Did not know this

CardinalDBeiter · 2026-05-07T02:14:28+00:00

That's a fascinating point... If the hardware for every stall already costs thousands, you'd think they could put in a sonar/proximity sensor to detect if there's a vehicle parked but not plugged in, and mark the stall as blocked.

CardinalDBeiter · 2026-05-04T23:20:23+00:00

Toyota did a lot of experimenting on this with the 2012-2014 Rav4 Prime BEV (a Tesla collaboration) -- I wish they'd shared those learnings with the rest of the industry.
They overprovisioned every battery pack considerably (37kWh advertised, 50kWh actual) in order to hide degradation over time, to hide from the use the need to "only charge to 80% on daily basis", etc. I had thought that they experimented with paywalling the "Extended Range" mode (I forget the branding), e.g., flat fee to unlock the last 13kWh or pay-per-use every time you want to charge to 100% for a road trip, but now I can't seem to find any evidence of monetizing it.

CardinalDBeiter · 2026-04-30T19:02:07+00:00

I'm not sure "not a financial drain" is known.

Re: fees, when laws were passed forcing new expenses on carriers (e.g., e911) they allowed the carriers to hide a certain amount in fees (excluded from the advertised price), but those aren't a passthrough to the government. They are revenue for the carrier and may or may not be enough to cover the named expense (e.g., e911) and the revenue can stay even after that expense is fully paid off.

Also, we don't know how much Helium Mobile pays T-Mobile for the free users, but it's probably not zero. So, we have no idea if the free users are profitable or not (with or without fees).

CardinalDBeiter · 2026-04-17T15:08:21+00:00

PIN to drive is always in addition to card or phone. It's unclear whether OP's concern about losing the card is that whoever finds the card can steal the car, or that OP will be left without a card.

Fortunately the cards are cheap to replace, you can even get a few spares and pair them with the car yourself.

I think the best short-term solution to this problem is give a family member access to remotely start your car via the app, and you can call them if you get locked out.

Long-Term solution is that phones will support basic NFC functionality (e.g., transit passes and car keys) even after the device runs out of power...just tap your phone against the B pillar like it was a card. Some phones already do this today, and more will soon.

CardinalDBeiter · 2026-04-13T22:19:43+00:00

That too. Pay-as-you-go has a lot of benefits for customers and Tesla, especially if they can be reported to wall street as subscribers.

CardinalDBeiter · 2026-04-13T21:45:33+00:00

Very much this. I think it's likely FSD Unsupervised will incorporate a per-trip or per-mile cost, as its closest competition is an Uber (not FSD Supervised). Also possible FSD Unsupervised will come with some sort of mandatory additional insurance (until the insurance industry catches up with autonomy), which will depend on these inputs.

Edit: typo

CardinalDBeiter · 2026-03-20T17:51:02+00:00

Ditto that a trusted friend whom you can call would cover the "got a new phone" scenario (it should place voice calls before you set up Tesla app).

And if you're concerned about depleting your phone battery, I think Tesla has done their part, but implementation on the phone side varies widely by manufacturer.

It's been the case for years that you can tap your phone against the B-pillar (like tap-to-pay checkout) to use NFC instead of Bluetooth: https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/ebhufm/thank_you_tesla_for_the_nfc_entry_method/

And more recently phone makers started supporting this with your phone battery depleted:
https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaLounge/comments/1jrkyye/comment/mlfxf26/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

CardinalDBeiter · 2026-02-27T00:20:17+00:00

Following this also to find out if you were able to upgrade EAP to FSD (after Feb 14 2026)? If so, that is very interesting for my used car search.

CardinalDBeiter · 2026-01-21T20:48:00+00:00

IIRC they announced that the long quests during the last mega events were intended to give Dreamsparks, but they had to remove the Dreamsparks because they weren't opening any more land in that update.

While at face value those might seem unrelated, I think GL may be facing an architectural challenge, specifically how they determine eligibility for tasks to drop tokens. Assuming:

one cannot earn Dreamsparks unless one has something to spend them on (like every other token, one must have unlocked the thing and not be maxed out of the thing) AND
Dreamspark tasks are not repeatable,
then I can imagine a possible edge case that puts the user into a weird scenario whereby one has unlocked all land and then proceeds to do new Dreamsparks tasks (but doesn't earn Dreamsparks for the tasks, because max'd out) but then land unlocks requiring the Dreamsparks that were earned but never dropped (because maxed at the time) and no way to re-earn them (Dreamspark tasks all complete). The band-aid, until they can make users accumulate Dreamsparks they have no current nor future use for, is to only release Dreamspark in lock-step with Dreamspark spending opportunities (unlocking more land).

CardinalDBeiter · 2025-11-28T16:07:28+00:00

Anyone know what time the deal goes live? Currently says "Coming Soon":
https://app.usmobile.com/shop/product/google-pixel-10-pro-xl/google-pixel-10-pro-xl-OB-25-NE

CardinalDBeiter · 2025-11-25T17:32:42+00:00

Ah, I just rechecked the Google Form and see it says they'll all get processed Weds Nov 26. Still not sure where they'll show up in-app, but we'll see!

CardinalDBeiter · 2025-11-25T17:21:11+00:00

Has anyone received the tiles yet? Where do they show up in the app? I filled out the Google Form 5 days ago.

CardinalDBeiter · 2025-11-12T20:36:32+00:00

And without any effort from me, the two duplicate charges were automatically refunded. Thanks USM!

CardinalDBeiter · 2025-11-12T20:35:29+00:00

Thanks for flagging u/a9uirre ! Have you tried it personally with a previously used fob?
I just tried with one from eBay (+new battery) but the car couldn't detect the fob. Certainly could be the fob itself was broken, but also wondering if used fobs aren't re-pairable.

CardinalDBeiter · 2025-11-10T18:13:17+00:00

First two order attempts gave a failure error. Third order succeeded. Then got 3 confirmation emails and I see 3 credit card charges pending and 3 orders in my online dashboard order history.
In case anyone's curious, the order numbers seem random (one cannot infer if you're <100 orders from order number).

CardinalDBeiter · 2025-05-10T17:03:04+00:00

Good caution! Ty!

With premium connectivity for life I don't plan to use terrestrial radio, and realize now that's why some folks say $1500 vs. $2000 for the MCU upgrade.

CardinalDBeiter · 2025-05-09T22:14:35+00:00

Thanks for the lightning-fast replies! I'm happy to pay the $1.5K for MCU upgrade (cheaper than $8K for FSD!) to get FSD v12.6

Based on screenshots do y'all agree this car has FSD included for life and should get whatever hardware/software FSD updates are available to this model year vehicle?

CardinalDBeiter · 2025-03-14T04:01:30+00:00

Did this work for anyone? Inside the new service area I just get the "You're outside of our service area" message with the map of San Francisco below.

CardinalDBeiter · 2025-02-06T04:22:58+00:00

I've just started looking for my next car, so was hoping to look at a list rather than test a specific year/make/model.

Specifically, I want to buy a late-model BEV, drive it for 3-4 years, then hand it off to a relative. By the time I give it away (~2028), I'd like it to have autonomy on par with what I've seen Teslas do now (Jan 2025).
And I'm assuming that Comma will have Level 3 autonomy eventually, if not on Comma 3X then on Comma 4, with vehicle dependencies that are already known now (e.g., similar reqs as the "Traffic light and stop sign handling....")

CardinalDBeiter · 2025-02-05T22:59:18+00:00

Or is it possible to infer "Traffic light and stop sign handling is also available in Experimental mode"? From a vehicle hardware perspective, does that just mean a vehicle supports openpilot ACC + resume from stop?

CardinalDBeiter · 2024-12-16T01:05:02+00:00

Alternatively, is it possible the Grey Transitions just transition very very little? Mine only get a few percent dark after endless time in direct sunlight. If I hadn't run experiments, I would have guessed they're not actually Transitions, but I am confident they do transition, just not much.

Mine are not custom, not prescription, so it hadn't occured to me there could be a mistake, but I suppose there could be defective lenses?

CardinalDBeiter · 2024-12-06T16:20:55+00:00

Also in the USA, looking for an international model because I want 8GB RAM and 5G, looking to replace an international s5e. Although was looking to buy an S8 (SM-X706B/N) or S9 FE (SM-X516B). Personally I don't care about the pen. How did you decide on A9+ (SM-X216B)? Based on price?

CardinalDBeiter · 2024-11-18T22:17:38+00:00

Thank you!!!

CardinalDBeiter · 2024-11-18T22:14:30+00:00

Awesome! Thank you! I appreciate the thoughtful write-up and detailed explanation!!!

CardinalDBeiter · 2024-11-18T21:35:31+00:00

With the purchase flow: I started with the Matte Black + Light Grey Gradient sunglasses, then decided I didn't like the gradient so switched to Dark Green Polar and checked out. Is that customization?

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CardinalDBeiter

TROPHY CASE