Tesla promises "auto-steering" update to Model S; adds range assurance app

Most software updates aren't news — but then the Tesla Model S isn't like most vehicles.

Today, Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed a set of enhancements to the all-electric luxury sedan that will begin showing up in all owners' cars over the next 10 days, thanks to the free cellular data connections in every Model S — with a promise of more revolutionary changes to come.

The first update, to version 6.2 of the Model S software, will add two features that Musk says should ease any concerns about range anxiety. The first, called range assurance, updates the car's ability to reach the nearest Tesla charging point every 30 seconds, based not just on the vehicle but the status of the company's Supercharger points. If it senses that a vehicle is about to travel too far, it alerts the driver, much like the low-gas light on traditional cars.

"The software update effectively makes its impossible for a Model S driver to run out of range," Musk said. "It's basically impossible to do that unless you’re doing it intentionally."

The other feature is a trip planner that calculates routes and driving time for long-distance travel based on Superchargers and other Tesla-approved charging points, adding 30 minutes at highway stops, for example. Musk contends those features will be welcome but not revolutionary for Model S owners, since the top-end P85 model already has 270 miles of range, and can do hours of highway driving already.

"For any normal trip the time driven to time charging ratio works out well," Musk said, excluding "where someone wants to drive 10 hours and wear diapers or something."

It's the next sofware update, called version 7, that Musk says could change the Model S more substantially when it arrives in three months or so. Top on the list will be what Tesla calls "auto steering," and what others might call a semi-autonomous car. Already, Tesla says prototypes can nearly drive from San Francisco to Seattle without a driver touching the wheel; the software will also include a "summon" feature for use on private land only that will have the Model S come to the driver on commands from the Tesla mobile app.

Musk said such updates were possible because the company has been focused on the software of its vehicles as much as the hardware, allowing it to use parts like the ultrasonic sensors built into the car for parking alerts to help guide the proto-autopilot mode: "We really designed the Model S to be a very sophisticated computer on wheels."

While other electric vehicles have apps that calculate distance to the nearest charging point, none integrate data from the charging stations in the way Tesla does to create a kind of virtual leash. And while other luxury cars have some auto-pilot like functions, most have deployed them in a way that they're only usable for short periods of time before the car requires the driver to resume control; none have offered anything like the summon system.