Tesla Holiday Update Wishlist - Entertainment Edition

Not a Tesla App

As the holiday season kicks off, it’s time to turn our attention to our Christmas list of items we’d love to see in Tesla’s annual Holiday update—a tradition that brings some of the most exciting software features of the year. From game-changing additions to fun surprises, the Holiday update has become the most anticipated update each year.

This year’s update promises to be no exception, with Blind Spot Monitoring While Parked already leaking in an employee release earlier this month.

So, grab your hot cocoa and cozy up—it’s time to see what Tesla might have in store for the most wonderful time of the year.

Smart Voice Assistant

Tesla’s current system is a list of voice commands that, while useful, leaves a lot to be desired when compared to modern voice assistants such as Google Assistant and even Alexa. However, a smart voice assistant based on an LLM that uses AI like xAI’s Grok could be coming this season. Elon previously confirmed that Grok would make its way into Tesla vehicles—and what better time than the Holiday season?

Group Text Support

Today, if you’re in a group chat using RCS or iMessage and use your Tesla messages app to respond, you’ll likely send a direct message to the first person in the group rather than the whole group. What’s even worse is you can’t tell the difference between a message that’s sent directly to you or to a group.

That’s annoying at best, and downright a hassle at worst if you’re driving for a long time and unable to use your phone. It would be a fantastic wish come true if Tesla brought full support for group texts.

Hi-Fi Audio & Dolby Surround Support

Previously, we saw a bug where Apple Music began showing as HiFi for certain tracks in July. We assumed that Tesla would eventually support lossless Hi-Fi audio streaming, but so far, TIDAL remains the only streaming option with high-quality streaming.

Bringing Dolby Atmos support to Tesla vehicles would make even better use of Tesla’s jaw-dropping soundstages. Dolby Atmos delivers an immersive, 360-degree music experience, making it feel like the sound is coming from all around you. This would be the perfect Holiday update feature to make those bells truly jingle.

Tesla already has several music streaming services that support Dolby Atmos, such as Amazon Music and Apple Music, while a couple of other manufacturers, such as Rivian, launched support for Atmos it this summer.

Pandora Music

Tesla has been on a roll with adding music streaming services over the last couple of years. Tesla most recently launched Amazon Music and YouTube Music support. While the biggest players have now been incorporated into Teslas, many users would still love to see Pandora added to the mix.

Adding additional music services means that more users subscribe to Tesla’s Premium Connectivity package, so expect this one to be added as well.

SiriusXM Streaming

While SiriusXM is already available in the Model S and Model X through a satellite receiver, SiriusXM may soon be available to a lot more users. We previously reported on SiriusXM mistakenly publishing a web post revealing a web streaming version of SiriusXM for Teslas, and it has been a few months since then. It's a quick update and seems to have already been partially implemented, given SiriusXM’s website. We could expect this wishlist item to be real, and hopefully soon.

Prime Video

While video streaming integration is much less important than music streaming, it still serves its purpose, especially in vehicles with a rear screen, where videos can be watched while the vehicle is in motion. With Tesla’s addition of Amazon Music this summer, we expect Tesla to add Amazon Prime Video as well.

X Integration

While you can pop open X pretty quickly in the web browser and have a fairly OK browsing experience, it's clear the site is designed for use with a mouse, not your fingers. A dedicated X app would definitely be easier for fans of the platform. Don’t forget to follow us on X or your favorite network (we’re “NotATeslaApp” on just about all of them, including Facebook, Threads, and Bluesky).

Productivity Apps

Zoom is the highlight of Tesla’s productivity apps—and it’s also the only one. With YouTube Music recently arriving, we could see Google Hangouts, Google Meet, and even Microsoft Teams making inroads as productivity applications to have in your Tesla. However, that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

Tesla App Store

While a suite of productivity apps would be a nice addition, it’s likely not a practical solution for Tesla. With so many available services, it would be a challenge to integrate each one individually.

Elon Musk once hinted at the possibility of an App Store for Tesla vehicles, where developers could create apps specifically designed for Teslas. However, we haven’t seen this come to fruition yet. So, the question remains: Is Tesla still working on an App Store, or is the expectation that users will rely on tablets and computers in their cars?

If Tesla does plan to launch an App Store, they would need to find a way to leverage existing platforms instead of building each app from scratch. One possibility is running Android apps through an emulation layer, allowing access to a wide array of apps from the Google Play Store, such as video streaming, video conferencing, and messaging platforms like Discord and Slack.

Another approach, similar to what Tesla already does with video streaming services, could involve using web-based versions of apps. While many services offer web versions, not all perform as well or provide the same functionality as native apps.

Both solutions are feasible, but we have to consider: What does Tesla gain by allowing users to run any existing apps on the car’s screen instead of using a separate device? While such apps could be useful, we believe Tesla will likely focus on integrating them where it makes sense—like music services—where a custom implementation improves the user experience and keeps the user interface consistent between services. For most other apps, users will probably continue to rely on their phones and other nearby devices.

Steam Games on AMD Vehicles

Tesla previously removed games from its vehicles, as it removed the dedicated gaming GPU in favor of AMD’s all-purpose APU. However, the all-purpose APU can hold its own while gaming, and in fact, the 45-watt 4-core Ryzen chip is fairly beefy. It could definitely hold its own against the mobile Steam Deck, especially since that also uses an AMD-based platform.

Using Valve’s Proton Compatibility Layer would allow AMD Teslas to game, and game pretty well!

SteamLink App

If Steam support doesn’t come back to allow you to run games directly in your Tesla, SteamLink would definitely do the trick. SteamLink allows you to connect to your own PC at home, letting it do the heavy lifting of rendering the game and letting that device stream the game to you.

Streaming games has become more common, and streaming from your setup at home is the best way to take advantage of that massive display in your Tesla while you’re away from home.

That’s it for our Entertainment wishlist, but we’re sure that you have even more great suggestions. Be sure to let us know your suggestions in our forums.

It shouldn’t be too long before we find out exactly what’s in it, but for now, keep those requests coming!

• Wishlist 1 - Tesla App Edition

• Wishlist 2 - Tesla Maps & Autopilot Edition

• Wishlist 3 - Tesla Entertainment Edition

• Wishlist 4 - Tesla Charging & Safety Edition

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Tesla's 2024 Impact Report Shares Updated Timelines for Cybercab, Affordable Model and Semi

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Tesla has finally released their 2024 Impact Report, and it's filled with impressive new data on the company’s environmental and safety progress. However, the biggest news is the clear and concrete roadmap it provides for the next generation of Tesla products.

For the first time, the report provides specific timelines for Tesla to begin volume production of the purpose-built Cybercab and the ramp-up of the Semi factory. This year’s report shifts from documenting past achievements to defining Tesla’s next phase, with a focus on autonomy and industrial transport.

Upcoming Vehicles

The most significant new items in the report are timelines for Tesla’s anticipated future vehicles.

First up is the Cybercab, who Tesla says will begin volume production in 2026. Tesla will be using their revolutionary unboxed production process to build it, which will help reduce costs and complexity. Cybercab will be heavily reliant on the approval of unified autonomy regulations that will enable vehicles to be deployed that do not have driver controls.

Next, Tesla is ramping up production of the Semi, following the completion of limited production runs used for testing. This development is closely tied to the ongoing construction of the new Semi Factory, which is nearing completion. Tesla expects this to be one of its largest markets going forward and one of the most impactful. Industrial trucks doing the last 200 miles of delivery account for 16.4% of US vehicle emissions, despite making up only 1.1% of vehicles on the road.

In terms of the Affordable Model, Tesla has mentioned that they intend to launch more affordable products in 2025 and address a key segment of the market. They did not elaborate on this further and seem to have missed the previously provided self-imposed deadline for the first half of 2025. 

At this point, we’re unsure whether Tesla will actually launch a distinct and more affordable model or whether it will introduce cut-down versions of the Model Y, as rumored.

Safety

The report supports Tesla’s future plans with some impressive new data points that demonstrate the impact their technology is having.

First, Autopilot (and FSD) has achieved a safety record nearly 10 times higher than the US national average in terms of miles per incident. The data shows one accident for every 6.77 million miles driven with Autopilot (or FSD) engaged, compared to the national average of one accident per 0.70 million miles.

The report also highlighted the Cybertruck’s recent 5-Star overall safety rating from the NHTSA, marking it one of the safest vehicles on the market, especially for a truck. The best part is that Cybertruck holds the lowest overall probability of injury and the lowest rollover risk of any pickup truck ever tested by the agency. Skeptics have always complained about lacking crumple zones, but the results prove otherwise, with Tesla building crumple zones as part of the gigacast.

Sustainability

In terms of sustainability, Tesla’s growing fleet helped to increase the amount of reduced and avoided emissions by 60% year over year, to 32 million metric tons of CO2e. While that’s a small number when you compare it to a full country, it is still a significant impact, especially in cities where pollutants have already decreased due to the ownership of EVs.

Tesla also mentioned that 99% of their recalls reported in 2024 were resolved using OTA updates, saving owners a trip to the Service Center or a trip by the Tesla Mobile Rangers, all in the name of sustainability and reduced costs.

Impactful Report

Tesla’s 2024 Impact Report is actually one of the most forward-looking publications to date. It puts a clear roadmap of Tesla’s future goals, while also tying them into the sustainability and safety goals achieved last year.

We can’t wait till 2025’s report - because it’ll be even better with this year’s deployment of Robotaxi. You can read all 200+ pages of the impact report here.

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Tesla Begins Virtual Supercharger Queue Testing, Public Test Next

Not a Tesla App

Tesla has officially begun internal testing of its awaited virtual queueing system for Superchargers. The news was shared by Tesla’s Director of Charging, Max de Zegher on X.

The Tesla Charging team has begun pressure testing the new feature and is planning for public pilots as their next step. While most users won’t experience heavy congestion at Superchargers, for those who do, it could be a real pain point. Virtual queues are designed to make it easier to charge at congested Superchargers by having a digital queue, rather than relying on owners to remain in line with their vehicles.

Virtual Queues

When we originally delved into Tesla’s plans to introduce a virtual queue system, it seemed obvious that the virtual queue would replace the current “Wild West” first-come, first-served system of vehicles trying to get pulled into a stall. This process will likely have two key integrations.

First up is integration directly into the vehicle software for Tesla vehicles. This means that when you’re navigating to a Supercharger that’s busy and virtual queuing is enabled, you will be automatically placed into the virtual queue upon arrival. 

Then, your position in line is displayed on-screen and provides an estimated wait time, allowing you to relax, eat, or take a bathroom break without worrying about your place in line. Finally, once a stall becomes available and it’s your turn, you will receive a notification on your vehicle’s screen, as well as on the Tesla app, directing you to the open stall that will presumably only allow your vehicle to charge. We imagine that there will be a grace period for owners to pull up with their car. If that doesn’t happen within a certain period, the next car will likely be offered the charger.

Similar to the Supercharger live activity that Tesla recently added, we imagine Tesla will also include a live activity for Virtual Queues, allowing users to monitor their place in line on their lock screen.

The second integration is in the Tesla app for non-Tesla drivers. As Tesla continues to install Magic Docks and open Superchargers to non-Tesla EVs, more and more traffic comes to the world’s most reliable fast charging network. That means that Tesla also needs to manage expectations and queue times for non-Tesla vehicles, likely through a similar process, but done over the Tesla app instead.

The Devil’s in the Details

A simple “first-in, first-out” queue sounds great, but Max noted that it is easy to exploit things with bad actors. What prevents a driver from joining a queue remotely to reserve a spot, ignoring a notification, or trying to hop into an unreserved spot?

Well, Tesla should be able to manage these fairly easily, but they still require technical effort to implement. That means GPS geofencing for those attempting to join a queue, a short countdown timer for those late to take their spot, and a lockout for those who try to skip the queue are all needed.

What’s Next?

As Tesla has just started internal testing of this feature, it likely means that public-facing user interfaces and flows aren’t quite ready yet, but the underlying functionality is. It also means that Tesla is working to refine the little details to make the process as smooth and as easily accessible as possible. 

While no pilot locations have been announced yet, it seems likely that Tesla will launch the pilot at some of the most notoriously busy Supercharger sites to gather testing data in the near future, once internal testing is complete. That means holiday travel routes or major highways, likely in California first, before rolling out elsewhere.

Virtual Queuing is a fantastic tech-first solution for the Supercharger network that helps transform that experience into a more calm and orderly process. Additionally, establishing a fair system that allows both Tesla and non-Tesla EVs to access will likely improve the overall experience. Along with the pilot program for dynamic Supercharger pricing that incentivizes people to use less-congested Superchargers, these changes should improve the Supercharger experience.

While Max mentioned it was designed for “those rare cases with a wait”, that tends to be the experience in larger cities further North, especially in New York, Michigan, or within Canada, where the few smaller Supercharger sites in big cities tend to be heavily congested. These queues will make the experience smoother for everyone involved, so we’re looking forward to seeing this come to fruition.

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