This morning after trading closed, Tesla released their Q4 and 2020 Update to investors. The company’s financials are strong with $19.4B of cash and cash equivalents in the back.
The big news today is the long awaited refresh of the Model S and Model X is now official. The website has been updated to reflect the new exteriors, but it’s the changes inside that are the big news.
Tesla are now going to a horizontal display for all their vehicles, which supports a better movie experience, something you’ll be doing more of if their autonomous efforts play out as planned.
The interior of the Model S and X, continue their wood grain (that also wraps onto the doors) along with a choice of black or white interior. There’s also still a secondary display in front of the driver and a new third display for rear-seat passengers.
Easily the most controversial move is the new Yoke steering wheel that has no stalks. This immediately raises the question of how someone would perform all the normal functions of driving, like indicating to change lanes.
On the new Yoke wheel, there are capacitive touch buttons next to the scroll wheels that will now be used for indicating, lights, voice and more. I think this indicates how committed Tesla is to removing the need for driver’s to actually drive their cars.
As Tesla progresses its Full-Self Driving package, particularly on city streets, the need for you to steer the car will increasingly be less and less over time. It wouldn’t surprise me to find that this Yoke could fairly easily be removed for the day Level 4 / 5 autonomy is achieved.
The center display also features a new UI, perhaps showcasing our first look at V11 of the software.
The Model X Plaid edition is new, offering and offers a bump in performance, however it’s the newly unveiled Model S Plaid+ that will be the top performer.
The new Tesla Model S Plaid+ has range of more than 840km, a 320km/hr top speed, a 0-100km/hr time.. of less than <2.1s. It is believe that this will contain Tesla’s new 4680 battery technology and all are available to order now.
There’s lots more to what Tesla unveiled today, but if you get excited enough to buy, make sure you use a referral link to get some free Supercharging.
