Current Tesla Owners Still Get Over the Air FSD for $4k →

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Current owners of Model S and Model X with Autopilot 2.0 have reported to Electrek that they are now also seeing the price of the upgrade increase.

We contacted Tesla to get an explanation about the situation and the company confirmed that it is a mistake and they will honor the original $4,000 price. The new $5,000 price is for new orders.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently said that the first new features under the ‘Full Self-Driving Capability’ package should be released with Tesla’s version 9 software update, which is expected to be released this summer.

Here’s to honor! Thanks Elon. (As always, emphasis is my own.)

Tesla's Autopilot →

Once you’re on the highway, an autosteering feature can maintain your speed, keep an appropriate distance from the cars around you, and keep you in your lane — even around big bends and turns. It doesn’t just let out a loud beep when you start to drift out of your lane; it physically controls the wheel.

This would be an ideal vehicle for my commuter to Long Beach not to mention getting one of those fancy HOV stickers too!

via  Electrek

via  Electrek

Do Pilots Still 'Fly' the Plane?

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True, these days pilots spend only a short amount of time with their hands on the control column or stick. But that does not mean we aren’t controlling the airplane throughout the entire flight. Our hands might not be steering the airplane directly, as would have been the case in decades past, but almost everything the airplane does is commanded, one way or the other, by the crew. The automation only does what we tell it to do. On the 767 that I fly, there are multiple ways to set up and command any routine climb, descent or change of course. Meanwhile, more than 99 percent of landings, and a full 100 percent of takeoffs, are performed manually.

Exactly what I'd tell you when you ask me, "Isn't it always on autopilot anyways?" Great Op-Ed by Patrick Smith.

Tales from the Cockpit

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It's pretty awesome how a foreign carrier like KLM is able to post videos such as these that educate the public on what we pilots really do. This is just Part One of a great series. Yes, we actually do touch and play with all those buttons and switches on the panels and even some of the callouts are similar too. As you can see, even with the autopilot on, there is still a lot of continuous monitoring until it is taken back into manual control prior to landing but in this case, the Captain is demonstrating an autoland sequence.

I wish that I could share with you my personal experiences and videos. Maybe sometime in the future with permissions from the FAA, VP of Flight Ops, Safety, etc... you get the point. A lot of hoops for this kind of educational video in the US.