Tesla’s Elon Musk keeps promising a functional Full Self-Driving for the past years, but the automated driving system remains reluctant to fulfill Musk’s expectations. His latest estimates were for the FSD to be available in the U.S. by the end of the year, but a new development dealt a blow to Tesla’s plans.
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automated driving are a big part of what Elon Musk names “Master Plan Part 3” so it makes sense that Tesla bets its future on these technologies. Even though crucial, both of them are put on hold at the moment after Andrej Karpathy, the person overseeing Tesla’s AI, announced a four-month sabbatical.

Elon Musk made the announcement with a “BTW” Twitter reply to a question regarding Canadian FSD deployment, which showed how uneasy it is for him to comprehend the situation. Less than three hours later, Karpathy took to Twitter to voice his excitement while explaining the situation.

“Taking some time off to rest and travel after almost 5 years at Tesla. Especially excited to get focused time to re-sharpen my technical edge and train some neural nets! Though I already miss all the robots and GPU/Dojo clusters and looking forward to having them at my fingertips again,” wrote Karpathy on Twitter.

This looks like a blow to Tesla’s efforts to crack full self-driving this year. Although Tesla has assembled a strong AI team, Karpathy is instrumental in Tesla cracking full self-driving. A four-month sabbatical might look like a short delay in Tesla’s plans, but both investors and fans are worried. It would not be the first time a Tesla executive disappeared after taking some time off.

Doug Field, Tesla’s former senior VP of engineering, left in 2018 supposedly “to recharge and spend time with his family.” A few months later, it was revealed Field would not return, as he got back to Apple. Three years later, Field was named Ford’s chief advanced technology and embedded systems officer.

A look inside the Gigafactory Grünheide: Tesla builds a car every 45 seconds.

Handelsblatt-2022/04/02

The world's most modern vehicle factory starts up in Grünheide. Cars roll off the assembly line at
record speed. There is a lot for the German competition to learn.

Grünheide A ghostly sound regularly hunts through the factory halls in Grünheide. It's the whistle of
the press shop, a massive machine as tall as a three-story house, with white cladding and a red
frame.

Even the press is in Tesla's corporate colors. And it is built with German expertise from suppliers
such as Wefa, Schuler and Hirschvogel. The 50-ton press dies form body parts at a pressure of 2500
tons in twenty-second cycles.

Similar presses can be found in other car factories. But Tesla wants to use them to produce a
component that other manufacturers do not use in this way. In addition to parts such as doors or
tailgates, the press plant will soon also be forming battery boxes. These are the containers for the
new, so-called 4680 lithium battery cells.

The battery modules made from them and the container are glued together to form the Model Y's
underbody. This saves weight, improves driving characteristics and increases range. "I've been
working on this since the beginning of the company," Tesla CEO Elon Musk said a few months ago.

With new production processes, high automation and future cell production, Tesla is setting
standards at its newly opened plant in Grünheide. "It's an interesting benchmark for the German
automotive industry," said Peter Nagel, founder of consultancy ANP Management Consulting.
Tesla builds cars in record time

Grünheide is the most modern car factory in the world - and important for Tesla. Analysts expect the
company to reach a production capacity of two million electric cars a year by the end of the year. A
quarter of these are to come from Germany.

To achieve this, a vehicle is to come off the assembly line every 45 seconds at "Giga Berlin" before
the end of this year. That would be a peak value. "A usual high-volume production cycle, such as that
of the C-Class, is 70 to 90 seconds per vehicle," says Heiko Weber, a partner at industry consultancy
Berylls.

How will Tesla manage that? The manufacturer is keeping a low profile, even suppliers are ordered
to keep quiet. But Handelsblatt was allowed to visit the factory halls and talk to employees.
Interviews with experts and the evaluation of permit applications, Internet forums and other sources
paint a picture of a factory that sets a new industry benchmark.

Last but not least, a good source is Tesla CEO Elon Musk himself, who likes to tweet or talk in detail
about production processes.

The idea for the "Giga Press" comes from Italy

Pallets of aluminum ingots line up in the foundry. Fodder for Tesla's two other presses: The gigantic
die-casting machines form the rear end of the Model Y from exactly nine ingots - in one piece and
weighing 81 kilograms.

So far, Tesla has been casting and pressing the rear section of the Model Y in Grünheide in this way.
The process is controversial among experts. In normal factories, such body parts are still welded
together from numerous individual parts.

It was not Tesla that came up with the idea, but the Italian mechanical engineering company Idra.
According to Idra manager Ricardo Ferrario, when the Italians presented the "Giga Press" at a trade
fair in Berlin in 2019, they met with a lot of skepticism: "One potential customer just laughed: This
will never work."

But Tesla saw the advantages: The casting process eliminates 70 production steps. Musk was
intrigued; the proposal came closest to his idea of a "machine that builds the machine." Together
with his engineers and Ida, they developed the OL 6100 CS, which now stands in Grünheide and
operates at a pressure of 6100 tons.

This is just the beginning. Six more "giga presses" will be set up in the factory this year, for a total of
eight. The capacities are needed because not only the rear part but also the front part of the Model
Y will be made from a single casting.

The crossover model is thus transformed into a kind of construction kit with few parts. Musk came
up with the idea while looking at a Matchbox car.

In the future, the Tesla body will mainly consist of three parts. The two large parts at the front and
rear will be connected to the battery box. The approach eliminates a total of 370 production steps.
"The rear part alone saves us 300 robots," Musk said.

There are drawbacks, however: If the customer has an accident that deforms a casting, it has to be
completely replaced - making repairs more expensive. Nevertheless, various manufacturers such as
Volvo or Chinese start-ups are now using the gigapress, and VW is also considering it. According to
an analysis by the investment bank Bernstein, every second electric car will be manufactured using
this process in 2030.

Tesla: Fremont is already achieving peak values

Tesla's goal is to produce 500,000 vehicles a year, or just under 10,000 vehicles a week, in
Grünheide. Currently, the factory is still ramping up and currently creates 500 to 1000 vehicles per
week, according to automotive experts ANP. "The factory will be a success," says ANP's Nagel. "Tesla
is amazingly fast, innovative and flexible in every way.

German automakers are alarmed. Volkswagen CEO Herbert Dies has been warning about Tesla's
superior productivity for years. While Volkswagen needs a total of 30 hours to build a car, Tesla gets
by with ten. That's one reason why Volkswagen is now building a completely new plant for electric
cars in Wolfsburg. "Without that, we wouldn't have a chance in the competition," Diess said a few
days ago.

The W boss maintains a close relationship with Musk, admires the entrepreneur and his factories.
What Tesla is capable of is already evident at its first plant in California. Tesla currently produces
8550 vehicles per week in the converted former GM halls. According to an analysis by the financial
information service Bloomberg of 70 American car factories, that's a top figure. Tesla relegates
Toyota's flagship plant in Kentucky to second place with 8427 vehicles, followed by BMW in South
Carolina with 8343.

The batteries still come from China

From the highway, the exit to Tesla in Grünheide goes up a hill. It's a dramatic approach, as the
factory only slowly becomes visible - and grows and grows in front of the windshield. The halls are
24 meters high, the factory is 311 meters wide, 700 meters long.

At 227,000 square meters, the area is huge, but it is organized down to the last spot. This can be
seen even from the outside by the 179 closely spaced truck stations, says expert Nagel. "This
requires sophisticated logistics."

The delivered parts, batteries or other goods cannot stand around for long in the confined space,
and must be quickly put into production. 750 employees process two million car parts a day. The
batteries for the Model Y are also still being delivered from China. But Tesla is currently building a
battery cell plant next to the factory, which could be up and running by the end of the year.
Premiere for the 4680 battery cells

Grünheide will be the first place where the famous 4680 battery cells will go into series production.
Musk presented the cells at "Battery Day" 2020, and since then analysts and experts have been
waiting for the market launch. They were developed in the USA and will probably be used for the
first time in Grünheide.

The cylindrical battery cells have a diameter that is more than twice as large as before, the energy
density increases by a factor of five and the range of the electric car by 16 percent. Almost more
importantly, the large battery cells are integrated into the body.

Until now, Musk said, the batteries would lie uselessly in the car like "a sack of potatoes," and
padding and insulation would make the vehicle heavier. Now, the cells are to be bonded together
with adhesive foam and made fireproof at the same time - and become part of the body. "This is a
very good idea," says Christoph Neef, project manager at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and
Innovation Research. "The complexity of the vehicle and the costs go down."

Speed through simplicity

One reason for the speed of Tesla's production is also the simplicity of its model range. Grünheide
produces only the Model Y, a mix of sedan and Suv. Up to 70 percent of the parts are identical to
those of Model 3, which could also be produced in Grünheide without major problems.

While other manufacturers have dozens of models on the market, Tesla is currently managing to
establish itself on the market with only a handful of models. The very limited color selection also
facilitates production.

In fact, Tesla is currently only producing the black Model Y Performance in Grünheide. Anyone who
has ordered one in white, red, blue or Midnight Silver will have to wait. Much like Henry Ford once
said, "You can have a Ford in any color, as long as it's black.
Tesla's paint dries in record time

The paint shop can only be viewed from the outside. It requires 70 percent less energy than
competitor plants and is exemplary with a water consumption per vehicle of 0.58 cubic meters.
Painting, drying and curing takes just five hours. In a study, industry consultancy ANP notes the fact
with three exclamation points.

The colors are applied in seven coats, alternating clear coat and color. For special colors, it should be
up to 13 coats. According to Musk, this creates the "flop effect": the effect of the paint changes
depending on the viewing angle - a kind of 3D effect is created. This is made possible by special
pigments.

Musk's advertising with colors like the "very special red" and the "liquid silver" is clever. The special
colors cleverly hide the fact that Tesla offers little choice compared to other manufacturers.
"We have to be careful with the number of colors," Musk himself said at the Greenheath production
launch. Tesla's supreme law also applies to color selection: to produce as simply, quickly and
automatically as possible.

Musk himself gave the reason: Tesla wants to sell 20 million vehicles per year in a decade - far more
than twice as many as the entire Volkswagen Group currently sells. For the Berlin plant, that would
mean: The area, only a quarter of which has been used so far, would be completely built over with
car plants and battery cell factories in order to be able to produce two million vehicles a year.

"I think that's aggressive, but not impossible," Musk commented on his plans to employees and fans
at the opening in Grünheide. The Tesla boss is known for daring forecasts that don't always come
true. But the new plant, with its productivity and innovative power, underscores the fact that Musk
must be taken seriously.

Tesla started a transition away from radar sensors in its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems a year ago. The move that started with North America has now reached Europe and the Middle East and affects Model 3 and Model Y vehicles delivered from April 2022.
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Tesla considers camera-based vision is better than the radar-based approach for its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving assistance systems. It’s also a lot cheaper, so it was just a matter of time before Tesla would extend Pure Vision to other markets. North American experience has proven Pure Vision just as competent and Tesla vehicles without radar sensors have been deemed just as safe by regulatory bodies like IIHS.

“We are continuing the transition to Tesla Vision, our camera-based Autopilot system,” Tesla wrote on its website. “Beginning with deliveries in April 2022, Model 3 and Model Y vehicles built for the European and Middle Eastern markets will no longer be equipped with radar. Instead, these will be the first Tesla vehicles to rely on camera vision and neural net processing to deliver Autopilot, Full-Self Driving capabilities, and certain active safety features.”

During the transition, Tesla Vision will drop some features and limit others. For instance, Tesla announced that the steering assistant will be limited to a maximum speed of 130 kph (81 mph) and a longer following distance. Similar precautions were taken when rolling out Tesla Vision in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada a year ago. These features will be restored in the coming weeks via OTA updates.

Just as was the case in other markets, Tesla’s move would not affect the safety ratings of the vehicles, according to European legislation. Also, the functionality of the camera-based systems will not be affected and Tesla says that all other available autopilot functions and the Tesla functionality “Full potential for autonomous driving” are active upon delivery, depending on the car’s configuration.

Employees at Tesla’s Shanghai factory are reportedly being forced to live at work following a three-week shutdown due to a recent outbreak of Covid-19 cases in China. The company will hand out sleeping bags and mattresses to its employees, who will be made to sleep on the floor while operating in a so-called ‘closed-loop’ system, according to Bloomberg.

Here's one for the "things that might have looked pretty cool if they'd gone well" file. This Tesla Model X drove itself into a Cirrus Vision Jet at what one Twitter user says was an aviation trade show. Details are scant, but the video's pretty self-explanatory: Tesla's self-driving software continues to struggle with obstacles that aren't obviously connected to the ground whether or not there's a driver inside.


Not only does the Smart Summon feature send the Tesla right into the jet's tail, but the car keeps on going after impact. That's one expensive fender-bender. Tesla's PR team (aka Elon's Twitter stans) have already assured us that the person behind this Summon (whether an owner, borrower or otherwise) employed the feature incorrectly, as it is only intended to be used in spaces that are well-marked for vehicular travel/parking and free of potential obstructions, such as $2.5 million private planes.

Their assurances aside, this of course leads us to wonder whether Tesla has been able to make any meaningful progress with Smart Summon since its somewhat shaky launch a few years ago, which prompted U.S. regulators to initiate an investigation into its safety.

Tesla used to allow owners of older vehicles to update to newer infotainments systems. Sadly, this won’t be possible anymore, as a Tesla hacker revealed. It appears that Tesla changed the connectors and the bay size of its Media Control Units (MCU), so the newest MCU 3 is not compatible with vehicles launched with the MCU 2.
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Tesla debuted a new MCU on their most recent Model 3 and Model Y vehicles. Powered by an AMD Ryzen processor, the so-called MCU 3 is said to be as powerful as a modern game console when playing high-end 3D games. This has made a lot of Tesla owners want to upgrade their existing infotainment systems to the new MCU. This was indeed possible before for users with MCU 1 units, who were able to switch to an MCU 2 for a $2,000 price.

Unfortunately, this won’t be the case going forward, as Tesla changed a lot when switching to the latest AMD-based MCU 3. A close-up inspection of a new Model Y’s internals by the hacker Green (@greentheonly) reveals the upgrade is impossible due to a “totally different power and other harness and thickness of the unit.” As usual, the news has not been confirmed or denied by Tesla but, if proved accurate, it will certainly disappoint a lot of MCU 2 vehicle owners.

The Media Control Unit on Tesla vehicles handles everything onboard except the Full Self-Driving/Autopilot operations. It controls the touchscreen, the audio subsystem, WiFi, Cellular, Bluetooth, GPS, the Ethernet bridge, multiple CAN bus communications, the LIN bus, USB ports, and many more. As users with failed MCU 1 units discovered, it is impossible to use the car without the MCU working properly.

The first generation of the MCU came with an Nvidia Tegra 3 processor and it was later replaced by a faster unit powered by an Intel Atom E8000 Series CPU. It added many more capabilities to Tesla vehicles, including video streaming and gaming. The third generation of the Tesla MCU launched on the Model S in 2021 with an AMD Ryzen processor vastly superior to the Intel Atom. This was later installed in the Model 3/Y as well.