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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New Castings Spotted at Giga Texas Likely Intended for Tesla Cybercab

@JoeTegtmeyer

Tesla’s Giga Texas factory usually gives us the first site of Tesla’s upcoming products. We first saw the Cybertruck and Model Y castings here. With Giga Texas being one of Tesla’s largest factories, it’s logical that most products would originate here.

Tesla has also stated that it intends to manufacture the Cybercab, Semi, the next-generation vehicle, and Optimus at Giga Texas over the coming years. The affordable vehicle and Cybercab were originally intended to be manufactured at Giga Mexico, but the plans for that facility were waylaid by changes in economic policy.

Robotaxi Castings

These new castings were spotted by Joe Tegtmeyer, who regularly does drone flights of Giga Texas. Joe pointed out that these castings don’t look like the usual Model Y or Cybertruck castings usually seen outside Giga Texas.

With an eagle eye, @minusYCore on X also spotted some interesting text on the frames holding the castings up. In particular, the castings say “RTTX050” and “W68-RSF AS-CAST”. These could be interpreted as ‘Robotaxi Texas’ and ‘Rear SubFrame,’ as Tesla marks Cybertruck castings as “CTTX.” The as-cast portion indicates that these particular castings haven’t been trimmed yet, according to the X user.

The castings laid out.

@JoeTegtmeyer

The size and shape of these castings—combined with rumors that Tesla’s more affordable vehicle has been delayed—suggest that these castings are intended for the Cybercab.

These castings are much flatter and appear to be a different size than the castings found throughout Giga Texas, indicating that they are intended for an entirely different product.

It’s possible that these are the first castings used by Tesla to test their unboxed assembly process, which the Cybercab is expected to rely on. If you take a closer look at the video below, you’ll note that these new castings look very similar to the ones in the unboxed assembly video.

Interestingly, Tesla did say that they don’t intend to have the Cybercab available for customers before late 2026 or early 2027, but we’ll likely hear updated timelines as Tesla’s Q1 2025 Earnings Call tomorrow.

A more vertical look at the castings.

@JoeTegtmeyer

New Giga Presses

To top it all off, new parts for a Giga Press - the machine Tesla uses to make these castings - were also sighted in Texas. These machines are few and far between, and each one is highly specialized for the particular vehicle it produces. Seeing new parts coming in usually indicates that a new assembly line is under construction, or that changes are being made to an existing line to either expand it or update it.

There’s a lot happening and we will hopefully know more tomorrow evening.

New Giga Press parts

@JoeTegtmeyer

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PepsiCo Building Additional Tesla Semi Chargers

Not a Tesla App

Tesla’s first large-scale partner for the Tesla Semi - PepsiCo - is building out another Semi Megacharger site per a recent filing found by MarcoRP. Building out these Semi charging sites is expensive due to their much higher power output when compared to Superchargers.

Name Change

Interestingly enough, Tesla appears to have shifted its terminology recently, now often referring to the Semi’s high-power charging solution as Tesla Semi Chargers instead of the previously common "Megachargers." Regardless of the name, these chargers are crucial for the Semi. They’re designed to deliver 1.2 megawatts of charging power capable of adding hundreds of miles of range in roughly 30 minutes.

Frito-Lay Site

The new site detailed in the recent filing will be located at a Frito-Lay production plant on Hageman Road in Bakersfield, California. Permits were filed just a couple of days ago for the installation of eight Tesla Semi Charger stalls along with their associated electrical equipment.

This facility adds to PepsiCo's existing network of chargers, supporting the Tesla Semis operating out of their Sacramento facility, and highlights Bakersfield as the next expansion of the Semi’s operational area. Notably, this new Frito-Lay charging site is strategically located just five miles (approx. 8 km) away from a massive future public charging complex Tesla is planning on Kelton Way.

Kelton Way Charging Complex

Tesla’s planned charging complex in Bakersfield, which is just down the road, will feature 72 Supercharger stalls, as well as 18 Semi charger stalls. According to pre-permits filed last month, this site will be fairly large and accessible to both the public and Tesla’s partners.

A rendering of the Kelton Way site - with the Semi Chargers on the outside, and the Covered Supercharger site in the center.

@MarcoRPi1 on X

Tesla plans to develop a vacant plot right off the interstate into a large charging hub, which is now the second major public Semi Charger site we’ve heard about. For now, these sites will remain rare, but we expect that Tesla and its partners will be happy to expand them out further as required.

Carson Semi Charger Site

These Bakersfield developments – both the private Frito-Lay site and the large public Kelton Way hub will help lay out the necssary infrastructure for the Tesla Semi, much like the early days of Tesla’s Superchargers. Since Semi cannot be charged at a Supercharger site (the MCS plug is notably different than NACS), these sites are a must-have.

Tesla's first publicly accessible Semi Charger site planned near the Port of Long Beach in Carson, California, was one of the first signs of these types of Semi Charger facilities being established - and like Kelton Way, it also includes amenities for truck drivers. Tesla is also considering what long, medium, and short-haul truckers need for their stays at these sites.

As Tesla works to ramp up production of the Semi itself, the parallel expansion of dedicated, high-power charging infrastructure by both Tesla and its key partners are essential to making electric heavy-duty trucking a reality.

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