Tips and Tricks for Tesla's v11 update

January 12, 2022

By Nuno Cristovao

Tesla's v11 update was received with mixed feelings. It's split about 50/50 whether you love the update or hate it. There doesn't seem to be much in between.

The UI is cleaner and better organized, but it comes at the expense of quick access to many settings.

Tesla's v11 UI

Some things we'll all just need to get used to. For example, checking your tire pressure in a card-like view will likely not be something that Tesla adds back.

While in other areas we'll certainly see Tesla make some needed updates.

Until the next update, there are a few tips that could make v11 a little easier to use.

Climate

You don't need to tap the temperature to access the climate controls. You can access them at any time by swiping up anywhere from the app launcher.

Once you have the climate open, you can close it by waiting for it to timeout, or by swiping down anywhere in the screen except the vent area, which would aim the direction of the vent instead.

Minimizing Apps

Unfortunately in version 11, Tesla replaced a lot of buttons with sliders, which are less than ideal to use while driving.

Each app used to have a close button, but they have mostly been removed. Apps are now closed by swiping downward in the app.

However, if you prefer you can still close an app with a single tap. It's not as obvious as a close button, but you can tap the app's icon to close it. The music app which has multiple states may require multiple taps on the app icon as the app cycles through its various sizes.

Dismissing Alerts

Tesla now displays various alerts on the bottom left of the screen for the Model 3 and Model Y. This is used for HomeLink, blind spot camera, seat belt warnings, phone calls, and more.

If you receive multiple alerts at once, they can sometimes hide other information you'd like to interact with such as your phone or HomeLink.

Any of these alerts that show up on the bottom left corner can be dismissed by swiping downward. This lets you dismiss HomeLink or another alert if you're trying to interact with another alert that is underneath.

HomeLink

HomeLink is contextually aware and the controls will show up based on the location you have set for your garage door or gate. However, if you use Auto-Open, it's not very obvious how to cancel it if the garage door is already open.

Underneath the HomeLink buttons, you'll see a word named Activate or Cancel. That will be the action performed when you tap the garage door button.

So when pulling up to your garage, you'll initially see Cancel underneath the garage door button, with the number of feet before the garage door will auto-open. Tapping on the button will cancel the automatic opening of your garage.

This solution isn't very intuitive and we hope Tesla will revisit this.

Customizable Launcher

The customizable launcher in v11 is a welcome addition, although it shouldn't remove options that owners had access to before.

We believe Tesla will be adding more options to the app launcher, including seat heaters and window defrost in the future, however for now we have to deal with what we have.

The app launcher will always contain shortcuts to Controls, Volume, and cabin temperature.

Five additional apps will be shown before the driver and passenger temperatures. If you customize 2, then the other 3 will automatically show recently used apps.

You can customize up to 4, as one will always be reserved for a recently used app.

This also means that regardless of which app you're using, the icon for the app will always be the launcher. This lets you quickly close the app by tapping on the app's icon.

Quick Access to Wipers and Headlights

Some of the actionable alerts that can show up on the bottom left portion include windshield wipers and headlights.

In a Model 3 or Model Y, you can quickly adjust these without having to navigate into Controls.

You can tap the end of the left stalk to have the wipers' speed come up on the display.

Similarly, you can flick your high beams to get light controls to come up on the display, which will then let you adjust your fog lights, auto high beams, and regular headlights.

Music

The music app was one of the few apps that received a visual overhaul with the v11 update.

But did you know that it also includes a new Up Next feature that lets you view upcoming songs when you're playing a playlist?

If you tap the button to the left of the search icon, your player will take up about half the screen and it'll show some additional information. You can pick from Up Next, Recents and Favorites and Sources. Recents/Favorites and Sources are now only accessible in this view.

Save Dashcam

The Dashcam icon has been removed from the top of the screen, leaving us without a quick way of saving any Dashcam footage.

However, you can still easily save Dashcam footage by using the "Save Dashcam" voice command. There are many voice commands you can use to make it easier to access features you used before.

Keep the Seat Heater On

Since the seat heaters are now part of the climate view, it makes it more difficult to use them in certain scenarios.

You can still keep your seat heater on and the climate system off. This could be useful if you're running on an extremely low state of charge.

To do so, open the climate system and choose your seat heater temperature. Auto seat heaters will need to be turned off.

You can then power off the climate system and your seat heater will remain on. You can also use the app to turn on just your seat heater if you prefer.

Version 11 of Tesla's UI is a step forward in some cases and a step back in others. It's reassuring to know that Tesla is working on updates to overcome the shortcomings in v11.

You shouldn't expect the UI to go back to the way it was in v10, but you should expect to regain some lost functionality, such as the ability to keep seat heaters in the app launcher or quickly save Dashcam footage.

Check out a fan-created concept of Tesla's app launcher.

Is Tesla Planning to Add Steam Support to All Vehicles?

December 11, 2024

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

Yesterday, we reported that Tesla updated their Steam integration on Model S and Model X vehicles. The update was part of their 2024 Holiday Update, but it looks like there may be more to this than a simple update.

Steam, a video game library app, makes it easy for users to buy or launch games on their computers. However, a couple of years ago, Valve, who created Steam, launched their own standalone device, the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck runs a custom OS based on Linux.

Steam Launch

When Tesla launched the redesigned Model S and Model X, Tesla introduced a dedicated gaming GPU with 16GB of RAM and touted the ability to play top-tier PC games in Tesla vehicles.

In 2022, Tesla finally launched the Steam app for the Model S and Model X as part of its 2022 Holiday Update. The Steam app runs Steam OS, the same OS as the Steam Deck in a virtual environment.

However, earlier this year, Tesla stopped including the GPU and Steam (Beta) in their vehicles, and we haven’t seen any updates to the Steam in quite some time. In fact, we thought Tesla was axing their gaming-on-the-go dreams.

SteamOS Update

The Steam app, which is still in Beta, is getting an interesting update for the Model S and Model X vehicles with the discrete GPU.

Those vehicles received an update to SteamOS 3.6 - the same version of SteamOS that runs on the Steam Deck. While nothing has visually changed, there’s a long list of performance optimizations under the hood to get things running smoother.

Comparing Steam Deck to Tesla Vehicles

Let’s take a look at the Steam Deck - according to Valve, its onboard Zen4 CPU and GPU combined push a total of 2 TFlops of data, which is fairly respectable, but much lower than today’s home consoles. The Steam Deck is capable of 720p gaming fairly seamlessly on low-to-medium settings on the go and is also built on the AMD platform.

AMD-equipped Teslas, including the Model 3 and Model Y, are packing an older Zen+ (Zen 1.5) APU (processor with a combined CPU and GPU). AMD claims that the V1000 - the same embedded chip as on AMD Tesla vehicles (YE1807C3T4MFB), brings up to 3.6 TFLops of processing power with it, including 4K encoding and decoding with the integrated GPU on board.

While that’s not enough for 4K gaming or comparable to a full-blown console or desktop GPU, that’s enough raw horsepower for light gaming and is currently more powerful than the Steam Deck.

The Model S and Model X’s GPU brings that up to about 10TFlops of power - comparable to modern consoles like the Xbox Series X at 12 TFlops.

Steam Gaming for All Vehicles?

The fact that Tesla is updating SteamOS even though the feature is no longer available in any new vehicles could indicate that Tesla is not only bringing Steam back to Teslas but that it’s going to play a much bigger role.

While SteamOS is run in a virtual environment on top of Tesla’s own OS, we could see Tesla bring SteamOS to all of its current vehicles, including the Model 3, Model Y, and Cybertruck. Steam in these vehicles would likely support any game that’s capable of running on the Steam Deck.

We think this Steam update, which includes performance improvements and a variety of fixes, has quietly passed under most people’s radars. This could be a very exciting update for those who enjoy gaming, especially for those who love to do it in their Tesla.

Tesla Holiday Update Weather Features: All the Small Details

December 11, 2024

By Karan Singh

Robert Rosenfeld / YouTube

As part of Tesla’s 2024 Holiday Update, Tesla included two awesome new features - Weather at Destination and the long-awaited Weather Radar Overlay. These two features are big upgrades built upon the weather feature that was added in update 2024.26. The original weather feature added an hourly forecast, as well as the chance of precipitation, UV index, Air Quality Index, and other data.

However, this update also added some smaller weather touches, such as the vehicle alerting you if the weather at the destination will be drastically different from the current weather.

Not a Tesla App

Weather At Destination

When you’re navigating to a destination and viewing the full navigation direction list, the text under the arrival time will show you the expected weather next to your destination. You can also tap this, and the full weather pop-up will show up, showing your destination's full set of weather information.

Note the weather under the arrival time

Not a Tesla App

You can also tap the weather icon at the top of the interface at any time and tap Destination to switch between the weather at your current location and the weather at your destination.

You’re probably considering that the weather at your destination doesn’t matter when you’re three hours away - but that’s all taken into account by the trip planner. It will add in both charge time and travel time and show you the weather at your destination at your expected arrival time.

And if the weather is drastically different or inclement, such as rain or snow, while you’ve got sunshine and rainbows - the weather will be shown above the destination ETA for a few moments before it tucks itself away.

Tesla also recently introduced a new voice command. Asking, “What’s the weather?” or something similar will now bring up Tesla’s weather popup.

The weather pop-up above the ETA

Not a Tesla App

One limitation, though—if you’re planning a long road trip that is more than a day of driving, the weather at destination feature won’t be available until you get closer.

Weather Radar Overlay

As part of the improvements to weather, Tesla has also added a radar overlay for precipitation. You can access the new radar overlay by tapping the map and then tapping the weather icon on the right side of the map. It’ll bring up a radar overlay centered on your vehicle. It’ll animate through the radar data over the last 3 hours so that you can see the direction of the storm, but you can also pause it at any point.

You’re able to scroll around in this view and see the weather anywhere, even if you zoom out. It also works while you’re driving, although it can be a little confusing if you’re trying to pay attention to the navigation system. If you like to have Points of Interest enabled on your map, the weather overlay will hide POIs except for Charging POIs.

Requirements / Data

Unfortunately, you’ll need Premium Connectivity for any of the weather features to work, and being on WiFi or using a hotspot will not be enough to get the data to show up. The data, including the weather radar, is provided by The Weather Channel.

As for supported models, weather and weather at destination are available on all vehicles except for the 2012-2020 Model S and Model X. The weather radar has more strict requirements and requires the newer AMD Ryzen-powered infotainment center available on the 2021+ Model S and Model X and more recent Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.