Tesla has launched a new update in China, which includes a large number of new features, including a major focus on navigation improvements.
This is still a 2024 build, but it seems like it may be the last one we’ll see - especially since we’ve already heard 2025.2 is on its way.
Let’s take a peek at the new update and all the new features.
Navigation Improvements
One of the new features is the ability to choose how your vehicle chooses a route. If you have “online routing” enabled, then your vehicle’s routing is determined remotely, which lets it take more things into account. However, we now have alternate routes; the driver has limited control over how the route is chosen.
This update introduces new options on how the route is determined, giving the user more control.
Fastest Time - This option appears to be the current default, likely similar to how the vehicle picks a route today.
Least Congestion - This option appears to select routes that have minimal traffic congestion, thereby making your drive that much easier and safer - even if it's a longer route. It's a good use of Tesla’s integration with live traffic data.
Prefer Highways - We saw this option coming as it was initially discovered alongside the new Trailer Profiles feature. It prefers highways over other routes, and while that can be useful, we’d prefer the opposite too - an Avoid Highways option.
Lowest Tolls - This is an interesting option. It doesn’t avoid tolls like the pre-existing option but finds the route that’s the fastest and has the lowest tolls. That’ll be an interesting option for people where toll routes have a big impact on travel times.
While it doesn’t appear that this brings the long-awaited avoid highways feature, it does give users a lot more control over the route the vehicle takes. While Teslas in China use Baidu maps with exciting features, these changes are to Tesla’s backend, so we expect these features to arrive in other regions as well.
Service Area Functions
As part of navigation improvements, approaching a highway service area in China will now automatically open an on-screen prompt, directing you to restaurants, convenience stores, and charging facilities within the service area. It’ll even point out big-name restaurants.
We’d love to see something similar to this in Europe and North America, especially as you pull up to a Supercharger at a rest area.
For those who prefer a little less in-your-face advertising of local businesses, this option can be disabled in Vehicle Options > Navigation > Service Areas.
It’s not clear whether this option will be available outside of China in the future.
Other Features
This is the big holiday update for China to celebrate the Chinese New Year. While the update includes some additional new features that we haven’t seen, the rest of it looks to be China-exclusive games, apps and other holiday update features we’ve already received.
The three exclusive games are from Tencent - Happy Landlord, Happy Mahjong, and Throw Eggs, and will be region-restricted to Chinese vehicles.
This update also adds Actually Smart Summon for vehicles equipped with EAP or FSD.
The final one is a bit interesting - Supercharger Bollards. Certain Superchargers in China have ground posts or bollards that automatically raise or lower. These locks prevent non-charging vehicles from parking in the Supercharger spots. Unfortunately for users, it meant you had to open the Tesla app to lower a specific bollard before being able to park to charge your vehicle. However, with this update you can now unlock the bollard from inside the vehicle - the button to unlock the bollard will pop up automatically as you’re navigating to the Supercharger.
We’re hoping the Service Area functions and Navigation improvements make their way to other markets in some capacity, so keep your fingers crossed for a North American or European version of this update soon.
