Hey Tesla owners, does that trigger your inner child by chance? It might if you have been following where they have been heading with all of their enhancements. Small updates can be exciting but the larger ones sometimes lead to an early Christmas.
Tesla is rolling out the latest version of its software (10.0) to active vehicles, bringing with it a number of new enhancements, including a few long-awaited features.
The most exciting is Smart Summon, which allows you to summon your car from a parking lot to come pick you up. Great for rainy days or simply reenacting one of your favorite scenes from the 1989 Batman movie to impress your friends with (it was one of my favorite scenes at least). As long as the car is within line-of-sight, the car will unpark itself and drive right up to you. No more having to remember where you parked (and we will pretend that’s the reason you are using this). This was one of the most exciting features discussed in an off-camera interview we had with Tesla nearly 3 years ago. I personally asked if I could say “Car!” into the keyfob to have it come pick me up and stop right in front of me, just like in Batman. It was a joke I have mentioned a few times in interviews related to autonomous vehicles. That was the first time someone actually said “yes” (only you use the app instead of the keyfob and voice).
Another new enhancement is to the cameras, allowing them to function a little more like today’s third-party dashcams. When we first spoke to Tesla at the beginning about their cameras and if you have access to what they see, they explained yes, but you would have to contact Tesla and they can send you the files by request. Of course, there is no convenience there. Since then, Tesla wised up and allowed you to store Dashcam and Sentry Mode information on a USB device locally. This has been improved on, storing video clips in their own directory/folder, and keeps the files rotating just like the before mentioned third-party dashcams (older clips are eventually replaced with newer clips as storage begins to run out).
Various media features have been added or enhanced, including the ability to watch video content (while parked) via services like YouTube, Netflix and more (this option is called “Tesla Theater”). There is a new Karaoke feature supporting a huge library of songs and multiple languages (this we aren’t so sure about yet when it comes to our opinion and safety). They have also added new games to the Tesla Arcade feature, and new music streaming options like Spotify.
Of course, updates always include various patches and enhancements to systems and code that make everything possible. They don’t always reveal what this is, but it’s the same with any software or device. It’s all about squashing those bugs.
So give your Tesla a check to see if you are on the latest version yet. It might be time to drive around and play with some new features like it was Christmas in September. Feel free to use the comments below to share what you think or found.
