Tesla Now Sells Car Parts Online - Supports Consumer Right to Repair

By Karan Singh
Not a Tesla App

Since November 2024, Tesla has quietly trialed a new direct-to-consumer part sales program. The original program launched with only a few items: windshield wipers, air filters, license plate brackets, and low-voltage batteries (16V only). 

The program has clearly seen some initial success, and Tesla has now begun to expand it even further.

Tesla’s Electronic Parts Catalog

Tesla’s Electronic Parts Catalog (EPC) now allows users to order individual parts or complete assemblies for various vehicle parts.

Previously, users were required to either visit or schedule service with Tesla Service to order parts, even if Tesla wouldn’t be the one installing them. The other option was to be an approved business, like a body shop or mechanic, which would be allowed to order directly from Tesla’s EPC.

Now, certain parts with a shopping cart icon in the EPC can be purchased directly online using your Tesla account. You can even order parts for vehicles you don’t own - so if you want to buy a Model S Brake Caliper Service Kit without owning a Model S, you can now do so.

Tesla points out these changes on pages that have orderable parts with the text: “EPC now supports direct-to-customer online ordering for a subset of parts (to be expanded with future releases).”

Part Availability & Shipping

Shipping is currently only available to addresses in the United States, but we expect Tesla to roll this out in other countries in the future.

Parts can be ordered individually or in batches if you have a larger repair or replacement to be made. Part availability is subject to what has been officially made available by Tesla, as well as general availability. For now, there’s only a small subset of parts that are orderable, such as brake rotors and other similar parts. If you need to replace something more complex, you’ll still need to put in a ticket with Tesla Service through the app to get it ordered.

Cybertruck Parts

Additionally, no parts are available for the Cybertruck for the time being. We expect this is due to a lack of part availability for the Cybertruck while Tesla continues to ramp production. This will likely change in the coming months as Tesla continues to both expand Cybertruck production and make more parts available on the EPC.

Right to Repair

This is a great change for Tesla and helps address an issue some potential buyers have — the right to repair. Tesla has slowly been marching toward this goal by first making Service Mode available to everyone, opening up their EPC, adding Vehicle Maintenance History, and continually improving their Service Mode and service manuals.

Over the last few years, Apple has faced pressure over the right for consumers to repair their own devices. When you have a product with a lot of proprietary parts, like Apple or Tesla, you need to build tools to help consumers and third-party service centers repair devices. It seems that Tesla is well ahead of the curve here, which will help them avoid any future legal issues.

Teslas already don’t need much maintenance, and what they do need is already fairly easy to work on. Service manuals, as well as awesome new features like the Cybertruck’s interactive wiring diagram in Service Mode, make them one of the easiest electric vehicles to work on. You can check out Tesla’s Electronic Parts Catalog here.

Tesla Doubles Robotaxi Service Area, Now Larger than Waymo

By Karan Singh
Not a Tesla App

To show off its scalability, Tesla has officially launched its first major expansion of its Robotaxi service area in Austin, Texas. The expansion comes just 22 days after the program’s initial public launch.

That’s a stunningly quick pace that sets a benchmark for how fast we’ll be expecting Tesla to roll out additional expansions as they validate and safety-check in additional area and cities. The new geofence not only adds a significant amount of new territory, but also makes Tesla’s service area in Austin approximately 4 miles larger than Waymo’s.

The expansion, which went live for users in the early access program earlier today, reshapes the map into… what we can call an upside-down T. It helps connect more parts of the city, and increases the service area by more than double.

So far, the initial launch has been operating without any significant issues, which means Tesla is ready and willing to continue expanding the program.

Rapid Scaling

While the larger map is a clear win for early-access users and especially those who live in Austin, the most significant aspect here is just how fast Tesla is going. Achieving a major expansion in just over three weeks since its initial launch is a testament to Tesla’s generalized autonomy approach with vision only.

Unlike methods that require intensive, street-by-street HD mapping that can take months or even years just to expand to a few new streets, Tesla’s strategy is built for this type of speed.

This is Tesla’s key advantage - it can leverage its massive fleet and AI to build a generalized, easily-applicable understanding of the world. Expanding to a new area becomes less about building a brand-new, high-definition map of every street light and obstacle, but instead a targeted safety validation process.

Tesla can deploy a fleet of validation vehicles to intensely focus on one zone, allowing the neural nets to learn the quirks of that area’s intersections and traffic flows. Once a high level of safety and reliability is demonstrated, Tesla can simply just redraw the geofence.

Geofence Size

Tesla went from approximately 19.7 sq mi (51 sq km) to 42.07 sq mi (109 sq km)in just 22 days, following the initial launch and safety validation. Within a few short days of launch, we began seeing the first Tesla engineering validation vehicles, hitting Austin’s downtown core, preparing for the next phase.

The larger footprint means more utility for riders, and that’s big, especially since the new service area is approximately four square miles larger than Waymo’s established operational zone in the city.

Highways and Fleet Size

The new territory enables longer and more practical trips, with the longest trip at tip-to-tip taking about 42 minutes from the southern edge of the old geofence to the northern edge of the new geofence. For now, Tesla has limited its fleet to operating exclusively on surface streets and does not use highways to complete its routes.

We also don’t know if Tesla has increased the vehicle fleet size quite yet - but if they’re intending to maintain or reduce wait times for even the early-access riders, the fleet size will easily need to be doubled to keep up with the new area.

Next Expansion Underway

Perhaps the most telling bit about how fast Tesla is expanding is that they’re already laying the groundwork for the next expansion. Validation vehicles have been spotted operating in Kyle, Texas, approximately 20 miles south of the geofence’s southern border.

Robotaxi Validation vehicles operating in Kyle, Texas.
Robotaxi Validation vehicles operating in Kyle, Texas.
Financial_Weight_989 on Reddit

This means that while one expansion is being rolled out to the public, Tesla is already having its engineering and validation teams work on the next expansion. That relentless pace means that if this keeps up, Tesla will likely have a good portion of the Austin metropolitan area - the zone they’ve applied for their Autonomy license for - serviceable by the end of 2025.

The pilot? A success. The first expansion? Done. The second expansion? Already in progress. Robotaxi is going to go places, and the next question won't be about whether the network is going to grow. Instead, the new questions are: How fast, and where next?

How to Retrofit a Front Bumper Camera on a HW4 Model S and Model X

By Karan Singh
Tutrifour/X

One of the most welcome features of the recently refreshed 2026 Model S and Model X is the addition of a front bumper camera. Now, thanks to some clever work by the Tesla community, it has been confirmed that this highly requested feature can be retrofitted onto older HW4-equipped (AI4) Model S and Model X vehicles.

The discovery and first installation were performed by Yaro on a Model X, and Tesla hacker Green helped provide some additional insight on the software side.

Unused Port and a Software Switch

The foundation for this retrofit has been in place for a long time, laid by Tesla itself. All HW4-equipped Model S and Model X vehicles, even those built before the recent refresh, have an empty, unused camera connector slot on the FSD computer, seemingly waiting for this exact purpose.

While the physical port is there, getting the car to recognize the camera requires a software change. According to Green, a simple configuration flag change is all that is needed to enable the front camera view on the vehicle’s main display once the hardware is connected and ready.

The Hardware: Parts & Costs

Yaro, who performed the installation on a Model X, provided a detailed breakdown of the parts and approximate costs involved.

  • Front Camera - $200 USD

  • Bumper Grill (with camera cutout) - $80 USD

  • Bumper Harness - $130 USD

  • Washer Pump - $15 USD

  • Washer Hoses - $30 USD

The total cost for the Model X hardware comes to around $455 USD, which isn’t too expensive if you were to DIY it. Tesla’s Electronic Parts Catalog has some of these parts available for order, and some can be ordered via your local Service Center. Yaro did note that he had to jerry-rig the camera connector cable, having salvaged the cable from a different camera harness.

The Model S vs Model X

This is where the project varies significantly. For the Model X, the retrofit is relatively simple. Because the main bumper shape is the same, only the lower bumper grill needs to be swapped for the version with the camera opening, along with installing the camera itself and the washer hardware.

For the Model S, the process is a bit more complex and expensive. Due to the different shape of the pre-refresh bumper, the entire front fascia assembly must be replaced to accommodate the camera. This makes the project far more expensive and laborious.

DIY or Official Retrofit?

The official front bumper camera on the Model X
The official front bumper camera on the Model X
Not a Tesla App

Right now, this is only a DIY retrofit. Tesla hasn’t indicated that they intend to offer this as an official retrofit for older vehicles at this time, but given the fact that it isn’t too complex, we expect that there is a possibility that they may do so in the near future.

All in all, this is about 3-5 hours of labor for the Model X, and approximately 5-7 hours of labor for the Model S, based on the official Tesla Service Manuals, using the front fascia reinstall process as a guide.

That means if Tesla does offer this as a retrofit service, it will likely cost between $800 and $1,200 USD when factoring in Tesla’s labor rates, but the total cost will vary regionally.

For those who own an AI4 Model S or Model X, it could be possible to request service for this installation, but as far as we’re aware, there is no official service notice for this retrofit at this time.

What About the Model 3?

For owners of the refreshed Highland Model 3, the only vehicle now left without a front bumper camera, the possibility of a retrofit is still uncertain. It has been noted by Green that some, but not all Model 3s built in late 2024 have an empty camera port on the FSD computer. This inconsistency means that while a retrofit may be possible for a subset of Model 3s, it isn’t a guaranteed upgrade path like it is for the Model S or Model X.

Overall, it's a fantastic opportunity for owners of older Model S and Model X vehicles to get a slight hardware refresh, which can get them one of the best new features from the 2026 refresh.

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