Tesla Model S and X to Gain Ambient Lighting and Front Bumper Camera

This will have a minor refresh for the Model S and Model X

Edmunds

Tesla has found itself in a bit of a pickle. Its flagship vehicles, the Model S and Model X now have a similar feature set as the recently released new Model 3. While the new Model 3 does have an improved suspension, the Model S, Model X, and soon the Cybertruck are still the only Tesla vehicles with an air suspension. However, the new Model 3 now includes many features that were previously exclusive to the Model S/X, such as ventilated seats, a quieter cabin, and a rear screen, reducing the feature set gap between Tesla's economy and luxury lines.

Ambient Lighting for Model S & X

However, it looks like the Model S and X will be catching up in some regards. Greentheonly was able to find references to the Model S/X receiving the same RGB ambient lighting treatment as the new Model 3. The references were discovered in one of Tesla's recent firmware updates. As Green points out, Tesla is much more careful nowadays to include any code that may reveal upcoming features. Given the discovery, he believes that Tesla is already implementing or will soon start implementing the feature on its assembly lines.

Upcoming Minor Refresh

One of our sources has confirmed that the S/X will not only receive Tesla's latest interior lighting feature in an upcoming refresh, but that it will also be outfitted with a front bumper camera. It's unknown whether Tesla will introduce both these features simultaneously or in a phased manner. Considering Tesla's known strategy of incorporating upgrades as they deplete available parts, it wouldn't be surprising if they took the latter route.

Model Y Envy

After Tesla China's surprising reveal of an upgraded Model Y with some modifications like adding ambient lighting to the dashboard, the spotlight is now turning to what's in store for the Model S and Model X. The Model Y's changes, touted as its "evolutionary debut" by Tesla China on its official Weibo account came out of nowhere.

Ambient Lighting is a Must

Ambient lighting has always been a staple in luxury car interiors, enhancing the ambiance and offering a more sophisticated driving experience. For years, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Lexus, Jaguar, Porsche, Volvo, and others have used ambient lighting, also known as mood lighting. That didn't seem to matter all that much to the Model S and Model X, which have worked their way up the luxury brand market.

But now that ambient lighting is in the Model Y, Model 3, and the upcoming Cybertruck, the omission of the features from the luxury models is noticeable.

With the Model Y's recent update featuring ambient lighting on its dash and front doors, there is speculation about the extent to which this feature will be introduced in the S and X. Will Tesla stick to the approach seen in the Model Y, or will they amplify the luxury feel with an almost 360-degree wraparound, similar to the new Model 3?

Front Camera

In addition to ambient lighting, the Model S and Model X will get a front bumper camera. We expected to see it in the Model 3 refresh. Still, it mysteriously didn't make the long list of changes when the car was revealed, even though the camera was spotted in various Tesla photos. However, the Cybertruck does have a front bumper camera.

It's not known if the front bumper will be used to improve Autopilot and Full Self Driving or if it could be more about enhancing parking assist capabilities. The front camera is not available in the existing fleet, which would put those vehicles at a disadvantage if FSD utilizes the camera in future updates.

With the last quarter of the year unfolding, Tesla enthusiasts and potential buyers have much to look forward to. A new Model 3, slightly refreshed Model Y, the Cybertruck, and maybe even an enhanced Model S and X are yet to arrive before Santa.

Follow

Follow

Follow

Is Tesla Planning to Add Steam Support to All Vehicles?

Not a Tesla App

Yesterday, we reported that Tesla updated their Steam integration on Model S and Model X vehicles. The update was part of their 2024 Holiday Update, but it looks like there may be more to this than a simple update.

Steam, a video game library app, makes it easy for users to buy or launch games on their computers. However, a couple of years ago, Valve, who created Steam, launched their own standalone device, the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck runs a custom OS based on Linux.

Steam Launch

When Tesla launched the redesigned Model S and Model X, Tesla introduced a dedicated gaming GPU with 16GB of RAM and touted the ability to play top-tier PC games in Tesla vehicles.

In 2022, Tesla finally launched the Steam app for the Model S and Model X as part of its 2022 Holiday Update. The Steam app runs Steam OS, the same OS as the Steam Deck in a virtual environment.

However, earlier this year, Tesla stopped including the GPU and Steam (Beta) in their vehicles, and we haven’t seen any updates to the Steam in quite some time. In fact, we thought Tesla was axing their gaming-on-the-go dreams.

SteamOS Update

The Steam app, which is still in Beta, is getting an interesting update for the Model S and Model X vehicles with the discrete GPU.

Those vehicles received an update to SteamOS 3.6 - the same version of SteamOS that runs on the Steam Deck. While nothing has visually changed, there’s a long list of performance optimizations under the hood to get things running smoother.

Comparing Steam Deck to Tesla Vehicles

Let’s take a look at the Steam Deck - according to Valve, its onboard Zen4 CPU and GPU combined push a total of 2 TFlops of data, which is fairly respectable, but much lower than today’s home consoles. The Steam Deck is capable of 720p gaming fairly seamlessly on low-to-medium settings on the go and is also built on the AMD platform.

AMD-equipped Teslas, including the Model 3 and Model Y, are packing an older Zen+ (Zen 1.5) APU (processor with a combined CPU and GPU). AMD claims that the V1000 - the same embedded chip as on AMD Tesla vehicles (YE1807C3T4MFB), brings up to 3.6 TFLops of processing power with it, including 4K encoding and decoding with the integrated GPU on board.

While that’s not enough for 4K gaming or comparable to a full-blown console or desktop GPU, that’s enough raw horsepower for light gaming and is currently more powerful than the Steam Deck.

The Model S and Model X’s GPU brings that up to about 10TFlops of power - comparable to modern consoles like the Xbox Series X at 12 TFlops.

Steam Gaming for All Vehicles?

The fact that Tesla is updating SteamOS even though the feature is no longer available in any new vehicles could indicate that Tesla is not only bringing Steam back to Teslas but that it’s going to play a much bigger role.

While SteamOS is run in a virtual environment on top of Tesla’s own OS, we could see Tesla bring SteamOS to all of its current vehicles, including the Model 3, Model Y, and Cybertruck. Steam in these vehicles would likely support any game that’s capable of running on the Steam Deck.

We think this Steam update, which includes performance improvements and a variety of fixes, has quietly passed under most people’s radars. This could be a very exciting update for those who enjoy gaming, especially for those who love to do it in their Tesla.

Follow

Follow

Follow

Tesla Holiday Update Weather Features: All the Small Details

Robert Rosenfeld / YouTube

As part of Tesla’s 2024 Holiday Update, Tesla included two awesome new features - Weather at Destination and the long-awaited Weather Radar Overlay. These two features are big upgrades built upon the weather feature that was added in update 2024.26. The original weather feature added an hourly forecast, as well as the chance of precipitation, UV index, Air Quality Index, and other data.

However, this update also added some smaller weather touches, such as the vehicle alerting you if the weather at the destination will be drastically different from the current weather.

Not a Tesla App

Weather At Destination

When you’re navigating to a destination and viewing the full navigation direction list, the text under the arrival time will show you the expected weather next to your destination. You can also tap this, and the full weather pop-up will show up, showing your destination's full set of weather information.

Note the weather under the arrival time

Not a Tesla App

You can also tap the weather icon at the top of the interface at any time and tap Destination to switch between the weather at your current location and the weather at your destination.

You’re probably considering that the weather at your destination doesn’t matter when you’re three hours away - but that’s all taken into account by the trip planner. It will add in both charge time and travel time and show you the weather at your destination at your expected arrival time.

And if the weather is drastically different or inclement, such as rain or snow, while you’ve got sunshine and rainbows - the weather will be shown above the destination ETA for a few moments before it tucks itself away.

Tesla also recently introduced a new voice command. Asking, “What’s the weather?” or something similar will now bring up Tesla’s weather popup.

The weather pop-up above the ETA

Not a Tesla App

One limitation, though—if you’re planning a long road trip that is more than a day of driving, the weather at destination feature won’t be available until you get closer.

Weather Radar Overlay

As part of the improvements to weather, Tesla has also added a radar overlay for precipitation. You can access the new radar overlay by tapping the map and then tapping the weather icon on the right side of the map. It’ll bring up a radar overlay centered on your vehicle. It’ll animate through the radar data over the last 3 hours so that you can see the direction of the storm, but you can also pause it at any point.

You’re able to scroll around in this view and see the weather anywhere, even if you zoom out. It also works while you’re driving, although it can be a little confusing if you’re trying to pay attention to the navigation system. If you like to have Points of Interest enabled on your map, the weather overlay will hide POIs except for Charging POIs.

Requirements / Data

Unfortunately, you’ll need Premium Connectivity for any of the weather features to work, and being on WiFi or using a hotspot will not be enough to get the data to show up. The data, including the weather radar, is provided by The Weather Channel.

As for supported models, weather and weather at destination are available on all vehicles except for the 2012-2020 Model S and Model X. The weather radar has more strict requirements and requires the newer AMD Ryzen-powered infotainment center available on the 2021+ Model S and Model X and more recent Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.

Follow

Follow

Follow