Tesla Software Update 2025.2 - Hands-Free Trunk Support for Android, Rear Cross-Traffic Chime

Not a Tesla App

Tesla’s first major update of 2025, software update 2025.2, is now rolling out to select vehicles in North America and Europe. While the update isn’t widespread yet, it is rolling out to most vehicles, including HW3 and HW4 cars. The Cybertruck and legacy Model S/X vehicles are currently the only vehicles that haven’t received this update.

Let’s take a look at everything we know that’s included in this update.

Third-Party Charger Preconditioning

First up, vehicles will now support preconditioning for third-party chargers. While this was previously available in Europe for approved third-party chargers that met Tesla’s strict standards, it’s now available in North America for the first time.

What’s New: When you navigate to a charging location, whether it’s listed in the vehicle’s charging locations or not, the vehicle will now precondition the battery for faster charging. It looks like the vehicle will automatically determine if the destination is an EV charging location and enable preconditioning. If the destination is a charging location, you’ll see a little banner show up, letting you know the vehicle’s battery is now being preconditioned. There isn’t a button to manually precondition the battery yet.

What’s Not Added: In Europe, the vehicle's charging filter shows approved third-party chargers. Unfortunately, it does not look like this is being added in North America, where Tesla only displays Superchargers and destination chargers. However, the above feature still applies in North America, where the vehicle will precondition the battery for fast chargers such as Electrify America.

The video below shows how the feature will work:

Muchos me habéis pedido que haga un vídeo de cómo se activa el precalentamiento en cargadores "no Tesla". Pues simplemente, en la ruta que elijáis, pulsáis sobre el cargador en cuestión y automáticamente se activa solo. pic.twitter.com/snMoPDx6Dr

— Gerard (@Gerard_Otero76) January 26, 2025

Rear Cross-Traffic Chime

Following up on the addition of rear cross-traffic alerts showing up as red indicators as part of the 2024 Tesla Holiday Update, Tesla is now adding an alert chime to go with it. Now, there is a visual indicator on the screen, as well as an audible indicator that a vehicle or object has been detected crossing behind you.

This is a great addition and almost looked like a glaring omission in the initial release of the feature. Tesla likely wanted to make sure the feature was working as expected in the wider fleet before introducing a more drastic alert.

The chime is enabled by default, but if you want to disable it, you can go to Controls > Safety > Rear Cross-Traffic Chime to disable it. Joe Mode will reduce the chime’s volume if you prefer that instead.

Interestingly, the rear cross-traffic alerts feature was a feature that Musk said “Yes” to back in 2020.

Hands-Free Trunk/Frunk for Android

Just recently, we reported that Tesla was adding ultra-wideband support for Android - which would include two new major new features.

Improved Phone Key Reliability: Ultra-wideband (UWB) is an alternative to Bluetooth, which offers highly accurate positioning and tracking of devices. It uses about the same amount of energy as Bluetooth Low Energy but with increased location accuracy. By having your phone communicate with the vehicle over UWB, the vehicle knows exactly where your phone is in relation to the car, drastically increasing the reliability of your vehicle’s phone key.

Hands-Free Trunk and Frunk Opening: More precise location tracking enables new features such as Hands-Free Trunk and Hands-Free Frunk support. This feature has been available on iOS devices for approximately a year and will now be available on Android devices.

Supported Models: Unfortunately, not all models are supported, and your vehicle needs to have ultra-wideband sensors. Supported models include the 2021+ Model S and Model X, the 2024+ Model 3, the Cybertruck, and the upcoming 2025+ Model Y. Only the Model S, Model X, and Cybertruck support the hands-free frunk.

Supported Phones: Most recent Android phones support ultra-wideband, especially flagship devices, however, it’s not available on all phones. If you have a Google Pixel 6 or higher, Samsung Fold 2 or higher, Samsung S21+, or other recent Android phone, then your phone already supports ultra wideband.

Users with Android devices with UWB will initially be prompted to “Upgrade” their phone key when opening the Tesla app. This will switch your phone key from using Bluetooth to ultra-wideband. Once upgraded, you can go to Controls > Locks > Hands-Free Frunk / Trunk in your vehicle settings to enable the new hands-free feature. If you aren’t prompted for the upgrade, you’ll find it under Security & Drivers > Phone Key > Upgrade in the Tesla app.

Weather Information

With every Tesla update, there are smaller features, and this one is no different. In this update, the weather information is now displayed for both the final destination and any additional stops (waypoints) you have set along the way. Previously, the weather would only be displayed for your current location and your destination.

Battle of Polytopia

Next up, Battle of Polytopia is receiving another update. This time “The Forgotten” skin is being added for the recently-added Aquarion faction, adding some old-world Atlantis vibes to the fishy folk. Additional language support and balance changes are also included in this Battle of Polytopia update.

Cybertruck Charging Improvements

Last month we reported that The Cybertruck is expected to receive charging and regenerative braking improvements soon. Tesla was aiming at releasing these updates in the 2025.2 update, so there’s a chance that these cold weather improvements are also included in the 2025.2 update, but we won’t know for sure until the Cybertruck starts receiving this update in the coming days or weeks.

Other Features?

Since this update hasn’t rolled out to all models or regions yet, it’s possible we may see some additional features added in this update, although at this point, it may only be features for the Cybertruck or the legacy Model S and Model X.

Finally, as usual, Tesla includes minor fixes, performance enhancements, security fixes, and improvements. If you notice any undocumented changes, please let us know.

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Tesla Plans Massive 10x Robotaxi Expansion: A Look at the Potential New Area

Not a Tesla App

With Tesla’s first major expansion of the Robotaxi Geofence now complete and operational, they’ve been hard at work with validation in new locations - and some are quite the drive from the current Austin Geofence.

Validation fleet vehicles have been spotted operating in a wider perimeter around the city, from rural roads in the west end to the more complex area closer to the airport. Tesla mentioned during their earnings call that the Robotaxi has already completed 7,000 miles in Austin, and it will expand its area of operation to roughly 10 times what it is now. This lines up with the validation vehicles we’ve been tracking around Austin.

Based on the spread of the new sightings, the potential next geofence could cover a staggering 450 square miles - a tenfold increase from the current service area of roughly 42 square miles. You can check this out in our map below with the sightings we’re tracking.

If Tesla decides to expand into these new areas, it would represent a tenfold increase over their current geofence, matching Tesla’s statement. The new area would cover approximately 10% of the 4,500-square-mile Austin metropolitan area. If Tesla can offer Robotaxi services in that entire area, it would prove they can tackle just about any city in the United States.

From Urban Core to Rural Roads

The locations of the validation vehicles show a clear intent to move beyond the initial urban and suburban core and prepare the Robotaxi service for a much wider range of uses.

In the west, validation fleet vehicles have been spotted as far as Marble Falls - a much more rural environment that features different road types, higher speed limits, and potentially different challenges. 

In the south, Tesla has been expanding towards Kyle, which is part of the growing Austin-San Antonio suburban corridor spanning Highway 35. San Antonio is only 80 miles (roughly a 90-minute drive) away, and could easily become part of the existing Robotaxi area if Tesla obtains regulatory approval there.

In the East, we haven’t spotted any new validation vehicles. This is likely because Tesla’s validation vehicles originate from Giga Texas, which is located East of Austin. We won’t really know if Tesla is expanding in this direction until they start pushing past Giga Texas and toward Houston.

Finally, there have been some validation vehicles spotted just North of the new expanded boundaries, meaning that Tesla isn’t done in that direction either. This direction consists of the largest suburban areas of Austin, which have so far not been serviced by any form of autonomous vehicle.

Rapid Scaling

This new, widespread validation effort confirms what we already know. Tesla is pushing for an intensive period of public data gathering and system testing in a new area, right before conducting geofence expansions. The sheer scale of this new validation zone tells us that Tesla isn’t taking this slowly - the next step is going to be a great leap instead, and they essentially confirmed this during this Q&A session on the recent call. The goal is clearly to bring the entire Austin Metropolitan area into the Robotaxi Network.

While the previous expansion showed off just how Tesla can scale the network, this new phase of validation testing is a demonstration of just how fast they can validate and expand their network. The move to validate across rural, suburban, and urban areas simultaneously shows their confidence in these new Robotaxi FSD builds.

Eventually, all these improvements from Robotaxi will make their way to customer FSD builds sometime in Q3 2025, so there is a lot to look forward to.

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Caught on Video: Tesla FSD Tackles a Toll Booth — Here’s How It Pulled It Off

@DirtyTesLa on X

For years, the progress of Tesla’s FSD has been measured by smoother turns, better lane centering, and more confident unprotected left turns. But as the system matures, a new, more subtle form of intelligence is emerging - one that shifts its attention to the human nuances of navigating roads. A new video posted to X shows the most recent FSD build, V13.2.9, demonstrating this in a remarkable real-world scenario.

Toll Booth Magic

In the video, a Model Y running FSD pulls up to a toll booth and smoothly comes to a stop, allowing the driver to handle payment. The car waits patiently as the driver interacts with the attendant. Then, at the precise moment the toll booth operator finishes the transaction and says “Have a great day”, the vehicle starts moving, proceeding through the booth - all without any input from the driver.

If you notice, there’s no gate here at this toll booth. This interaction all happened naturally with FSD.

FSD 13.2.9 pulls up to a toll booth, waits for me to complete my transaction, then pulls away without a gate. 😳 Incredible. https://t.co/OsH1YAY8Ty pic.twitter.com/9hWAbLNrVa

— Dirty Tesla (@DirtyTesLa) July 27, 2025

How It Really Works

While the timing was perfect, the FSD wasn’t listening to the conversation for clues (maybe one day, with Grok?) The reality, as explained by Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s VP of AI, is even more impressive.

It can see the transaction happening using the repeater & pillar cameras. Hence FSD proceeds on its own when the transaction is complete 😎

— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) July 27, 2025

FSD is simply using the cameras on the side of the vehicle to watch the exchange between the driver and attendant. The neural network has been trained on enough data that it can visually recognize the conclusion of a transaction - the exchange of money or a card and the hands pulling away - and understands that this is the trigger to proceed.

The Bigger Picture

This capability is far more significant than just a simple party trick. FSD is gaining the ability to perceive and navigate a world built for humans in the most human-like fashion possible.

If FSD can learn what a completed toll transaction looks like, it’s an example of the countless other complex scenarios it’ll be able to handle in the future. This same visual understanding could be applied to navigating a fast-food drive-thru, interacting with a parking garage attendant, passing through a security checkpoint, or boarding a ferry or vehicle train — all things we thought that would come much later.

These human-focused interactions will eventually become even more useful, as FSD becomes ever more confident in responding to humans on the road, like when a police officer tells a vehicle to go a certain direction, or a construction worker flags you through a site. These are real-world events that happen every day, and it isn’t surprising to see FSD picking up on the subtleties and nuances of human interaction.

This isn’t a pre-programmed feature for a specific toll booth. It is an emergent capability of the end-to-end AI neural nets. By learning from millions of videos across billions of miles, FSD is beginning to build a true contextual understanding of the world. The best part - with a 10x context increase on its way, this understanding will grow rapidly and become far more powerful.

These small, subtle moments of intelligence are the necessary steps to a truly robust autonomous system that can handle the messy, unpredictable nature of human society.

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