Video of Tesla Update 2024.14.3 Shows New Wiper Controls, Visualizations and More

Tesla's 2024.14.3 update brings some design changes

Klaus Schmid / Not a Tesla App

Klaus Schmid on YouTube has posted a nice video overview of some of the major new features in this major update.

While most of the design changes appear to be limited to vehicles with AMD Ryzen chips, there are plenty of features to be excited about for Intel owners as well.

Parked Visualization

In the video, Klaus of course fiddles with the amazing-looking new vehicle model that is front and center while the vehicle is parked. You can freely pan, zoom, and play with the vehicle. The Cybertruck was the first vehicle to feature this new v12 design and even includes an easter egg when you tap on the glass multiple times. There’s no word on whether there are any easter eggs built into other vehicles.

The 3D model looks fantastic, but it's not immediately clear whether it's the same model that Tesla was using before this update or potentially a higher-resolution version, which could help explain the AMD requirement for this view.

The map while parked is now small and in the top-right corner of the screen. However, you can make the vehicle's visualization smaller so that it goes back to the older look with the visualization on the left and maps on the right.

The new parked visualization

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Spotify Queue

Next, Klaus goes into Spotify, which now gives you the ability to queue up songs instead of just playing a predefined playlist or starting a new song immediately.

Quick Access to Car Wash Mode

Under Controls, you also now have quick access to Car Wash Mode, instead of having to remember it's under Service.

New Wiper Controls

The windshield wipers have been one of the most controversial topics on Teslas, mostly due to their automatic function not always working well. Tesla continues to add wiper controls to make them easier to manage.

In the last few updates, Tesla has now added various ways to control the wipers. You're able to add the wipers button to the dock at the bottom of the screen, use the newer multi-function control to control them with the left scroll wheel, and now Tesla is adding another way to control them.

Video of New Features

Easier Way to Change Wiper Speed

With update 2024.14.3, if you press the button on the left stalk to activate the wipers, you can now adjust their speed up by moving the scroll wheel up or down. Before this update, you could do something similar, but it required tilting the scroll wheel left/right, which wasn't as intuitive.

If you have your wipers on and set to a certain speed after installing this update, you’ll now also be able to tap the wipers button to cycle through the various speed options.

While this is a welcomed improvement, all the wiper control changes could be a little confusing for folks who don't follow Tesla as closely as we all do. In the end, the issue comes down to the automatic wiper function not working reliably, which is a little ridiculous since every automaker has already solved this problem with a $4 rain sensor. Tesla makes a lot of gambles, and I guess this one hasn’t panned out.

Full-Screen Visualizations

Owners outside of North America will finally be able to enjoy full-screen visualizations, although unfortunately, it doesn't include the full set of visualizations that are included with FSD. It appears that Tesla is keeping the full visualizations tied to FSD.

For drivers in North America who own or subscribe to FSD, which was recently lowered in price, the new full-screen view brings some improvements.

The new media player is now centered on the screen and includes additional buttons such as repeat, shuffle, search and more. You also get the small map in the corner which is useful to be able to see your next turn.

In addition, Tesla is now leaving the "Navigate to" module on the screen as well, so that you can set a new destination without leaving the admittedly nice full-screen view.

Update 2024.14.3 just started rolling out to owners yesterday, so it will be several weeks before most owners have access to this update. For now, check out all of our coverage and the release notes to see which features you can look forward to.

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Is Tesla Planning to Add Steam Support to All Vehicles?

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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