Teslas have a huge battery, but you may be surprised to know that not everything can be powered by the car's main battery due. Teslas main battery packs are high voltage and can't power the more sensitive electronics inside of the car. Most of the car's interior electronics are actually powered by a traditional 12-volt lead-acid battery, the same one in your gas car. The difference is that instead of an alternator charging the 12-volt battery in a traditional car, in your Tesla the 12-volt battery is charged off of the car's main battery using a DC-to-DC converter.
The 12-volt battery is one of the earlier things to wear out in all Tesla vehicles. They typically last about 3-5 years before needing to be replaced. Tesla has started to deal with this issue by putting a lithium 12-volt battery in the newly produced Model S Plaid refresh.
Lead acid batteries are optimized for producing the high output needed to start a gasoline engine, with its heavy flywheel turning at the correct RPM to get the engine going in difficult conditions. That situation doesn't exist in a fully electric vehicle.
Teslas other than the refreshed Model S Plaid are still being produced with lead-acid batteries. Lithium batteries last longer, weigh much less and are optimized for use in electric cars.
Tesla has launched a brand new web dashboard providing a real-time view into its Virtual Power Plant (VPP) program in Puerto Rico, which now includes over 63,122 participating Powerwall owners. This dashboard provides a transparent, minute-by-minute view of how a massive, decentralized network of home batteries is actively working to stabilize the island’s power grid and prevent outages.
A Live Look at a Virtual Power Plant
The new public dashboard on Tesla’s website shows the collective output of the VPP, displaying how much energy the network of thousands of independent homes is charging with or discharging to the grid at any given moment. This initiative really shows the behind-the-scenes of just how Tesla’s Virtual Power Plant system works, and helps to explain the abstract concept of grid-forming and grid-stabilization in an easy-to-understand interface.
How a Community Becomes a Power Plant
The concept behind the Puerto Rico VPP is simple. Through the program, thousands of individual Powerwall units across the island collaborate to form a single “virtual” energy resource.
When Puerto Rico’s grid operator needs emergency power to handle a surge in demand or a sudden drop in supply, the VPP is automatically activated. Participating Powerwall units will automatically dispatch their excess stored energy to help provide power during outages and keep the community powered. VPP’s activation is nearly instant - Tesla works alongside the grid operator and updates their information every few seconds, ensuring that the grid is always kept stable.
Tesla uses their Opticaster management platform to aggregate the data provided by Powerwalls and then issues energy dispatch commands when the grid operator requests them. Because the control is cloud-based, adding more batteries to the network simply involves enrolling them. This same software is being used to manage Powerwall networks in California, Texas, Massachusetts, Australia, and the U.K.
This instantaneous coordinated effort provides support to the grid far faster than any typical power plant could, serving to stabilize the grid and prevent power outages and brownouts. Tesla’s VPP in Puerto Rico can deliver up to 50 Megawatts (MW) of clean and reliable energy to homes and businesses across the island. That’s enough to power about 200,000 homes, from just the 63,122 participating Powerwalls on the island.
Powerwall still prioritizes home backup, even when being used as a VPP. It automatically charges to 100% before a storm arrives. When a grid event (drawing power as a VPP) occurs, Powerwall will only supply a certain amount of energy that the owner has approved, leaving a safety net for themselves.
A Grassroots Solution to a Critical Infrastructure Problem
The significance of this program extends far beyond the technology or the payouts from the VPP program. For years, Puerto Rico has faced challenges with grid stability and reliability. Much of this has been caused by isolated and aging infrastructure, alongside repeated damage from hurricanes. Tesla’s VPP represents a grassroots, community-powered solution to this long-standing issue.
Instead of relying on large, centralized spinning power stations, the VPP leverages the assets of thousands of residents who have already invested in their own energy independence with Solar and Powerwalls. By allowing their home batteries to participate, these owners aren’t just protecting their own homes from blackouts or netting a tidy profit on selling energy back; they’re actively contributing to a more resilient and reliable power grid for their entire community.
This live dashboard is a fantastic example of all the good that Tesla has done with their advancements in energy infrastructure and the advantages of distributed batteries. Individual community members can better their communities by participating, while also improving their lifestyle with Tesla’s Powerwalls.
Tesla has officially announced the next major software update, 2025.26. As expected, this update will introduce the Grok AI assistant to Tesla vehicles, although it’ll initially be limited to the U.S.
Tesla also announced several other features that will arrive in update 2025.26, such as Light Sync, the ability to create and save audio presets, and others.
We’ll break down each new feature and which models and regions we expect it to be available in.
As expected, Grok will only be available on AMD Ryzen-based vehicles. Tesla says that it will also be limited to the United States and require Premium Connectivity, but it looks like it won’t require a subscription to anything else, such as Super Grok.
Unfortunately, Tesla announced that Grok will not be able to control elements in your vehicle and that the old voice command system will still be used to do that.
In a post on X, Tesla showed off Grok in action for the first time, showing the interaction between the driver and Grok. The Grok interface displays sound waves in rainbow-like colors when it’s speaking, much like another popular device. Tesla’s video of Grok is below:
Supported vehicles: Based on Tesla’s post, this is expected to include all AMD vehicles, including the Model S, X, 3, Y, and Cybertruck.
Supported regions: U.S.
Light Sync
Not a Tesla App
Tesla continues to improve the ambient light feature in Teslas by integrating it into more things. Tesla recently started using the ambient lights during Santa Mode and Rainbow Road. They also turn the ambient lighting red when you’re in Service Mode. However, this time, they’re going one step further. The ambient lights can now react to the music you’re playing by presumably changing colors based on the beat.
You’ll also have the option to maximize the brightness of the ambient lights when this feature is enabled, but only when the vehicle is parked, which Tesla is calling Rave Cave.
In addition to reacting to the music, the lights can change color to match the album color of the music being played, which is kind of similar to the ambient lights on some TVs matching the content being displayed. A needless addition? Sure. But very cool as well.
Tesla shows a screenshot of this feature, which is included in the Toybox app, and shows that you can enable or disable each feature individually, including syncing the lights to music, max brightness, and matching the album artwork color.
Supported vehicles: All vehicles with the ambient lighting feature, including the Cybertruck.
Supported regions: Assumed to be available everywhere.
Audio Settings Update
Not a Tesla App
Another feature Tesla highlights is the ability to create presets for audio settings. These audio settings will be in a new Audio tab in the vehicle’s settings, and they’ll allow you to create and save presets for different types of music. For example, you can have a preset for spoken content and another one for pop music.
Each preset will let you adjust the equalizer and set the immersive sound level.
What’s nice here is that it seems that Tesla has redesigned the audio settings and moved them to the main vehicle controls instead of only having them accessible through a button in the music player. You can see the Balance tab at the top, although it doesn’t look like you’ll be able to save the balance as part of the preset.
Supported vehicles: This is expected to be available on all vehicles, although it could exclude the legacy Model S/X.
Dashcam Viewer Updates
Not a Tesla App
This Dashcam Viewer update is only for AMD-based vehicles. It includes the ability to change the playback speed of the video being played, a feature of the old Dashcam Viewer which was surprisingly not included in the new player.
The playback speed is shown on the screen, and you’ll be able to tap it to cycle between varying speeds. The older Dashcam Viewer lets you choose between 0.5x, 1x, 1.5x, and 2x playback speeds, and this is expected to be the same in this update.
With this update, the new Dashcam Viewer also arrives on the Cybertruck for the first time, which was the only Ryzen vehicle excluded when the update was originally released.
Supported vehicles: All AMD Ryzen-based vehicles.
Supported regions: Assumed to be available everywhere.
This isn’t as exciting a feature, but it surely prevents a lot of unnecessary frustration for users who arrive at a Supercharger location only to find out it requires you to pay for parking, is only available for valet service, or has other requirements.
If the Supercharger is in a garage, Tesla will now include the floor or level number that the Supercharger is on. While there are usually physical signs at these locations, knowing the floor number the charger is on ahead of time will definitely make it easier to find.
Supported vehicles: Expected to be available on all vehicles.
Supported regions: It’s not clear whether this will be available in all regions.
Onboarding Guide
Not a Tesla App
The last feature that Tesla is highlighting in update 2025.26 is a new onboarding guide that will help new owners become familiar with their vehicles.
According to Tesla, the new guide will run through several features, such as adjusting your seat and mirrors, as well as controlling certain vehicle functions, including the lights, wipers, and Autopilot. This will be a great addition for new owners, as accessing some of these features isn’t apparent, especially if they require use of the unlabeled scroll wheel, such as activating Autopilot on newer vehicles without a stalk.
Supported vehicles: This is expected to only be available on AMD Ryzen vehicles, but Tesla doesn’t specify which vehicles it’ll be available on. Once the update starts rolling out, we should have more information.
Supported regions: This will likely be available in all or most regions.
Release Date
There may be other features included in update 2025.26 that Tesla isn’t highlighting in their post. Tesla often doesn’t include smaller additions or features that were previously introduced but have now been added to more regions.
There’s no doubt that the biggest feature in this update is Grok, but the other updates are nice improvements as well. This feature is expected to roll out to employees this weekend, and it should start rolling out to customers in the next week or two.
![Tesla Software Update 2025.26: Grok, Light Sync, Audio Presets and More [VIDEO]](https://www.notateslaapp.com/img/containers/article_images/tesla-update/light-sync-update.jpeg/e84ab2f1fe12f493a75927db105a9586/light-sync-update.jpg)
