Episode 543: Tesla Patent Aims to Give FSD 'Sunglasses'

On this week's episode of Ride the Lightning, the Tesla and EV Podcast, a new Tesla patent aims to tackle the issue of sun glare affecting FSD at low light angles by giving the system, in my words, sunglasses.

Plus, Tesla boosts battery production efforts at Giga Berlin, a deeper look at tire manufacturers' warranties and how they might be able to benefit EV drivers and more.

What's happening friends and happy holidays to all of you, my name is Ryan McCaffrey, you all know that, unless this is your first episode, in which case, welcome to Ride the Lightning, the Tesla and EV Podcast, it's a weekly podcast where I cover

all things Tesla, all things interesting in the EV space. This is episode 543, publishing on December 28th, 2025. I'm recording a smidge earlier than I normally would, typically I record on Friday evenings and then release the episode for everybody on Sunday morning at 9am Eastern, 6am Pacific.

It'll still be released at the same time here, but I'm recording this a little earlier in the day, here on December 26th of Friday, as we've got some larger, bigger extended family plans going on tonight, so figured I'd get the podcast done and out of the way.

And those of you who are kindly backing me on Patreon will get extra early access, I mean you guys might have family plans as well, listen to it at your convenience, it's all good, thanks to all of you kindly backing me on Patreon.

So welcome to the final Ride the Lightning episode of 2025, no no, don't worry, that sentence did have an additional couple words there, it's not the last episode ever, not even close, we're just getting warmed up after 10 years of this.

But the final Ride the Lightning publishing in 2025, there will be 52 more coming your way next year, and in fact kicking that off the first episode of 2026 next week will be my annual Tesla New Year's predictions.

Although I guess, you know what, I think I might have to expand that out this year to include Tesla and all EVs, so Tesla and EV predictions since it was earlier this year where I broadened the scope of this podcast a little bit to start talking about and including news and discussion about other EVs besides just Tesla.

Part of the annual New Year's predictions episode though, for those of you that have been with me for a little while, includes the fun part of holding myself accountable where I score myself, I go back to the previous year's predictions and I grade myself on how well or perhaps how not well I did on my 2025 predictions, so stay tuned for that on next week's episode.

Meanwhile, this week's episode, the one you're listening to right now, will probably turn out to be a bit shorter than usual on account of the news cycle being about as quiet as it gets at any point in the year here over the holidays.

And I figure, well, next week will be better. We'll get when everybody's kind of back a little bit more in their regular routine next week, I'll do those New Year's predictions as we kick off 2026.

Oh, and speaking of the Patreon, by the way, as we close out one year and head into a new one, I do want to say a very sincere thank you to all of you kindly supporting this podcast at any tier on the Patreon.

The support tier start at just five bucks a month. So if you're not familiar with Patreon, the super quick version is it's kind of like Kickstarter, but for your favorite creators, and instead of one specific project that has a beginning, middle and end, it's for ongoing support of your favorite creators,

whether they be musicians, writers, poets, podcasters, just all sorts of different creative people are on Patreon, and I am one of them. And if you would like to support what I'm doing here, because this is a free podcast, but if you can lend me some support, boy,

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Round bonus mini extra episodes that I do weekly on Patreon for that $10 tier on up. This week's Lightning Round was a chat with longtime listener Jason Trimble, who goes all the way back to the beginning of this podcast and shares with me his long journey to becoming a Tesla owner.

I love talking to you guys and hearing your EV story, your Tesla story, and so I've been trying to do one of those a month on the Lightning Round, so hopefully you enjoy that one if you're with me on Patreon.

But again, patreon.com slash Tesla podcast or just click the link in the episode description. That is my Patreon page. That's where you can go to see all the information about the Patreon and you can choose to support there if you like.

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There is an annual pledge option and as a thank you for making that year long commitment, I give you a 10% discount.

So one more time, it's patreon.com slash Tesla podcast.

Diving straight into our main headline story for this week, Tesla is aiming to combat a common full self driving problem with a new patent.

I saw this story on Tesla Roddy who writes in part,

One issue with Tesla's vision based approach is that sunlight glare can become a troublesome element of everyday travel.

Full self driving is certainly an amazing technology, but there are still things Tesla is aiming to figure out with its development.

Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to get around this issue and even humans need a way to combat it when they're driving as we commonly use sunglasses and or sun visors to give us better visibility.

Cameras obviously do not have these ways to fight sun glare, but a new patent Tesla had recently published aims to fight this through a glare shield.

That's in quotes, that is how Tesla refers to it.

The ability to see surroundings is crucial for accurate performance and glare is one element of interference that has yet to be confronted.

Tesla described the patents which will utilize quote,

A textured surface composed on an array of micro cones or cone shaped formations which serve to scatter incident light in various directions, thereby reducing glare and improving camera vision.

The patent was first spotted by not a Tesla app, who I've certainly cited on this podcast plenty of times before.

The design of the micro cones is the first element of the puzzle to fight the excess glare.

The patent says they are, quote, optimized in size, angle and orientation to minimize total hemispherical reluctance,

Excuse me, not reluctance.

Boy, it sounds like I need to go back to bed here on the day after Christmas.

Reflectance, total hemispherical reflectance and reflection penalty enhancing the camera's ability to accurately interpret visual data, end quote.

Additionally, there is an electromechanical system for dynamic orientation adjustment which will allow the micro cones to move based on the angle of the external light sources.

So I read this and my first thought was, wait a second, is this a fancy way of saying that Tesla is aiming to give FSD sunglasses?

I think that seems like, if I'm correctly converting that explanation into layman's terms in my own brain, that does seem like a fair way to boil it down,

but regardless of whether or not the Tesla engineering team filing this patent would agree with my description of it,

this does absolutely sound like a very, very smart approach to trying to navigate through what are clearly everybody has to acknowledge,

there are trade-offs of a camera-only system, and this is one of the downsides, so this is quite a smart way of trying to tackle that problem.

I mean, it's clear now, although I guess in fairness it's been clear for quite some time really, that Tesla is all in on the vision-only approach.

They're not going to be turning back now, no matter what at this stage.

By turning back, I mean reintroducing radar, which my 2018 car has a radar unit in it, it's just not utilized anymore.

So they're not going to be reintroducing radar, they're not going to be introducing lidar or any other non-camera sensors at this point.

So if this patent ends up becoming a real product, or I guess maybe more specifically than product, if it ends up becoming a real part in the car,

my question is, and possibly your question as well, what about the existing fleet?

Like, is this something that could be retrofitted, either upon customer request or just automatically to anyone that's purchased FSD?

Because if not, if the answer to that is no, well then what happens in situations when we do reach unsupervised full self-driving,

which could happen in 2026, I mean the CEO has said it will, granted his timelines have not always worked out in the FSD department,

as we all know and as he has acknowledged in the past.

So I'll just say, if 2026 is the year for unsupervised FSD, and well even as I record this, as I talked to you about on last week's podcast,

Tesla is now testing RoboTaxi fully driverless in Austin.

So by the time this airs, it is possible that they have flipped that switch and are offering full driverless RoboTaxi rides.

But anyway, when we get unsupervised FSD in our own cars, let's put it that way, where the sun angles super tough, potentially causing a problem,

what then? Like if this is not a retrofitable solution.

So I guess that is the key question for me that I acknowledge doesn't have to be answered yet, since after all this is only in the patent stage.

This did not come as an official announcement from Tesla or the parts not yet in the cars.

Once Tesla formally acknowledges this in a public way, then it'll be time for them to answer that question.

But for now, it's just the community digging up a public patent filing.

So we're not owed an explanation yet, or I guess I should say we're not owed the answers to our questions just yet,

but I hope that those answers are going to be satisfactory.

But this certainly, this sunglasses thing is really, it's intriguing, and whether or not I'm going to be able to get this installed in my own car

was the first thing that jumped into my mind when I read this story, but super neat technology regardless.

Like regardless of the retrofit situation, this is pretty cool stuff.

Next up this week, Tesla has landed one of its largest energy storage contracts to date, securing an agreement for a massive 500 megawatt battery project in Scotland

with the company Matrix Renewables.

Saw this one on DriveTeslaCanada who wrote,

Located in Eccles, the BESS site will sit along key transmission corridors between Scotland and England, allowing the system to play a critical role in easing grid congestion,

reducing renewable curtailment, and supporting higher penetration of wind and solar generation across the UK electricity system.

We are excited to support Matrix Renewables with their entry into the UK, bringing Tesla's track record in the market together with Matrix Renewables' expertise and vision,

said Tesla Energy Vice President Mike Snyder.

We highly value the partnership with their team and look forward to executing this landmark project together.

For Matrix Renewables, the Eccles BESS marks its first standalone battery project in the UK and one of its largest storage developments globally.

Well thank you to the DriveTeslaCanada folks for that one.

And as you all know, or maybe have just observed in your time listening to the podcast,

I don't do Tesla Energy stories too too often.

It's not that they're not important.

They're just quite frankly not as fun to me as the automotive side of things.

It's quite honestly just not as interesting to me.

However, they are a huge part of Tesla's business.

We've been seeing that especially be the case in recent quarters.

The vehicle business has been lagging a bit for various reasons,

but not the energy side of the business.

The energy side has been picking up the slack for the automotive side

and the energy side of Tesla's business continues to boom.

And so that means that stories like this, when these massive projects are announced,

it is certainly newsworthy and I'm happy to talk about it.

When you've got utility companies and municipalities

signing up for these gargantuan mega pack projects,

it is hugely beneficial to the local environment and the local community.

I mean, remember the first big one from Australia?

And if you're like, oh yeah, that one is years old now

and it has proven to be a fantastic investment for everybody involved.

And hopefully this one in Scotland in the UK

helps keep another peaker plant from being needed

and hopefully it replaces some fossil fuel generated energy with renewable energy.

500 megawatt hours, that is just a colossal amount of power.

So bravo to the folks in Scotland at Matrix Renewables

for getting this deal done and making this happen

for the communities that will be served by this in Scotland.

Next this week, in fact the final Tesla specific news story I've got for you,

Tesla boosts battery production efforts at Giga Berlin, no not Texas, it's Berlin.

One more tip of the cap to drive Tesla Canada

who wrote, Tesla is once again pushing forward with its long term battery plans at Giga Berlin

while also restarting battery pack assembly at the site.

According to Tesla, the company is now preparing Giga Berlin

to support up to 8 gigawatt hours of battery cell production annually

beginning as early as 2027 provided economic and regulatory conditions allow.

To support this goal, Tesla confirmed it will invest an additional investment

in the hundreds of millions of euros into battery operations

bringing total investment in on-site cell manufacturing

to nearly 1 billion euros which translates to about 1.2 billion dollars US

and that figure comes via Reuters.

Tesla says the objective is to consolidate the entire battery value chain

at a single European location from cells to battery packs to finished vehicles.

If fully realized, this would make Giga Berlin

one of the most vertically integrated EV production sites in Europe.

A distinction Tesla notes is currently difficult to achieve

given cost pressures and competition from China and the United States.

At the same time, Tesla has resumed battery pack assembly at Giga Berlin

after a temporary suspension earlier this year.

Production had been disrupted following an August fire in the battery pack area

which destroyed several hundred cells but resulted in no injuries.

Since then, Tesla has reconfigured the facility

implementing new equipment and updated manufacturing processes

allowing it to restart operations.

Plant Manager Andrei Tirig recently described the revamped operation

at an internal Tesla event as Tesla's most highly automated battery pack factory worldwide

highlighting significant upgrades to plant engineering and automation systems

according to the German publication Handelsblatt.

While battery packs were previously assembled at Giga Berlin

using cells from suppliers such as CATL and LG Energy Solution

the updated packs now integrate Tesla manufactured 4680 cells shipped from Giga Texas.

This change means that Model Y vehicles built in Berlin

will soon be delivered in Europe with Tesla's 4680 cells

though the company has not yet confirmed which specific variants will receive them.

Tesla had previously paused plans for local cell production in Germany in 2022

opting to prioritize US investments amid more favorable subsidy programs at the time.

Well, I have to be quite honest here as always

I had completely forgotten about this

this meaning battery production at Giga Berlin

because Giga Texas of course got their battery production going

and for a while there we had a standard range Model Y

a standard range all wheel drive Model Y

with 4680 cells

but then after not too too long that ended

and then we didn't see anything from Giga Texas's battery production again

until November of 2023 when the Cybertruck launched

with the Cybercell 4680

but if you remember back

around the same time that Texas originally got started with their battery production

Giga Berlin was supposed to as well

and that did end up happening as the article that I just read you mentioned

but with 2170 form factor cells

so the fact that Tesla is now ramping back up on 4680s

that is interesting to me and honestly it's pretty exciting

unfortunately as we've all seen pretty clearly by now

the Cybertruck has not been selling nearly as well as it had been forecasted to by Tesla

and thus Tesla hasn't presumably had to allocate nearly as much 4680 inventory

or 4680 resources to that Cybertruck effort, the Cybercell effort

freeing up more of it to be used out of Berlin

it could also be, I'll note

that Tesla has simply ramped up on 4680s

regardless of the state of Cybertruck's production numbers

it doesn't necessarily have to be an either or thing

it can be both

and so this leads me to a follow-up question

will these 4680 cell model-wise out of Berlin

be built with the structural battery pack?

remember that one?

that was supposed to be a safer, more rigid

just a better way to build the Model Y

with the structural battery pack

and so I would presume the answer to that question is yes

that these 4680 model-wise will be made as structural battery packs

because I don't believe that any Model Ys with 4680s

be they in Texas or Berlin

have ever been built any other way

meaning just in a standard skateboard battery pack

but presumably that is simply a

well, simpler to use the term that I think Tesla would prefer

maybe the term would be more efficient

that building them using a structural battery pack process

would be a more efficient way to make the Model Y

and thus it might also lower the manufacturing cost

of each Model Y as well

and thus increasing Tesla's margins

now the article asked a good question

that I don't have a direct answer to

but let's think about it here for a second

the article asked the good question of

which variants would this

these 4680 cells be for in Berlin

could it be for the seemingly imminent Model YL

for Europe?

Well, probably not

because according to that report from last week's podcast

those cars are going to be built in Shanghai

still and then just exported to Berlin

but if Berlin does ever start manufacturing the Model YL itself

then I think it's a totally fair question to wonder

well will they start doing the L

with the structural battery pack with the 4680s

we shall see on that one

but I think the one variant we can rule out

for now is the new Model Y performance

because that one is a very specific beast

whose battery cell from Panasonic that we've already learned about

is very specific to that vehicle

it's not to say that Tesla and Panasonic couldn't start

building those as 4680 cells

but I think it's reasonable to presume for now

that it's not going to be the Model Y performance

that gets 4680 structural battery packs out of Berlin

but most likely the more vanilla variance of the vehicle

so we shall soon find out

that's the good news here

we will learn this before too long

in fact I wonder if it'll even be coming up

on the next earnings call

which I guess looking at the calendar

where are we here?

I think we're probably four episodes away

from the next earnings call

so stay tuned for that before too long

alright in other EV news this week

I wanted to say thank you to listener James Chiray

for sending me this insideevs.com article

about how many EV owners can potentially cut down

on their tire replacement costs

so again a tip of the cap to inside EVs

who wrote in their article

when a tiktok creator announced he might be getting

free tires for his EV thanks to a nearly forgotten

treadwear warranty clause

the first people to weigh in weren't skeptics

they were tire shop employees

wondering why no one talks about this

the clip from Colorado based creator Jason Brooks

is a top level hack of sorts for EV owners

who may be in some cases alarmed

at the rate of wear on their tires

and the cost of replacing them

with sometimes less than 20,000 miles of use

quote

the warranty says that if you run them down

to 230 seconds of an inch

and they're not at 40,000 miles

they'll give you a free set of tires

Brooks said in the clip that's been viewed

more than 82,000 times

they're never gonna last that long

meaning he's referring to in an EV

so I just got free

IP says I paid $1,400

for lifetime tires basically

Brooks says he turned to chat GPT

for clarity on treadwear warranties

then pulled the documentation

for the Toyo Celsius sport tire

that he's running

which lists a 40,000 mile treadwear warranty

for V and W speed rated models

the key sentence in Toyo's own materials

eligible tires that reach 230 seconds of an inch

of remaining tread before the mileage limit

may qualify for free replacement

assuming all conditions are met

including proper tire rotation

at manufacturer recommended intervals

documentation proving those rotations

meaning receipts from a tire shop or logs

no signs of misalignment or uneven wear

tires used on the same vehicle

for the entire service life

and no use for commercial or track applications

those requirements inside EVs continues

are fairly standard across the industry

treadwear warranties from major manufacturers

are almost always contingent on documentation

and even wear as described by the

Tire Industry Association guidelines

Brooks claims he has rotated the tires

twice in 8,000 miles

and expects them to reach 230 seconds of an inch

again before he hits even 20,000 miles

which of course is far short of the

40,000 mile warranty limit

what makes this clip different

from typical viral warranty hacks

is the volume of tire techs confirming the basic idea

even as they warn that the process

isn't as generous as Brooks suggests

quote, I work at a tire shop

I wish I thought to spread this information

one commenter wrote

others said they regularly process

prorated claims for customers who meet requirements

still many warned that EV drivers run into

a predictable obstacle

even the slightest uneven wear

can void treadwear protection

a popular response put it bluntly quote

uneven wear will void every EV

I have yet to see one that doesn't have

an alignment issue and quote from again

this is from a alleged tire technician

commenter on this on this video

some professionals cast doubt

on Brooks's interpretation

one commenter claiming to work in the

industry said quote

you will never get a free set of tires

you will always get a prorated warranty

end quote

others insisted they've seen

full replacement treadwear claims

honored just not often on performance

tires or EVs

Brooks closes the video by

urging viewers to quote look at your

tire warranties man

just stop paying full price

end quote

in that sense his message is less

about gaming the system and more about

making use of a consumer protection

that most drivers forget

exists

well thank you to inside EVs

and to Mr. Brooks there

for the video

and I wanted to just mention this on this

week's show because I think it's a

great PSA now

I will say I've heard about this

before but

I'll be honest I haven't yet

put it into practice myself

and I should

I should because I'm granted

I know if I would qualify

and it's because

as gone over in that article there

and as all of you know

we have two performance model

threes

so two performance cars on

summer tires

now I don't take I haven't tracked

either one of them on

at least on their current set of tires

so that's a check I do

rotate them at least on the 2018

because the 2024 can't be rotated

so I

check the boxes so I'm going to keep an eye

on the 2018 car

with it's Michelin Pilot

Sport 4S's which have been great

tires for me

I'm on my third set

the first set

here in 78

across 78,000 miles today

the first set was cut short because of

blowing out two

tires at once

on a wicked pothole

it was a freeway

it was a bad scene

if you've been listening for a long long time

you might remember that story from

that would have been

2019

that was a while ago

but anyway

point is for me

I'm going to be keeping a close eye

on the 2018 Model 3

and perhaps get to take advantage

of this

and that's why I wanted to mention it

in case it

sort of lights a

flicks a light bulb on

in the brains for any of you guys out there

because if I can pass this along

and potentially save any of you money

of course I want to do that

of course I want to be of use to you

and try to help out

if I possibly can

now

I realize I'm very much in the minority

with the fact that

A, I have a performance Tesla at all

and B

two of them

that both EVs are performance but

most of you out there

most of you listening to this

have either all-wheel drive

non-performance Teslas or rear-wheel drive Teslas

with all-season tires

and so hopefully this

what I've just talked about should

absolutely apply to you

so just make sure that you're getting your rotations

done regularly

I'll say

I'll give them an intentional plug here

but over in my neck of the woods

America's Tire

which is known as Discount Tire

in certain places like I don't only know that

because in Arizona

where I mostly grew up

there Discount Tire down there

but that particular

chain you know it's a big chain

tire place they do rotations

for free maybe some other

big chain shops in your area

do too so just stay on top

of your tire rotations

and if you haven't had an alignment done

maybe you'll say well

maybe it's too late for this set of tires

but just keep that in the back of your mind

make sure you're getting your alignment checked on a

you know every I think you're supposed to check it

every two maybe three years I think it's

every two years

check the alignment but keep this in mind

for the next time that your tires

wear down

and in fact I made this

the subject of this week's Patreon poll

because I wanted to see

basically I kind of wanted to see

if talking about this on the

podcast was going to be

a public service announcement

or if this is something that everybody already knows

so

at the beginning of the week I put up

the Patreon poll which again

is totally free you don't have to be

backing me on Patreon all you have to do is

stop by patreon.com

slash Tesla podcast

stop by once a week and vote

in the poll it's open to everybody

this week's question was

simply have you ever

utilized your tire manufacturers

treadwear warranty

and

I said well I'll explain the whole thing on this

weekend's episode

and the results kind of back up

what I suspected

and meaning I'm glad I

spent a few minutes on this story this week

54% of you

voted no you've not

done that and I would have to vote no myself

in this poll

and another 26% of you

voted wait what

I'm eager to learn more about this

17%

of you said yes

so essentially

about 5 out of every

6 of you listening

hopefully got something out of that

and again I just felt like that was

it's like it's not a

news story but I just thought it was a

potentially really useful PSA

because it might be able to save

you hundreds of dollars

and I'm looking at myself in the mirror on that too

like I'm looking at this might save

me hundreds of dollars so

I was happy to find this story

I want to say thank you again

to listener James on that

for sending this in

and hopefully you'll find it useful

as well

alright that's everything I've got for you

in this week's Tesla and EV news

but stay tuned for your phone calls

in the ride the lightning hotline I think I've got

finally for once here

I've got time to get to a few

more of your phone calls than I typically do

there are plenty of good ones

ready and waiting to be aired

so let's do that in just a minute

hi this is Franz von Holthausen

and you're listening to

ride the lightning with Ryan McAfrey

the Tesla unofficial podcast

before those ride the lightning

hotline calls let me mention

usual my friends at Accelerate Auto

and their X care

EV battery warranty

extended warranty specifically

you may have heard recently

that Tesla themselves now offers

a battery and drive unit

extended service agreement but

it's not for every Tesla owner

and it's not the same kind of protection

Tesla's battery

ESA is available only

for Model 3 and Model Y

so if you own an S, X

or Cybertruck this coverage

is not even an option

for those who do qualify

Tesla's battery ESA

lasts just two years

or 30,000 miles

after the factory coverage ends

X cares battery and drive

unit protection is built for long-term

ownership not simply

short extensions

Tesla charges a $500

deductible per visit

multiple visits mean multiple deductibles

X care offers

flexible deductible options

designed to limit repeat out of

pocket costs

Tesla requires all

covered repairs to be done only at Tesla service centers

X care works with

approved EV repair facilities

giving owners flexibility

when wait times matter

Tesla excludes

battery degradation, capacity loss

and software related

performance changes

X care focuses on actual battery

and drive unit failure risk

not just narrow definitions

Tesla offers limited coverage

limited models, limited time

X care delivers broader

longer term protection

when you compare them side by side

it's not even close

go to xcare.com

xcar.com

to find the best coverage plan

for you and your vehicle today

I'm a two time customer

now of X care

my friends at Accelerate Auto

that's X C A R E

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a Tesla and or EV

Episode 543: Tesla Patent Aims to Give FSD 'Sunglasses'

About this episode

full self driving

glare shield

FSD

radar

lidar

RoboTaxi

CATL

LG Energy Solution

4680 cells

Tesla Model Y

Tesla Cybertruck

Cybercell 4680

2170 form factor cells

Tesla 4680

structural battery pack

4680 battery cells

treadwear warranty

V and W speed rated models

performance cars

summer tires

Michelin Pilot Sport 4S

Tesla Model 3

all-wheel drive

rear-wheel drive

all-season tires

America's Tire

Ford F150 Lightning

Polestar 2

Toyota bZ4X

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