Teslas To Connect To Starlink Satellites For Emergency Calls And Texts |

Tesla’s vehicles will integrate with SpaceX's Starlink to eliminate dead zones in the future.

On August 25th at 5pm PT, Musk and T-Mobile CEO and President Mike Sievert, announced a landmark partnership between Starlink and T-Mobile with the goal of “eliminating dead zones worldwide.” This venture is called “Coverage Above & Beyond,” and it will go into beta late next year for text, MMS, and select messaging applications, according to Teslarati.

Starlink V2, launching next year, will transmit direct to mobile phones, eliminating dead zones worldwide

Musk posted a follow-up tweet saying, “Note, connectivity will be 2 to 4 Mbits per cell zone, so will work great for texting & voice calls, but not high bandwidth.”

Unfortunately, watching high-resolution videos on YouTube or Netflix, or sending high-quality pictures will not be ideal at this speed. Hopefully, T-Mobile and Starlink continue to improve these speeds as hardware and software gets enhanced to enable more bandwidth.

To achieve mobile service in remote and rural areas Starlink will use a portion of T-Mobile’s mid-band PCS Spectrum to get rid of dead zones around the world.

“That is incredible because it’s a lot like putting a cellular tower in the sky, just a lot harder,” Sievert said at the “Coverage Above & Beyond” event.

The connection to Starlink via Tesla’s vehicles will enable them to make emergency calls and texts. Twitter user @heydave7 responded to Musk’s tweet about Starlink V2 satellites inquiring about this. Musk responded, “Yes.”

With Tesla’s vehicles able to connect to the internet in the most remote places, this could mean that your vehicle’s connectivity will be more reliable when driving through areas with little to no cell service. And this may mean Tesla could drop AT&T as its enterprise mobile carrier, allowing for much more flexibility and control over its fleet’s data usage.

And you won’t need to update to a new phone. The one you use right now will work. Furthermore, it’s rumored that Apple will be announcing a satellite connectivity feature for their iPhone 14 so it seems that satellite connectivity is going to be prime real estate in the coming years.

Sievert and Musk called on other telecommunications companies around the world to join the program and offer “reciprocal roaming.” This would allow US citizens to travel to other countries and not lose cell service, and similar for those who are traveling to the United States.

Since this information is still so fresh, details about the integration, packages, and pricing are not available, so it’s unclear if Tesla will increase the price of its Premium Connectivity package when Starlink connectivity becomes available.

Watch T-Mobile and SpaceX’s “Coverage Above & Beyond” event at Starbase below.

The much anticipated FSD Beta 10.69 (formerly known as 10.13) went out to its first 1,000 testers on August 20th.

This release has been one of the most anticipated updates since the early FSD Betas. While part of that was due to the expected improvements in this beta, the other part is that it's been a while since the last update.

The last beta that went into wide release came out in late May, which means that for some testers it has been more than three months since their last update; an awfully long time for Tesla enthusiasts.

Unfortunately, that means that testers have remained on the 2022.12 branch as well. With about 8% of the fleet already on update 2022.24, one can't help but feel left out in all of the latest features.

Some of the exciting features include Cloud Profiles, reposition blind spot camera (video), seat belt enhancements, improvements to navigation energy prediction and quite a bit more.

Beta 10.69 includes a ton of improvements, which is why Tesla is being a little more cautious with its rollout. Tesla rolled out 10.69 to 1,000 testers and plans to roll it out to additional testers with the release of beta 10.69.1.

Elon Musk has just taken to Twitter to announce that beta 10.69.1 will be released Monday night. Based on his previous comments, this will have a wider release than 10.69, although it's not expected to go out to all testers. We'll likely see the original testers receive it first then hopefully Tesla will expand it to some additional testers.

FSD Beta 10.69.2 is where Tesla is expected to release the beta to all existing FSD Beta testers, with it tentatively scheduled 'about a week or so later.'

It's not clear whether Tesla will add any new testers after beta 10.69.2, but it's certainly possible that Tesla will increase the number of testers after a couple of bug-fix releases.

Although Beta 10.69 has many improvements, a major focus of the beta has been Chuck Cook-esque unprotected left turns. These turns can be tricky in high-traffic situations even for human drivers. They require patience, great timing and a good sense of the surrounding environment.

In that regard, this beta appears to be much improved. The car will now utilize the median to its advantage and use it as a stopping point.

FSD Beta also appears more confident in heavier traffic, moving forward when it has an opening. Below you can see one of Chuck's latest videos and see how this beta is performing.

There is one new visualization in beta 10.69 and it's actually extremely helpful for anyone testing FSD. When the vehicle is creeping forward, a blue 'wall' will now be displayed, letting you know where the vehicle is expected to stop. When the vehicle is creeping forward in high traffic it could certainly make the driver feel uneasy and this visualization should help with that. Although this is the only new visualization spotted so far, you can view all FSD visualizations here.

FSD Beta 10.69 is based on update 2022.16 and beta 10.69.1 is expected to be as well. This means that testers will still be a little further behind than non-FSD Beta customers, but they can expect some of the new features included in the 2022.16 branch, including separate media accounts per profile, navigation energy prediction, automatic Supercharger rerouting and more.

Beta 10.69.1 is expected to only include minor fixes, so check out the FSD Beta 10.69 release notes to see everything you may receive in 10.69.1.

Tesla has recently started rolling out their latest 2022.20 update, version 2022.20.9.

Although minor revisions such as these usually only contain minor fixes, this update appears to contain several new features.

In May of 2021 Tesla introduced their first vehicles with Tesla Vision. These vehicles no longer included the radar hardware and instead relied on Tesla's vision-only system.

Although the vehicles initially lacked some features when compared to their radar-equipped counterparts, they have now mostly caught up through software updates.

Early on Tesla Vision vehicles didn't include Smart Summon or Emergency Lane Departure Avoidance. Autopilot speeds were also limited to 75 MPH (120 KPH) and the minimum follow distance was increased.

However, most of these features have now been added to Tesla Vision vehicles. The only area in which vision-based cars are still behind vehicles with radar is the maximum Autopilot speed allowed and the minimum follow distance.

After several updates, the maximum Autopilot speed for vision cars is now 85 MPH and the follow distance can now be set between two and seven car lengths.

With update 2022.20.9 Tesla appears to be adding Tesla Vision to vehicles with a radar for the first time.

The only other instance that we're aware of in which a radar-equipped vehicle would have Tesla Vision would be if they were enrolled in the FSD Beta program.

If you have Tesla's FSD Beta, then your radar has already been turned off and your vehicle relies on Tesla Vision exclusively.

It's not clear yet whether all vehicles with radar will transition to Tesla Vision with this update or if Tesla will be rolling out the feature slowly while listening closely for feedback. Tesla used this method when they carefully rolled out the 'Apply Brakes When Regen is Limited' feature. Although the feature was initially part of 2022.16, many customers only found the feature enabled in later software updates.

We have seen three vehicles transition to Tesla Vision with this update, a 2021 Model S, a refresh Model X and a Model Y.

Another new feature in 2022.20.9 is the introduction of Dynamic Brake Lights into additional markets.

Tesla's Dynamic Brake Lights feature will automatically flash your brake lights quickly if you suddenly slow down.

Your hazard lights will also flash temporarily if you come to a complete stop.

This feature was previously rolled out to many European nations in 2020, but it is now being expanded to several new countries. Some of the new countries include Australia and New Zealand, but there may be others included as well. We do know that the U.S. is not one of the new markets.

We should know more about vehicles transitioning to Tesla Vision and which markets are receiving the Dynamic Brake Lights feature as update 2022.20.9 continues to roll out to additional vehicles.

View the release notes for the upcoming version 2022.24.5.

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View all known voice commands for your Tesla.

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