safety optimized with breakaway features to sacrifice itself

in a worst case scenario like a parking accident or a car wash and then there's the newer stronger

snap plate plus which is strength optimized with hardened features for maximum strength both have

their signature minimalist aesthetic that blends in beautifully with the tesla front end both are made

from recycled made in the usa plastics with stainless steel reinforcements if you're in

are going to be in the greater san francisco bay area with your tesla or another car that you

care about I recommend that you contact immaculate reflections and book a spa day for your car have

it detailed maybe you want to have it ceramic coated so that for the next five to seven years

you don't have to wax the car like it is protected and water will just beat off of it in that

time I love ceramic coating big believer in that maybe you want to have the paint corrected

just all the little swirls and imperfections in the paint taken out

that is a professional detailing service that'll look great when it's done maybe you want to have

paint protection film a professionally applied to the front of the car the key areas of the

around the car or maybe even the entire car to help protect from road debris chips rock chips

all that kind of thing but you just got to get scheduled in now the good news is

there's a ride the lightning listener discount so all you got to do go to the website which is

ir detailing dot com check it out and then when you're ready to get in touch with Jeff the owner

there just click one of the contact buttons we can find one kind of the center of the home page

also the top left of the home page and just mention what you're looking to do maybe mention

your budget mention your timeline obviously so you can get the appointment booked and make

sure to mention that you're a ride the lightning listener so that whatever service you have done

you will have the ride the lightning listener discount kindly extended to you

finally the patreon I mentioned it earlier but I'm going to mention again one more time

right here patreon.com slash Tesla podcast if you're in a gift giving mood and you'd

like to support me and what I'm doing with the podcast here on ride the lightning

patreon is the place to do that there are plenty of different tiers of the patreon starting at just

five bucks a month there's also though an annual option if you don't want to do a month to month

thing you can do an annual pledge to support me for an entire year and I'll give you a 10

percent discount on that annual pledge as a way of me saying thank you for your full year of

support check it out patreon.com slash Tesla podcast or click the link in the episode description

patreon spelled P-A-T-R-E-O-N if you are not already following the podcast on your favorite

podcast service I recommend doing so why it's free the reason to do it is so that every

time there's a new episode you'll get a push notification on your device so just search

ride the lightning Tesla on any of your favorite podcast services whether that's apple podcasts

spotify tune in youtube podcasts etc click the follow button and that's it you're done

new episodes of course drop every sunday at 9 a.m eastern 6 a.m pacific except for my patreon

backers who get it as soon as it is edited and uploaded typically on Friday evenings

finally you can email me anytime about tesla or ev related things reach me at tesla podcast at gmail.com

you can also follow me on x and or on instagram if you would like to no no uh it's not required

it's optional but my username on both is dmc underscore ryan lastly this week i'd like to

say hi to the top tier patreon backers thank you all so much for your support like to give you all

your shoutouts before i go actually as i'm recording this on friday night on sunday is going to be our

monthly patreon zoom hangout which is available to everybody at these top tiers that i'm about to

list and a good number of them show up every month and we always have a great time talking

about all things tesla all things ev it is a fun time and i hope that a number of you that

i'm about to mention will will join in for this one so thank you first to the roadster in space

to your backers they are pete white lile austin steve radspinner fernando cordero

laughton from chicago shawn nightig neil weaver jackson wallace raw pardon me ralph and jennifer

evers howard anthony smith victoria aya cavetto tesla hitchhiker 42 carol weston robert from

near philly american home contractors dug carry michael gallo and tony figaroa next up the

maximum plaid tier thank you to jonathan wales cameron clark daniel grummer seth capello

nick and tony the galpin family ryan from new york city darin nickle cos barns patrick wasneski

gill cabrera todd badger joe edgel kevin yank the tesla owners club of sandwalking valley

wil steadman jeremy harris chris beach tom mills choreo donnell erin john codie jolsap

paul casarino chris osbourne kb adam lavoi jason chelukas travis krenzel bruce otterstein

tom behan josh pennington john from cream ridge new jersey dustin hart derek finley

charles clement daemon kline jeff brown jerry slinger kenneth corbett brian bertoglio kim bae

troys evers chip hooper matt chinander robert moran rav christopher man and michael williams

and last but certainly not least the grandfathered in plaid level supporters

thank you to george cassiopo logan willis peter chalet eric randolph dory and steve guberman

the tesla owners club of taiwan ron lee charlie gillespie jeff angwin chase cabineas the lydia

family erin alchool jared brown gerome strack jamie dalton mike and barber from louisville

matt nixon the tesla owners club of wisconsin ish not elon musk in quotes peter and the bare boys

of colorado and that my friends will wrap it up for a very long 541st episode of ride the lightning

your weekly tesla and ev podcast hope you enjoyed this one i am just grateful that i have had just

enough energy to get through it because like i really i was actually i actually i feel better now

i was more exhausted as i hit record to start this thing but doing the podcast has re-energized me

a bit so i feel good i am grateful to all of you for your time for your enthusiasm for your

attention it is not taken for granted thank you all so much hope you're having a wonderful

holiday season so far and as you know this podcast operates 52 weeks a year it is open 24 7365

it never closes so i will be back with you next week the week after the week after that etc

we'll see what we have to talk about as the holidays approach and maybe the news is going

to quiet down a little bit but i'm here for you so i'll see you next week happy electric

motoring

elan musk people don't like elan musk the guy found a paypal and tesla and people are like yeah but

he's a troll and a bad dad i'm like so is mine he did nothing to fight climate change

also have you been in a tesla have you been in a tesla my buddy let me drive his tesla i laughed

out loud at how fast it went been clinically depressed my entire life on dozens of medications

in a tesla for 13 seconds cured forever i mean i think a tesla is the most fun thing you

could possibly buy ever that's what it's meant to be our goal is to make it's it's not exactly a car

it's actually a thing to maximize enjoyment it's maximum fun

About this episode

The latest episode of Ride the Lightning dives into Tesla's holiday software update, packed with over a dozen new features, including enhanced AI navigation, a fun photo booth, and improvements to dog mode. Host Ryan McCaffrey also discusses Rivian's new self-driving chip and plans for the Roadster's production. The episode features insights on Tesla's growing software capabilities, the significance of Rivian's advancements, and a look at the competitive landscape in EV autonomy. Listeners can expect a mix of practical updates and engaging discussions on the future of electric vehicles.

autonomous driving autonomy plus subscription cabin facing camera ceramic coating custom full self‑driving chip custom wraps deep learning FSD grok AI functionality Hardware 3

Tesla Model 3 Tesla Roadster

Original notes

Tesla has delivered a stuffed stocking to its customers in the form of this year's holiday software update that adds over a dozen new features to the cars. Plus: more clear indications that the new Tesla Roadster is finally going to get built, Rivian unveils its new custom full-self-driving chip, and more!

If you enjoy the podcast and would like to support my efforts, please check out my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/teslapodcast and consider a monthly or (10% discounted!) annual pledge. Every little bit helps and there are stacking bonuses in it for you at each pledge level, like early access to each episode at the $5 tier and the weekly Lightning Round bonus mini-episode (AND the early access!) at the $10 tier! And NO ADS at every Patreon tier!

Also, don't forget to leave a message on the Ride the Lightning hotline anytime with a question, comment, or discussion topic for next week's show! The toll-free number to call is 1-888-989-8752.

INTERESTED IN A FLEXIBLE EXTENDED WARRANTY FOR YOUR TESLA? Be a part of the future of transportation with XCare, the first extended warranty designed & built exclusively for EV owners, by EV owners. Use the code Lightning to get $100 off their "One-time Payment" option! Go to www.xcelerateauto.com/xcare to find the extended warranty policy that's right for you and your Tesla.

P.S. Get 15% off your first order of awesome aftermarket Tesla accessories at AbstractOcean.com by using the code RTLpodcast at checkout. Grab the SnapPlate front license plate bracket for any Tesla at https://everyamp.com/RTL/ (don't forget the coupon code RTL too!).

Ride the Lightning: Tesla and EV Podcast

Ryan McCaffrey

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