Tesla to Add WiFi Garage Door Support in Upcoming Holiday Update

Tesla will add support for WiFi garage door openers

Tesla

Christmas is almost here, so Tesla’s holiday update will soon be here. While many are still guessing what may be under the tree in this update, we now have word that Tesla will include support for MyQ accessories.

MyQ lets you control supported garage doors, gates and lights over WiFi. Until now, users could only control MyQ devices from their smartphones, but Tesla is adding support for it to their vehicles.

Tesla Rumors Start Small

The information was shared with us through an anonymous source, but it was also leaked on Twitter. Twitter user @DirtyTesla, who is also the President and Founder of the Tesla Owners Club of Michigan, posted: Looks like MyQ support is coming to Tesla vehicles with software update 2022.44.25 :) I don't have any more detail than that.

If MyQ is indeed included in the holiday update, it will not only allow users to open or close their garage from the screen in the Tesla. MyQ also tells users if the garage is left open, it can control lights, access cameras, lock and unlock doors and use home intercoms. MyQ can also be scheduled to automatically close the garage every night at a certain time. The MyQ system is much more than a garage door opener.

MyQ is Considered the Best Garage Door Control

So why would this be better than HomeLink? That was a question repeated several times. MyQ is WiFi based so you can check in on it anywhere. There is also no need for the antenna. HomeLink is included with the Model S and Model X, but it's a $350 USD add-on for the Model 3 and Y.

Add MyQ Support to Existing Garage Doors

If you have an older garage door opener but still want to get in on MyQ, there is a MyQ device that, according to the company, makes any garage door opener a smart garage door opener. These are available at various retailers including Amazon, for roughly $20.

Elon Musk confirmed WiFi garage door support was coming back in 2020.

Integration

Tesla's integration of HomeLink into their vehicles is beautifully executed. You can have the vehicle automatically open or close your garage as you approach, never needing to touch a button. The vehicle uses your garage door's location and the vehicle's current position to determine when to open or close your garage door.

It's not clear whether Tesla will similarly integrate MyQ devices, but it certainly would make sense to have the ability to automatically trigger specific devices based on the vehicle's location. It could potentially open your garage door and turn on your hallway lights as you begin driving down your driveway.

Advantages Over HomeLink

MyQ support could have several advantages over HomeLink, besides being included for free. HomeLink currently requires proximity to the device to send the wireless signal, while MyQ could theoretically be executed anywhere in the world that has an internet connection.

HomeLink is also limited to a maximum of three devices, while the limit for MyQ will likely be much higher. However, the last improvement is actually the biggest deal. HomeLink is somewhat of a 'dumb' system, meaning it will send a signal to open/close your garage door, but it doesn't actually know the state of the garage door.

This can sometimes cause issues. For example, if you're arriving home and your garage door is already open, then your vehicle will still send the command to "open" the garage door, which in turn causes it to close.

Connection

Since MyQ requires an internet connection, we're not sure whether it'll only work on WiFi or over cellular. In all likelihood, it'll send the signal over cellular if it needs to, but it's not clear whether Tesla will require subscribing to their Premium Connectivity package in order to use it.

Update: Additional details have been discovered about Tesla's MyQ garage door support. Check out the latest information related to its integration, cost and supported vehicles.

Tesla Smoking While Supercharging? A Look at What's Actually Happening

Hot_Engineering3140 on Reddit

Winter is here, and temperatures are dropping, so one of the most common Tesla questions is about to resurface.

If you’ve landed here after frantically searching about “smoke” coming from your Tesla while Supercharging, take a deep breath—it’s completely normal.

Tesla Smoking While Charging

If you’re Supercharging in freezing weather—even with preconditioning—you might notice steam rising from your Tesla. But rest assured, your car isn’t smoking.

Your Tesla’s heat pump is hard at work warming both the cabin and battery to keep you comfortable and ensure optimal charging temperatures. Over time, condensation and ice build-up in the heat exchanger coils.

Why Does It Happen?

When you reach a Supercharger with your vehicle, the heat pump is still running hot, but without the cold air from driving to keep the heat exchanger coils cool, the ice and condensation quickly start to evaporate—creating what looks like smoke.

Since this typically happens near the front of the vehicle, where a car would traditionally have an engine, new vehicle owners can be startled by the discovery. However, rest assured that it’s just water vapor and it’s completely normal in cold weather.

In fact, this behavior can be experienced in any EV with a heat pump in cold climates. So, if you saw steam coming out of your vehicle and panicked, don’t worry—you’re not alone.

Now that you know what’s happening, go ahead and Supercharge with confidence.

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Tesla Improves YouTube App With Smoother Playback

Not a Tesla App

Tesla made a lot of improvements in the 2024 Holiday Update, including more than 15 undocumented improvements that were included in the release. One of these was a stealthy performance improvement to the YouTube app.

Several people have mentioned they’ve seen improved performance on YouTube since this year’s Holiday Update - and there’s an interesting reason why.

YouTube Improvements

The improved YouTube performance in Tesla vehicles comes from an unexpected source—Tesla actually rolled back support for YouTube’s newer AV1 video encoding. Instead, vehicles now default to the older VP9 encoding standard.

While AV1 is highly efficient in terms of bandwidth, it requires considerably more processing power to decode and display videos. VP9, on the other hand, is less computationally demanding but uses more bandwidth to achieve the same video quality. This trade-off means smoother playback and better overall performance, even if it comes at the cost of slightly higher data usage.

Intel Inside

The VP9 video codec that the YouTube app is now using is much easier to decode, making it less taxing on the vehicle’s processor. This change is particularly beneficial for Tesla vehicles with Intel processors, which previously struggled to stream video at just 720p. When using AV1, these vehicles often experienced stuttering, sometimes forcing the YouTube app to automatically downgrade playback to 480p.

With this update, Intel-based Teslas should now be able to stream at 1080p smoothly. Streaming at 1440p is also possible, although occasional stutters still occur as the system keeps up with the decoding process.

Intel-based vehicles are the big winners with this change, but this appears to affect AMD Ryzen-based infotainment units as well, providing even smoother playback.

Chromium Web App

Tesla’s Theater apps aren’t native applications; instead, they run as chromeless web apps, leveraging the open-source browser built into Teslas known as Chromium (the open-source version of Chrome). Although this works quite well, there is a severe limitation - Chromium hardware acceleration isn’t supported on Linux, the operating system Tesla uses for their OS.

As a result, Tesla vehicles rely on software decoding instead of hardware decoding, which would otherwise handle video playback far more efficiently. A potential solution could be for Tesla to transition away from Chromium-based web apps in favor of a Mozilla Firefox-based browser, as Firefox does support hardware acceleration on Linux. This switch could also open the door to better streaming performance and the possibility of expanding Tesla’s in-car entertainment options.

However, Tesla’s choice of Chromium likely stems from Digital Rights Management (DRM) requirements for streaming services like Disney+ and Netflix, which rely on DRM-enabled playback. Firefox on Linux has had inconsistent support for DRM due to codec availability and variations in operating system versions.

We’re hopeful that Tesla will either adopt Firefox or develop a fully native application to improve video streaming, rather than continuing with the current web-based Tesla Theater. This shift could also pave the way for additional in-car applications built on Tesla’s native Linux environment—perhaps even reviving the long-rumored Tesla App Store.

Regardless, this update is a welcome improvement, particularly for YouTube, which remains one of the most widely used Theater Mode apps due to its accessibility, free content, and mix of short and long-form videos. It remains to be seen whether similar improvements are made for Netflix, Disney+, or other streaming platforms.

If you’ve noticed improved performance in Theater Mode, now you know why.

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