Tesla has added Chinese communication app WeChat to its vehicles in China. They also added handwriting recognition, among other features.
Tesla’s version 2022.44.30.8 update in China added a host of features, which included Apple Music, a microcredit program, MangoTV, and a handwriting keyboard, according to IT House.
WeChat
In China, WeChat is the go-to app for everything from calling and video chatting with friends and family to purchasing goods, sharing your location, and playing video games. The application is owned and developed by Tencent Technology, a major technology and entertainment company based in Shenzhen.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said in a podcast with Tesla Owners Silicon Valley that WeChat’s integrations are amazing and that “you can live on WeChat” in China, and the rest of the world doesn’t have anything remotely close to WeChat’s capabilities.
“We don’t have anything like WeChat outside of China,” Musk said at the time. “So, how about if we just copy WeChat?”
Musk has hinted at transitioning Twitter to being a similar all-in-one platform. “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app,” Musk wrote on Twitter last year.
Handwriting Recognition
Tesla adds WeChat and handwriting recognition to its vehicles in China
Xiaote
In addition to WeChat, Tesla also added a new keyboard type to Teslas in China. Users now have the option of handwriting directly on the screen, which the keyboard will then translate into the closest Chinese character.
The feature appears to work by giving you a space to draw your character, it will then display an array of matching characters that you can select from.
For script-based languages, this makes text input much easier because of the large number of characters in the language.
We may see Tesla add handwriting recognition support in more languages such as Japanese in a future update. However, there likely isn't a need for such a keyboard in most regions that have much smaller alphabets.
Video of New Features
Microcredit program
IT House briefly explained what this WeChat integration means in Tesla (translated from Chinese): “In addition, this update also [adds] the online microcredit program to the vehicle, allowing the vehicle to offer more services.”
Tesla’s making headway in China
In October of last year, a survey conducted by 12365Auto out of China about EV reliability listed Tesla’s Model Y and Model 3 vehicles as two of the most reliable electric vehicles on the Chinese market. The study found that there were an average 19.2 complaints per 10,000 EVs in China.
The data, which was shared on Twitter by @Moneyball_R, showed that the Model Y received only 2.22 complaints, with the Model 3 trailing slightly behind at 2.7 complaints.
Tesla’s refreshed Model Y is currently being manufactured as Tesla prepares for its first deliveries next month. While we’ve already seen quite a few cool new features, there’s more that has yet to be revealed. A recent video interview with Tesla’s engineering team hosted by Tesla Owners Silicon Valley reveals that the vehicle includes a new 4D cabin radar.
4D Radar
While Tesla has included an in-cabin radar since 2022, this appears to be a new, more capable radar. The current cabin radar is used to verify seat occupancy, but Tesla plans to add more functionality to this new system.
This updated radar will be used to provide a lot more detail than the current radar or cabin camera can provide today. The radar is located in the same location as the current version, directly above the rearview mirror.
Classify Passenger Size
This new radar has several new safety-focused features, and they’re all quite exceptional. First off, the radar will detect and classify passenger size to determine which airbags to deploy dynamically. That means that if a shorter individual is sitting up front, the dashboard airbag may not activate - but the curtain airbag will.
That will reduce injuries in impacts from airbag activation while also reducing repair costs by not activating unnecessary airbags. By having a better idea of the passenger’s size, height, and weight, the vehicle can also better determine when to activate the airbag.
Children Left in Car
But that’s not all - because of that classification system, the radar can differentiate an adult passenger from a baby or child sitting in the second row - and automatically make the necessary dynamic safety adjustments.
The cabin radar will also detect heart rate and breathing, and Tesla will automatically send a reminder through the Tesla app if it detects a child is left unattended in the vehicle. If this occurs, the vehicle will perform a variety of functions, the first being to turn on the HVAC system and send you a reminder. And if that’s not enough - in the case of an emergency, your vehicle will automatically call emergency services for you and report its location.
It’s important to note that while vehicles outside North America have eCall capabilities, in North America, they cannot call 911 unless a phone is connected to the vehicle via Bluetooth. We hope that Tesla can contact 911 via an alternative method or add eCall capabilities to these vehicles.
While the refreshed Model Y will be shipping in March, this new radar and its associated features won’t be available immediately. Tesla intends to activate these new safety features in Q3 2025 - so sometime in late summer or early fall. We’ll dive into this new feature once it’s available later this year.
A member of Tesla’s AI development team, Kalena Brown, took to X to mention that an update is on its way for AI 4 vehicles on older FSD V13.2 builds.
It seems that Tesla has caught an issue that has been preventing vehicles from safely updating from FSD V13.2.2 to newer builds such as FSD V13.2.4 or V13.2.6.
The Bug
Tesla usually catches these issues early in testing, but sometimes, they make their way out into the wild, necessitating a stop to a rollout. In this case, the rollout was likely halted to prevent this issue from spreading to other vehicles.
There have been a lot of comments on social media that users haven’t seen an update since late December or early January. While that’s not completely abnormal, this update, version 2024.45.25.5 includes an issue that prevents it from being updated.
Please be patient! Found an issue specific to that update path, but fix is coming soon
Many folks on older builds also waiting and we're working hard to get everyone covered 🙂
Brown says that Tesla is aware of the issue and is working hard to get a build with the fix released soon. It may be a couple of weeks before it’s ready, but you can expect Tesla to roll this one out slowly to make sure the issue is addressed.
The issue appears to be specific to FSD V13.2.2, so anyone on another update should not be affected. Keep an eye out on our feeds - and we’ll let you know once the update is released.