Tesla Updates App, Adds Chat Assistant and New Menus [Updated]

Tesla has added a new menu to its app that organizes various settings

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Today, Tesla has updated its app to introduce a new menu that reorganizes vehicle, home energy, and account settings in a more logical and more discoverable manner.

App Update

Tesla updated its app to version 4.30 back on February 15th for iOS and followed suit with an Android update shortly thereafter. The app update included some significant changes such as a new Home Energy demo, Wall Connector charging charts, and a better view of your last Supercharger session.

However, the addition of the new menu arrived today thanks to under-the-hood changes Tesla had already made.

Chat Assistant

Tesla has added a presumably AI-based chat assistant to help out with common customer queries. The assistant button can be found in the support section of the app, which is now accessed by tapping on the new menu at the top right corner of the app. Once the menu is open, tap the question mark icon to open the support section. At the bottom of the screen, you should see a chat bubble that will bring up the chat assistant.

Tesla added a chat assistant to its app

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The assistant starts by asking you which product you need help with. Afterward, you can ask it any question. Right now the assistant appears to bring up mostly relevant parts of the owner’s manual or Tesla’s support pages, without necessarily answering the question directly. For example, asking it a specific question such as ‘Until what state of charge will Sentry Mode remain activated?’ will bring up a section about Sentry Mode, and not immediately reveal that Sentry Mode will automatically turn off when the vehicle reaches 20% state of charge.

It’s not immediately clear whether Tesla is using AI for this feature, but providing an assistant is a great idea and one that will likely ease the burden on Tesla service. Hopefully, Tesla will continue to build upon the feature so that it becomes more useful and can answer customer questions directly.

New Menu

The changes in the latest Tesla app don't require an app update

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The main change in the app is the new menu which replaces the user's profile picture.

Since this area was already used to change Tesla account and app settings and Tesla product preferences, the menu icon is more intuitive than an avatar.

However, after tapping into the menu, the user is greeted with a completely reorganized section. Instead of featuring horizontally scrolling tiles for different products and features, which was getting fairly long, Tesla has consolidated the features and now presents them vertically.

In the new profile section, Tesla has grouped lumped in account information and app settings. This includes personal information, order history as well as app settings, including calendar sync and app notifications.

Charging is now a top-level feature instead of being buried in the Account section. This section highlights your most recent Supercharger charging session which was redesigned during the 4.30 app update. It also lets you manage your payment method and view your Supercharger history.

My Products is the new way to add or remove Tesla products from your account. It now nicely displays all of your existing Tesla products and lets you dig into each one. By diving into each product, you're able to give access to another user, remove the product from your Tesla account if applicable, rename the product, or jump into the product view.

Vehicle and Home Screens

If you have a Tesla vehicle and a Home product, such as Solar or a Wall Connector, the way to switch between products is to swipe to the side. However, this wasn't very intuitive and Tesla has now added a dropdown next to the Home or Vehicle name that brings up a quick menu that lets you jump to other products.

If you already have app version 4.30, there's no need to update your app, just open the existing app and you should see the new menu in the top right. However, if you're still on Tesla app 4.29.5 or earlier, head over to the app store and upgrade to the latest Tesla app to see these new features.

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NHTSA Probes Tesla’s Robotaxi Plans; Seeks Answers on FSD in Poor Weather

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As anticipation builds for Tesla’s Robotaxi network debut in Austin, potentially just a few short weeks away, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is turning its official eye onto Tesla. The ask? How will Tesla’s FSD handle the unpredictable realities of challenging weather?

The NHTSA Request

The NHTSA has sent a formal letter to Tesla, which was made public on May 12th, requesting detailed information about Tesla’s Robotaxi service. The NHTSA inquiry centers specifically on the safety and performance of FSD when faced with reduced visibility conditions like rain, fog, and sun glare. The request is tied to an ongoing NHTSA investigation, which was initiated in October 2023, examining Tesla’s FSD and Autopilot suite following incidents in poor visibility.

Tesla’s executives, including Elon Musk, have previously stated that the company is full steam ahead to launch Robotaxi in Austin this June. However, NHTSA’s pointed questions come even as Tesla has recently discussed its plans to work on region-specific and weather-specific FSD training.

Tesla’s executive leadership acknowledged the need to adapt the system to diverse environmental and weather conditions. Now, regulators want specifics on how Tesla intends to address environmental conditions and how that translates to operational safety for the fleet.

Request Breakdown

NHTSA’s letter outlines a need for detailed information from Tesla before the service launches and covers several key areas. We’ve broken this down into various sections below:

Deployment Scale

NHTSA is looking for the exact number of vehicles and models that will be part of the initial Austin fleet, and what the projected service availability times would be for said fleet. Tesla has previously said it’d launch with 10-20 Model Ys, but looks like NHTSA is looking for additional details.

Oversight

In terms of oversight, NHTSA is looking to confirm whether the Robotaxis will operate under real-time supervision of Tesla’s employees, either remotely or in-vehicle.

This is a question on our minds as well. A recent app update suggested that Tesla could have a driver in the vehicle, but it wasn’t clear whether this was referring to Tesla’s own fleet or customer-owned vehicles. The only thing we have heard officially from Tesla is that Tesla “may” use remote support, but that they were still looking into it.

Adverse Weather Capabilities

This is the meat and potatoes of the request - how will Tesla ensure safety during sun glare, fog, heavy rain, snow, or dust? What specific protocols are triggered if poor visibility is encountered mid-trip? Will the vehicle pull over or call home and cancel rides?

Sensor Technology

Surprisingly, NHTSA is looking for details regarding the vehicle the Robotaxi sensor suites and how Tesla intends to use those sensors to ensure safe operation under varied conditions. NHTSA has had previous submissions from Tesla in regard to its sensor suite and how it uses the technology, so it feels odd that they are requesting another batch - but this could be related to the use of the next generation of FSD (Unsupervised).

Compliance

Does Tesla’s FSD system adhere, either fully or partially, to established industry standards for autonomous driving? This likely refers to the NHTSA Automated Vehicles for Safety guidebook, which lays out the “L0 to L5” driver assistance vs automation system.

Future Expansion

Finally, NHTSA is looking for the timeline for enabling Robotaxi functionality on vehicles not directly owned or controlled by Tesla. Tesla has already come out and said that customer-owned vehicles wouldn’t be allowed on the robotaxi network until 2026, but obviously, NHTSA wants to hear directly from Tesla and likely has more specific questions covering a wide variety of potential issues.

These questions will likely have to be answered with considerable amounts of data and justification for the NHTSA. Once all that is done, Tesla will be in a better position to receive regulatory approval at a larger scale than just within the city of Austin or the state of Texa with the NHTSA’s backing.

Successfully addressing this letter will be the key for Unsupervised FSD moving forward, but Tesla hasn’t issued a public response to the agency’s letter, and likely won’t in a public manner. So we’ll have to wait and see how the launch of the Robotaxi network pans out next month.

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FSD V13.2.9 Rolls Out for HW4 as Part of Tesla’s 2025.14.6 Update

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After an 84-day wait since the last FSD update, Tesla has finally begun rolling out a new version of FSD V13 to its AI4-equipped vehicles. This new release, V13.2.9, is rolling out to all vehicles, including the Cybertruck.

Unfortunately, since it’s a minor point release (from V13.2.8), the release notes are the same, and Tesla hasn’t included a change log or changed what’s coming in the future.

Software Update 2025.14.6

The FSD update is rolling out with Tesla software update 2025.14.6. Interestingly, update 2025.14.6 is seeing a wider distribution and is also being made available to vehicles without FSD and outside North America. For those vehicles, this update just includes bug fixes.

TCU Fix

There’s one fix in particular that’s expected to be included in this update, according to a message from Tesla Service. In earlier 2025.14 updates, there was a bug in some vehicles that prevented some vehicles from falling asleep properly due to a Telematics Control Unit (TCU) issue. This bug caused additional battery drain since some of the vehicle’s systems remained on.

Tesla Service said they planned to include a bug fix in update 2025.14.6, but it hasn’t been confirmed whether the fix actually made it out in this release.

Early Access Users and More

FSD v13.2.9 was first rolled out to Tesla’s standard Early Access group, including well-known community members and content creators. It has also reached participants in the newer, Texas-based Early Access Program, suggesting that the update is relatively stable and may serve as a foundation for upcoming FSD releases.

Tesla could be intending to use the Texas Early Access Program to test various features, perhaps related to the upcoming Robotaxi network launch in Austin. While this is plausible, it is merely speculation, and we’ll be keeping a close eye on that group to see what exactly Tesla does.

HW3 Users

While Tesla has recently been including FSD updates for HW3 and HW4 in the same release, this update does not include any changes for HW3 users. HW3 vehicles that are receiving this update are staying on FSD V12.6.4, which means that whichever fixes this update includes they’re specific to FSD V13 or HW4.

Point Release - Not Much New

Being a point release, V13.2.9 isn’t expected to introduce any major new capabilities. Tesla hasn’t provided specific release notes detailing changes from V13.2.8.

Hopefully, Tesla has taken into account recent user feedback on V13.2.8 about lane centering and lane selection, and this update addresses some of those issues. However, early feedback is that those issues are still present.

There is always potential for a more substantial update in the near future, so keep your fingers crossed, but after such a long wait, we expected more to be included. It seems like Tesla may have felt the need to address a bug in this release instead of waiting for the next major release, which is expected to either be FSD V13.3 or FSD V14.

Roll Out

The fact that Software Update 2025.14.6 is going out wider than the Early Access audience suggests that Tesla is confident in this release and that it likely only includes very minor changes. We expect this update to continue going out over the coming days.

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