Tesla Unveils its Solution to “Range Anxiety”; Musk Talks Self-Driving Cars

Hey, remember that announcement Elon Musk Tweeted earlier this week? The one about ending “range anxiety”? It whipped the tech community, people who have Teslas and people who wish they had Teslas into a metaphorical frenzy.

In short, anyone who had any kind of interest in things related to the 21st century were in a collective fit. We got caught up in it, asking Musk why he hadn’t made his announcement, believing yesterday was today. It was embarrassing, to say the least.

Would it be bigger batteries? Would it be solid state batteries? Would it be bigger solid state batteries teleported into Teslas in the middle of the night? (No really, Ars Technica reported this was a thing people thought might happen.) It is supposed to be a “downloadable” solution, after all.

Turns out the coming over-the-air upgrade upgrade is a bit more…practical. The Model S’ navigation system will consult a database of Tesla’s Supercharger network of charging stations as well as non-Tesla charging stations. The car will warn the driver when they start to pass outside of the range of the station, if they need a top-off of electrons.

To be fair, one of the criticisms of Tesla’s vehicles is that the vehicles do not take temperature and altitude when calculating its range (both can affect battery life of the cars). The update will take those factors into consideration.

Musk also teased autonomous driving as well. He said the developments they’re making allows a driver to drive from San Francisco to Seattle, without having to touch almost anything. He also said “summoning” (like the Batmobile) and self-parking would be available with the P85D. He also predicted that self-driving cars will one day make driving obsolete and the act of driving a car may one day be illegal.

Via CNet; Ars Technica.