This is from a buddy of mine in Los Angeles. Not his or my car but we both drive and love our Tesla’s

New Roadster has an active rear wing and they say it uses actuators from the Optimus robot. I was curious about the loads on the actuators so I tried to model the geometry and wing loading.

Actuator Force Results (divided by 2 for the 2 wing supports): 
Upper ~3.3 kN 
Lower ~9.1 kN   

My assumptions:

• Looks like the same actuator top and bottom? I modeled the geometry from some of the videos online. The Out of Spec Reviews video had some good views of the linkage.
• Downforce: 6.9 kN. This came from the patent which claims up to 700 kg of downforce in high-downforce mode which was covered by an Electrek article about the patent. 700 kg × 9.81 = 6.87 kN.
• Drag: 2.3 kN, horizontal, rearward. This is the biggest assumption. Tesla doesn’t give drag for this mode so I estimated a lift to drag ratio of about 3. 6.87 / 3 ≈ 2.3 kN.
• Applied the loads at about 30% of the chord (200 mm?) from the leading edge as an estimated center of pressure the wing.
• Wing angle: about 45° down based on the images and videos of high downforce mode.

I believe Tesla gave some specs a while back on the Optimus actuator ratings. They were 500 N, 3,900 N and 8,000 N for the various sizes. I suppose these are likely both the 8 kN?

The lower actuator is close the largest rating (varies drastically with placement though).

Looking at the linkage, there's a square hardstop that makes me wonder if the actuator extends into it rather than holding the load itself? In the table top wing setup from the video it doesn't appear to be touching the hardstop limit. Do these actuators have some kind of clutch in them perhaps? I believe they are planetary roller screw type so they would likely need holding current or a clutch?

So I just thought this might be interesting to some people here, the assumptions obviously can change the model drastically.

Curious what people think about the use of the Optimus actuators in the roadster..

It’s pretty crazy that Teslas can fly now, but I can’t choose what speed to set in my my fully self-driving car.

Man I've been waiting on this for forever. It's definitely better at turning but hitting the turn signal to tell it to change just doesn't work at all, it blinks 3 times then turns off the blinkers without making a lane change. It also got booty-clenchingly close to hitting the curb a few times. Still not good enough to do point-to-point without any intervention like on HW4, but this is a step forward in some regards and a step back in others.

I was in Austin TX for the X takeover event at Giga TX when I seen a dude playing PS5 while in a Cybercab https://www.instagram.com/reel/DekNTcokjOm/?psln=ZXJqYW0zYWo0NmU4

Scared a solicitor with the scary voice.

In the last week or so, I've sometimes asked Grok to write the full conversation in a Grok Bot prompt when something was too important to lose in a session. In a new conversation I then asked to read the prompt again so I could continue. That worked fine.

I just logged in to the grok.com website and suddenly I see all of my previous conversations with Grok (using Ara in Assistent mode) popping up. Not the ones I asked it to save - those are in Grok Bot. All the new conversations I've had in the car since October 1st.

Since all the chats are now logged, readable and I'm able to continue them in the browser, I wonder if Grok in the car will soon be able to remember and continue previous sessions.

Any thoughts?

What bike racks fit the Tesla roof rack? Previously mounted my road bikes on my Jeep spare tire rack but that now that I own a model 3 I’m looking for one that will fit the Tesla roof rack.

I haven’t heard HW3 outside of US getting it until now. Finally received 14.3 Lite on HW3 Canada car. Can’t wait to test it!

Could get a plate. Dude was fully into his phone.

Hello Everyone,

I really got fed up explaining the door handle to people poking their sharp nails against my door handle and door putting scratches, including also my own family members. So instead of blaming them, I decided to build a solution and to my surprise I was able to build an app that does that, not only it unlatches my driver door using action button or siri as I walk towards the car making my entry fast and easy but it also opens every door of the car with a simple button press in the app.

It talks to the car directly over Bluetooth as a phone key, so no internet, no Tesla account login and no servers. Your key stays on your iPhone.

works on all Tesla model Y and 3 from 2021.

App is already quite loved in Germany and Austria.

Its called Handlefree.

But I also want to know if someone of you have such a solution already that is equal or better than mine?

I won’t say anything, but there will be signs‼️😎

You wanna try Halloween mode?

Why doesn’t Tesla do this with their Matrix Headlights? Seems like this can be done with a software update. Pretty cool!

Edit: I think some people are missing the point on this video. Your low beams light up the entire road. What you’re seeing in the video is the high beams lighting up a section of road in front of the car. Then when you change lanes those high beams shift to that lane so you can see better.

I was excited to get the software update. The hurry is pretty solid (Aside from trying to pass a school bus with its stop sign out and lights on, LOL on a 2 lane road) But it's still not the HW4 experience that I had when using a loaner car. Hopefully they actually get the HW4 computers available for upgrade. I would happily pay to put one in.

Elon advertised it wrong. It should be a safety feature. If you were about to be t boned the car should jump straight up and land safe. It could save your mind life and protect your car from damage.

I’m simply amazed at the Tesla demo and the engineering marvel of the folks who developed the new Roadster.

Of course, this new flying technology will likely require analysis of an entirely new dataset of user experiences. 🤣😂

I imagine this type of technology saving lives in these circumstances

Something pretty remarkable happened today while my wife and I were driving home.

We were traveling on a four-lane road, two lanes in each direction. I was in the right lane when a car came flying up behind us, weaving in and out of traffic, obviously in a big hurry to get somewhere.

As the driver attempted to pass us, something extraordinary happened.

My Tesla suddenly moved to the right, apparently recognizing a potential collision and taking evasive action before I even had time to react.

It happened in a split second.

Now, here’s where the story gets interesting.

While I’m sitting there thinking, “Wow! Did my Tesla just prevent an accident?” my wife is practically coming out of her seat!

“WHY DIDN’T YOU TAKE CONTROL OF THE WHEEL?! YOU ALMOST HIT THE CURB!”

Meanwhile, I’m trying to explain that the car appeared to have handled the situation perfectly. We weren’t even close to the curb. By my estimate, we still had five to ten feet of clearance.

But my wife wasn’t interested in hearing about Tesla’s advanced safety technology. She was convinced we’d nearly had TWO accidents — one with the reckless driver and another with the curb! 😂

Wondering what the practical use is for thrusters on a car? Maybe something like this!