Sixteen months ago, Elon Musk shook the auto industry by unveiling the Tesla Model 3, a $35,000 electric sedan designed to take on the bestselling luxury cars. Customers stood in lines the world over to plunk down hundreds of thousands of $1,000 deposits—an unprecedented show of enthusiasm for a new vehicle from a relatively young automaker.

On Friday, Tesla will hand over keys to the first 30 customers and begin high-volume production that will determine whether Tesla is worth its $56 billion stock valuation—the biggest for a U.S. carmaker. Here's what we'll be watching for at the July 28 launch party, including four wild-card surprises.

Surprise 1: Autopilot?
One of the biggest questions hanging over Tesla right now is the future of the Autopilot program. Last year, Tesla split with partner Mobileye and took its own path toward autonomous driving. The company installed a new suite of hardware but told customers they'd have to wait for new software to enable it.

For the past nine months, Tesla has been charging customers an extra $3,000 for an option called "Full Self-Driving Capability," though, to date, that $3,000 gets you no additional functionality. Even Tesla's basic Autopilot option, renamed "Enhanced Autopilot," still hasn't reached functional parity with the original Autopilot software that runs on older Teslas.

Musk has dropped a number of hints that those features will start rolling out around the launch of the Model 3. In January, I asked him at what point “Full Self-Driving Capability” will depart from the “Enhanced Autopilot” features. His response, via a post on Twitter: “3 months maybe, 6 months definitely.” Six months would coincide with this week's launch. If there's no hint of Autopilot advances, it would be fair to assume that the split with Mobileye was more damaging than Tesla initially let on, setting the company back six months or more. Meanwhile, Tesla's competitors have had a chance to catch up. Audi says its 2018 A8 will be launched with Level 3 autonomy, which means that under certain limited conditions, drivers will safely be able to stop paying attention to the road altogether.

Range Trophies
One thing we'll be watching is whether Tesla's $35,000 base model will have more or less range than the $37,500 Chevy Bolt. Last year Tesla said the car would run more than 215 miles per charge—but how much more? The Bolt gets 239 miles of range. That's a high bar for a base model, but it's rare that Musk would let a PR trophy like "longest range for the money" go to a competitor, even if the Bolt is otherwise outclassed by the Model 3.

Then there's the question of how much range the more expensive versions will eke out. The Model 3 is rumored to come in two battery sizes: 55 to 60 kilowatt hours for the smaller pack and 70 to 75 kWh for the bigger one. Could the bigger pack break the 300-mile barrier? It's possible, but it would be a huge stretch for a car in this price range. The only electric cars on the road capable of 300 miles are the most expensive versions of Tesla's Model S and Model X, which cost $100,000 or more.

HUD Confirmed
While spy shots have captured both the interior and exterior of Model 3s out for testing, there hasn't been much detail about the car's unique control systems. There are no gauges or dials anywhere on the minimalist dash save for one 15-inch monitor. At one point, speculation about the possibility of readouts projected onto the windshield, known as a Head-Up Display (HUD), became so rampant that Musk had to shoot it down on Twitter. Not everyone was convinced, and it became a running joke on Tesla internet forums to say "HUD Confirmed" in response to any sort of speculation about the Model 3. 

We do know the screen can be controlled by touch and by two scrolling wheels on the steering wheel. The Model 3 will likely respond to voice commands as well, which Tesla has been steadily improving.

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