Welcome to Electrified, it's your host Dylan Loomis. I know some of you have been missing Rob as of late, so what kind of host would I be if I didn't share at least a portion of his most recent online appearance? I'd be coming up on the same situation again here, so it's gonna let it go, and now it's deciding to carry through. But it did wait to see if there was gonna be space that materialized, which. I think it's pretty impressive. Again, there's no code to do that. This is just gonna be trained off of human. video capture of scenarios that are similar to that. You can see how many people are out right now. It's crazy. That biker startled it a little bit, this person on the scooter. Right, again, it's gonna pause here a little bit, maybe not.
Now this is gonna be very difficult. It's gonna need to be very assertive here. And it was, wow, wow, that was great. That was great. That's exactly how I would have handled that. Made its intentions clear, was assertive, didn't hesitate, which let the other driver react very naturally to what we were doing. And an exciting 12.3 maneuver to boot, and Rob did say even he is excited about this version. Responding to a user asking for 12.3 to go to a wide release, Rohan Patel said, people may be a bit surprised at how much validation and testing goes into every build and software update. Simulation, Shadow Mode Evaluation, Track Testing, Real World Testing, Engineering Vehicles, Sub-Set of Employees, etc. Safety first is really not a slogan at Tesla, it's the number one focus that he sees and hears in virtually every meeting. Green, the only said version 12.3 on the 2023.44 branch has the actually smart summon added. That checks out as replying to Farzad, Elon said, major improvements coming for summon and banish, which is what they're calling auto park next month. Pretty clever naming here, auto park is also called reverse summon, so summon is when you ask your car to drive to you from somewhere in the parking lot. Thus, reverse summon is when you want to send your car away to go park itself. And the word banish effectively means to send away or to get rid of something.
Put something to a really challenging situation, we gotta get into the right lane, but the traffic is super backed up. This will be very interesting, we have a bicyclist right in front of us. Ooh, yes, yes, yes, very good, assertive, keep going, I love this, this is amazing, amazing. Oh, we're even gonna look at that, we even squeezed in here between these two cars. Holy. The best thing I've ever seen. The founder of Dell, Michael Dell commented on version 12.3 saying, super impressive, like a human driver. Responding to that, Elon said version 12.4 is another big jump in capabilities, our constraint in training compute is much improved. Responding to Chuck Cook, Ashok Eliswami said, reverse coming soon when the actually smart summon and the FSD models merge together over the next few releases.
Over the next few months, we can now expect FSD to finally have the ability to reverse on its own, which will definitely give it more capabilities getting out of tough situations. And yes, given the context of Ashok's comment, I'm confident he was referring to FSD getting the ability to reverse, not just that auto park was going to be able to reverse. FSD, smart summon and banish should all have the ability to reverse. Tesla Scope shared this update at the end of January. They said, This last weekend, Tesla began internal testing of a new end-to-end training campaign, focusing on reversing up to a max of 50 feet and limited to 3 miles per hour. Reversing on FSD has not yet been tested on public roads, it's too early in the testing, and has only been trialed on company property and test tracks. This testing is intended to work alongside the new smart summon for situations where the vehicle is advancing through a parking lot and cannot proceed due to another vehicle. Ashok also said, Motivating to see the overwhelmingly positive response to our latest FSD-12 release. Efforts over the past several months went into making this new approach beat the previous version 11 stack, which was developed over many years. We believe V12 has net surpassed it now, and hence the next set of 12-dot releases should bring unprecedented progress. Ashok is definitely not one for hyperbole, so coming from him, that certainly carries a lot of weight. Yeah, this is super impressive. My expectations right now have changed with FSD slightly, maybe even significantly, I don't know, but I think by the end of this year they're going to be able to improve the system a lot with more data and more compute. And yeah, in a year this thing should be, I mean, way better than it is now, but even right now it's quite impressive.
To try to balance out some of the hype around 12.3, there are still even Tesla fans like Tesla Joy that did not have a great experience initially with 12.3. In LA she said there were still multiple interventions and disengagements, and she said it's not ready for the production version yet. Specifically, she said slowing down for no reason, crossing double yellow from HOV lane without signaling, almost hitting the car in the next lane, missing freeway interchange, picking the left turning lane with four cars ahead of me instead of the one without any cars in front. I do think it's very important to note though, most of the problems that Joy was talking about could be because version 11 is still being used for the highway stack. As far as we know, we can be pretty confident that version 12 has not taken over for or merged into the highway stack.
If you're confused, it's understandable because yes, version 11 was supposed to be the release that brought everything into a single stack for both the highways and city streets. That happened, so for a time on V11 we were single stack, but recently there's been a new bifurcation where version 12 has gone to update the city streets, we're still on V11 for the highway. Currently I have zero insight into why this bifurcation happened, but if I hear something, you'll hear about it too.
I think it's important we talk about Zach Nelson, the host of Jerry Rick Everything, and the controversy that he sparked up over the weekend. We all need to be hyper aware of potential incentives behind one's opinions. Let me be clear, somebody can hold an honest opinion that's also supported by a financial incentive. The problem arises when these financial incentives actually change or skew the opinion that that creator is sharing. First he said it should only be called full self-driving if the manufacturer takes full responsibility for the car's actions, but as we've known for years, Tesla's FSD is a beta. He went on to say Tesla has been selling their $12,000 lie for eight years now. Then replying to whole marr, Zach said that was a lot of words to describe a level 2 driver's assistance system, which everyone else also has.
Zach said I've gone completely hands free and afford for 30 minutes straight. Last time I checked, Tesla still requires a steering wheel grab every two minutes. Tesla is a level 2 just like everyone else. He said imagine you paid $12,000 for something called FSD, and then the manual tells you to keep your hands on the wheel at all times. I'm equally impressed and terrified by how many Tesla stands haven't read the manual and appear to be putting everyone else's lives at risk. I can see why Nitza is involved now, y'all are nuts. And the cherry on top, Zach said if it was more capable of being a level 2 than it would be a level 3, but it's not. They named it after a level 5 though, which is where my main issue lies. Bait and Switch false advertising, this FSD scam fits in both categories. Well, what do you know? Just today, Zach uploads a video on YouTube, and in the first few seconds, it says clearly, this video is sponsored by Ford, titled What Does Hands Free Driving Even Mean? Remember how I said those incentives can skew somebody's judgment? Well, in this case, Zach is most likely getting over a 5-figure incentive to talk highly of Ford's level 2 8-ass system.
I'd also add that anyone that in good faith is arguing that the SAE levels, level 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, that that is the true indication of how capable a system is has no idea what they're actually talking about. Tesla has wisely chosen to keep FSD at level 2 so that the driver remains responsible as they should be. This is part of why I said last week, I think it's foolish for Ford to offer the ability to take your hands off the wheel because they still require the driver to remain attentive and be prepared to take control at any moment. Thus, whether you're in a Ford and you can take your hands off or you're in a Tesla and you're supposed to have your hands on the wheel, it doesn't matter because both drivers are still required to be paying attention at all times.
So, for Zach to actually be arguing that Tesla's FSD is the same capability as all of the other level 2 SAE systems is the height of stupidity. Just one example, you can drop a Tesla with FSD on any street in the United States and it'll start driving. You cannot do the same with Ford because it's limited to certain highways. I mean seriously, does Zach really think that Ford's blue crews could pull off any of the clips that we've shared on the channel of Tesla's FSD over the past few weeks? It's just frustrating because he has such a large audience and he's misleading so many people. Hopefully though, sometime in the next two years or so Tesla finally cracks the code and then people like Zach will be proven wrong once and for all.
Before we move on today, the NTSB launched an investigation into Ford's blue crews system after a fatal accident in Texas. Preliminary data shows that blue crews might have been active at the time of the crash. Interesting how the headline leaves out Ford, had this been Tesla, would they have been treated the same way? When I've criticized some of the other vehicles that we've reviewed in the past, it's normally because I'm saying $55,000 or $65,000. For those vehicles, I felt that they reduced the interior too much for the price point. But at a $35,000 vehicle, at this price point, this is one of the nicest interiors that I've seen. That price point, I'm comparing it to the Chevy Bolt, the Chevy Bolt, the doors are almost all plastic, just a form wrap at the top.
This has much nicer styling, it has much nicer premium materials compared to the price point in the Chevy Bolt. So even though it is a smaller vehicle for someone of my size, I think that it is a great offering at a $35,000 vehicle for what they are giving you. The Cybertruck has made an appearance at Gigabrelin, so it'll be nice for some of the employees over there to get to check it out. Kyle Connor shared a screenshot of the UI in his Cybertruck showing three induction motors. Wes, a Cybertruck engineer said there must be a bug, it is true that the tri-motor configuration is permanent magnet up front, dual induction in the rear.
Dave Sparks, who has a YouTube channel with over 3.4 million subscribers, had this to say about Tesla. Dave and his team were the ones that were doing a bunch of modifications to their Cybertruck. Dave said that the Tesla team thought it was cool and they wanted to go out and see it in person. Then Tesla offered up top tier level tech support and guidance as they worked through their complex systems. Dave did not know much about Tesla before this project, but he went on to say he discovered how insanely passionate Tesla employees and fans are about tech and innovation, like these people genuinely love what they do.
Dave Sparks拥有一个拥有超过340万订阅者的YouTube频道,他对特斯拉有这样一番评价。Dave和他的团队是那些对他们的Cybertruck进行大量改装的人。Dave说特斯拉团队认为这很酷,他们想要亲自去看看。然后特斯拉提供了一流的技术支持和指导,当他们处理复杂的系统时。在这个项目之前,Dave对特斯拉并不了解,但他接着说他发现特斯拉员工和粉丝对科技和创新是多么疯狂的热情,像这些人真的热爱他们在做的事情。
He said so even if you're not a fan of EVs or some of Tesla's designs, we should all be cheering for this aggressive, innovative and passionate American company, which employs a lot of American people because at the end of the day, we're all on the same team. To add to Tesla doing cool things, unfortunately a Cybertruck forum member was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and they asked for a rush on their cyber beast delivery. One month later and Tesla made a home delivery. The user said our new beast arrived plus support from a rose gold black and a stainless Cybertruck they made a grand entrance filled the driveway and were there to address any new needs or concerns or questions for as long as we wished.
Car and driver did some unofficial testing with the Cybertruck Tano open and closed and the result, when it's closed, it results in a roughly 10% efficiency improvement. Getting around 250 miles with the Tano closed would mean getting around 225 miles on the same trip with it open. Just FYI, Cybertruck's are now slowly showing up on car rental sites like Turrell, for example this one that's in Rhode Island, available for around $300 per day. rapper Swae Lee has taken delivery of his Cybertruck and Elon commented saying, you're welcome, hope you like it.
Swae said it's to next level. Sierra has also taken delivery of her Cybertruck and Samuel Garcia, the governor of Nuevo Leone said the first Cybertruck arrived in Mexico and we have it in Monterey, the future is bright. Unfortunately, Monroe Live has said they are not going to sell any battery cells this time around from their tear down. I think they should make an exception for Jordan from the limiting factor though because they did say we're still opening the pack in doing our own testing and analysis. Whether the testing comes from Jordan or the Monroe team, it'll be really nice to get an update on these newer generation 4680s to see what type of progress chemistry-wise and energy density-wise is being made.
Apparently there's a bill in New Jersey right now that would make the state the worst EV tax policy in the country at $250 for a registration fee every year. Rojan said if this goes through, New Jersey will take number one in terms of punitive levels for EV drivers replacing Alabama. I'm not justifying this but New Jersey does have one of the country's highest gas taxes so I'm not really that surprised by this one. The Federal Highway Administration has announced an RFI, a request for information to get feedback on updating their minimum standards for EV charging stations. As we've talked about, the current requirements allow for alternative types of connectors as long as there's also a CCS connector.
But given NACS adoption, they're finally realizing they may need to adjust the guidelines. Hopefully this RFI results in them dropping the requirement to include CCS chargers at all stations. That is in order to get this federal funding. Here's one of Tesla's new ads with my own music. I think they're getting better. A Model 3 Ludacris variant was spotted in San Francisco over the weekend and a user took this image showing what appears to be a carbon fiber dash. The user also said this vehicle had 19 inch wheels and according to the VIN, it was actually produced in Shanghai. The front and rear of the vehicle were both still in camouflage. Tesla has said prices in the United States will increase by $1,000 for all Model Y trims on April 1st.
The question becomes, will Tesla keep prices there or is this just a move to encourage people to buy one before the end of quarter one? And no, I don't think that Tesla is playing an early April Fool's joke with this one. Tesla also said Model Y prices will increase across a number of countries in Europe on Friday, March 22nd. I've said before, using every price hike as an indication that demand is soaring and every price cut to mean that demand is cratering is not a wise way to look at this. That completely overlooks all of the input costs that also fluctuate in price over time. We do know that Gary Black and Wall Street will like this one.
At the same time in China, Tesla is offering up to $1,500 off inventory vehicles for the Model Y with Hardware 3. On the Don Lemon Show, Elon confirmed that the Roadster will do 0-60 in under 1 second and that will not be the most exciting thing about it. It won't have wings, it will not have propellers, but Elon said it will have a yoke and it will be drive by wire. Elon also said, I don't think anyone will ever make a product like the Roadster we're going to make. This week, the Biden administration is expected to finalize their new regulations for tailpipe emissions. We're expecting an announcement as soon as Wednesday. Listen to this, Jason Isaac, the American Energy Institute CEO, said it certainly won't do anything to improve human health. It won't do anything to reduce pollution.
We've proven in this country that we're already a world leader in clean air. All it's going to continue to do is push the cost of EVs onto purchasers of internal combustion engine vehicles. This is exactly the same bogus reasoning that we just saw Tesla leave that FCAI group in Australia over. To Jason, I would say, if you're so confident, why don't you go sit in your ICE car, in your closed garage, turn it on and see what happens. If you really think that taking those emissions off the road isn't going to improve human health, then I don't know what to tell you. The Energy Department is set to give a $2.26 billion loan to Lithium Americas for them to build a refining plant at their Thacker Pass mine in Nevada.
Thacker Pass initially is set to produce 40,000 metric tons of battery-quality Lithium annually enough for about 800,000 EVs per year. Production is expected to start in 2027 and eventually ramp up to 1.6 million EVs per year. This is pretty convenient for GM as let's not forget they invested $650 million into the Thacker Pass project for exclusive rights to the Lithium extracted from the mine for up to 15 years. The entire cost of this project was supposed to be $2.93 billion. Between GM and the Department of Energy, this project is effectively fully funded. I can't believe I'm saying this right now, but at least for this season, Toyota is being proven right to a degree when it comes to hybrid sales.
US sales of hybrids jumped 50% in the first two months of this year, which outpaced EV sales, which only grew 13%. Hybrid's flew off dealer lots in 25 days on average nearly three times faster than full BEVs and twice as fast as ICE cars. The number of hybrid models on sale in the US grew 40% over the past five years to about 70 for the 2024 model year. With so many automakers focused on hybrids, that means they're not as focused on full BEVs, opening up more market share for Tesla. And hopefully next time around, these hybrid owners go full BEV. This is a rumor and one I'm skeptical of, but Chris Zhang said a source is saying Tesla will host its third AI day next month, which would be in April.
Just a rumor for now, we'll see how this develops. Tesla's manager in Sweden has given his first interview opening up about the strikes. He said in meetings, none of his employees ask about collective agreements, they just want to know how they can help with different solutions in this situation. Remember, these strikes began at the end of October 2023. He said, we have managed to keep both the sales, delivery and service organizations running as usual. Tesla has about 300 employees in Sweden, EF-Mital's strike includes 130 of them, but only about 30 are on strike according to Tesla. He said, we feel confident we will have Sweden's best selling car when we sum up the year. Despite the fact that regular cleaning routines and waste collection are not being carried out due to sympathy strikes, he said the team came up with a solution that we have approved. He said there is no internal pressure whatsoever to introduce a collective agreement, this among the employees. He confirmed Tesla is opening up its own damage repair shop in Stockholm during the spring. There is no ongoing negotiation between EF-Mital and Tesla and no solution in sight. We are still open to a dialogue, but we stick to our line.
We have users out in the field showing demos that the Supercharger network is now officially open for Rivian customers. Plug-in charge is active as well. RJ said, super excited for this. We'll begin shipping free NACS adapters to Rivian owners in April, and compatible Superchargers will show up in Rivian navigation when you plan a trip. Charging will be plug-in charge with automatic billing, no app required. Rivian was asked when the Adventure network will open for Tesla and other EVs. Rivian said we're excited to share more on this in the future. You can't overstate the importance of this for Rivian and overall EV adoption. And then on Tesla's side, of course, their charger utilization will increase and will bring in more revenue. Rivian also just trademarked a new name, the R1X, and we heard that the R3X is going to be a performance variance of the R3. So perhaps the R1 lineup will get a performance variant as well. We'll see.
Fiskar is now pausing production for six weeks to focus on strategic and financing initiatives. Fiskar did say it secured $150 million in debt financing, but it's contingent on a number of factors. In my eyes, bankruptcy is still the most likely outcome, even if the can is kicked down the road. Tesla has finally opened its first showroom in Vermont. Previously, customers would have to drive 3 plus hours. Here we have the Audi Q6 and the SQ6 ETRON both built on an 800 volt platform. These cars will be on VW's premium platform electric, the first EVs to be made at their plant in Germany. These cars will have two OLED displays plus an optional 10.9 inch touchscreen for the passenger that can play videos, but is blocked from the driver's view while the car is in motion. The infotainment software is a new Android based system. It'll have a 94.4 kilowatt hour battery and they're expecting an EPA range of around 300 miles. The Q6 will eventually migrate to the NACS, but it's going to launch with a CCS connector. Pricing for the US market has yet to be announced, but the word is they're expecting around $66,000. And $72,000 for the SQ6. Ordering for the Q6 and for the S Performance variant will open this month in Europe. It'll start at about $81,000. This midsize SUV is expected to go on sale in the United States later this year.
Mercedes does not want to be left out. They're adding Aptronics Apollo humanoid robots to its factories to complete physically intensive and low-skilled tasks. Apollo is 5'8", weighs 160 pounds, can lift up to 55 pounds and can currently run for four hours on a single battery pack. No recharging for Apollo, they do battery pack swaps. Mercedes said this is a new frontier and we want to understand the potential both for robotics and automotive manufacturing to fill labor gaps in areas such as low-scale repetitive and physically demanding work to free up our highly skilled team members on the line to build the world's most desirable cars. Not wanting to be outdone by Figure N BMW.
Tesla stock closed the day at $173.80 up 6.25% while the NASDAQ was up 0.82%. It was an average volume day for Tesla trading about 3 million shares below the average 30-day volume. Tesla stock bounced perfectly off of this trend line, so now we'll watch and see if over the next few weeks it can climb above the roughly $205 price to avoid setting yet another new lower local high. I hope you guys have a wonderful day. Please like the video if you did. You can find me on X linked below and a huge thank you to all of my Patreon supporters. Thanks for watching!.