Tesla v11 software has huge UI update with drag strip and quick controls

March 22, 2021

By Nuno Cristovao

Over the past few years Tesla has released a major version of their car's software every year (v10 update, v9 update). This year we have been anticipating version 11. Elon Musk has teased it several times and has said that it will include features we've been wanting and features we didn't know we wanted.

The past few Tesla releases have been unusual and have only contained minor changes and bug fixes as Tesla appears to be keeping features in v11 hidden.

The anticipation has been building and now it looks like v11 has been leaked on a redesigned Model S test vehicle.

A major focus of this release appears to be personalization. When examining the UI, a lot of the elements appear to be customizable, where a user could possibly choose which icons or apps they'd like to show up. Elon Musk has previously tweeted that Tesla would allow multiple layouts in the future. He could have been hinting at these features in v11.

In the first image we can see this new tile-like interface, where you will presumingly be able to select which tiles you'd like to appear. For example, you may choose to have Music, Car Visualizations, Maps, Calendar, Energy Graph and many others. It'll be interesting to see how many choices Tesla really offers here and how they adapt this to other vehicles.

When we take a closer look at the bottom bar which normally houses a consistent car navigation and is the main way to get to climate controls, seat heaters and other apps, it looks like this will also become customizable. From the image we can see that the nav no longer takes up the full width of the screen and that in this image the seat heaters are right next to one another, which is very different from what Tesla has offered in the past.

There are now many apps and features in Tesla vehicles where some of them now require multiple taps to get to, and making this navigation customizable makes a lot of sense. For example if a user relies on the Phone app heavily, they will now be able to access it with one-tap instead of two. Like-wise, if you don't live in a cold climate, it's almost silly to have seat heaters and the rear window defroster take up multiple spaces in this prime real estate area.

We have recently seen buttons removed or moved around in recent updates. One such example is that the Voice Commands button has been removed and is currently only accessible through the buttons on the steering wheel, leaving the passenger without a way to use voice commands. We expect this button to return with v11.

The former top strip which contained car information and quick actions such as the time, Bluetooth, HomeLink and other functions have been moved and appear as a vertical strip on the left side of the screen.

It looks like right beneath this, we will see another big feature which appears to be a "Quick Menu," which will allow you to access the car's most often used features. Upon tapping it you will be presented with quick-function buttons such as lock car, open frunk, open glove box, display brightness, mirror and steering wheel adjustments and others.

Some of these features were fairly accessible before, but others required digging through the Car Controls menu, so this should make changing some settings much quicker. There doesn't appear to be a clear indication in this menu, but given the same square tile-like buttons, we would also expect these tiles to be customizable.

We also get a quick-peek at some of the other car menus. It looks like this particular version of the car (remember this is a refreshed Model S, but unclear whether it's Plaid or not), will also feature a "Drag Strip Mode." It's not clear which models this will apply to but it appears to be a new launch control system.

Continuing looking at this menu, a few other things stick out. We can see there is an option for "Smart Shift," which will allow the car to shift into drive or reverse for you. We knew this feature would be included in the refreshed Model S / X, but it's certainly possible that Tesla will bring this feature to all existing AP 2+ vehicles. We wouldn't necessarily expect it, but it's certainly possible. We also recently discovered how this feature will work.

We also see that there is a new option to turn on/off "Media on Drive," which gives you control whether you'd like the media player to automatically open when you put the car into drive.

The menu on the left looks very familiar with some minor changes. We no longer have the Quick Settings option at the top, which the Quick Menu from the home screen seems to have replaced. We also see a new "Trips," tab, which could be for more precise navigation settings, and possibly allowing for multi-stop destinations (way-points), which Elon Musk said was coming last September.

There are sure to be many more features included in this huge v11 release, but these are the major features we can see looking through these few images.

Some of these features will be slightly different on other vehicles as Tesla has to adapt them to work on a vertical screen for previous Model S / X vehicles and also make adjustments for the Model 3 / Y which need to include car visualizations on the main display.

We are all super excited for this highly anticipated release which appears to focus heavily on personalization.

In 2019 Tesla released v10, which included many new features such as Tesla Theater and many others. You can view the full list of v10 features here. The year before Tesla released v9 that contained major updates such as Navigate on Autopilot, Dashcam and many others as well.

From what we have seen so far, v11 appears to be just a feature packed. We can not wait.

Update: Tesla released v11 of their software and many other new features in the 2021 Holiday Update. The holiday update was released with version 2021.44.25.

You Can Now Track Tesla’s Robotaxi Deployment

June 15, 2025

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

Thanks to Tesla Yoda on X, we have found out that Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet is registered on the Texas Department of Transportation’s public-facing Automated Vehicle Deployment website. This makes the fleet’s movements publicly viewable and trackable, and marks a first for Tesla.

This isn’t just any old FSD test - this is the first officially acknowledged, government-tracked, and sanctioned deployment of a Tesla Model Y operating as a ride-share vehicle. But that’s not all - Texas DOT’s tracker notes that the Tesla does not have a safety driver.

View on the Map

Visitors to the Texas DOT website can filter for “Tesla”, and see, currently, a single active vehicle operating in the Austin Metro area. According to the state’s official data, here’s what we know:

Company: Tesla

Description: Ride-share service

Status in Texas: Testing

Safety Driver: No

The final point is definitely the most significant here. While Tesla has been testing FSD with safety drivers for some time in Austin and LA for employee-only testing, this is the first time that a vehicle has been officially registered and deployed on public roads without a human behind the wheel for safety.

The fact that there is no safety driver officially shifts the liability from the occupant of the driver’s seat to Tesla, for the first time in a public setting. That’s already pretty significant - we previously dove into how Tesla plans to insure its own vehicles, and potentially owner vehicles in the Robotaxi fleets.

The status currently lists Tesla as “Testing,” confirming that the service isn’t available to the public, but this is expected to change in the coming weeks.

This testing phase is likely part of a short but crucial period that lets Tesla capture data on the safety levels of its current iteration of Unsupervised FSD without a driver supervising. Tesla already stated that they’d be avoiding difficult areas, so this testing can also expose additional areas Tesla may want to avoid, such as school zones or blind driveways.

Tesla will need to prove, both internally and externally, that FSD Unsupervised has the necessary performance to safely navigate the streets without any incidents.

Regulatory Milestone

For years, the concept of a Tesla Robotaxi has been a future promise. Now, it's a present-day reality, albeit in a testing capacity.

Having an official government body list a Tesla as an active, driverless vehicle shows that they’ve been able to clear regulatory hurdles, which Tesla has often pointed to as the issue. It demonstrates a level of confidence from both Tesla and Texas regulators in the system's capabilities.

While it's just a single vehicle for today, we’ll likely see this list slowly expand over time. Alongside being able to track Robotaxi incidents at the City of Austin’s website, we’ll be able to closely watch Tesla’s progress with its first Robotaxi deployments.

Tesla FSD in Europe: June Update

June 14, 2025

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

The road to bringing FSD to Europe has been a long and complex one and filled with regulatory and bureaucratic hurdles. Elon Musk, as well as other members of Tesla’s AI team, have previously voiced their grievances with the regulatory approval process on X.

However, it appears that there is finally some progress in getting things moving with recent changes to upcoming autonomy regulations, but the process still seems slow.

Waiting on the Dutch

Elon commented on X recently, stating that Tesla is waiting for approval from Dutch authorities and then the EU to start rolling out FSD in Europe. Tesla is focusing on acquiring approvals from the Dutch transportation authority, which will provide them with the platform they need to gain broader acceptance in Europe. Outside of the Netherlands, Tesla is also conducting testing in Norway, which provides a couple of avenues for them to obtain national-level approval.

The frustration has been ongoing, with multiple committee meetings bringing up autonomy regulation but always pulling back at the last second before approving anything. The last meeting on Regulation 157, which governs Automated Lane Keeping Systems, concluded with authorities from the UK and Spain requesting additional time to analyze the data before reaching a conclusion.

Tesla, as well as Elon, have motioned several times for owners to reach out to their elected representatives to move the process forward, as it seems that Tesla’s own efforts are being stymied.

This can seem odd, especially since Tesla has previously demoed FSD working exceptionally smoothly on European roads - and just did it again in Rome when they shared the video below on X.

FSD Supervised testing in Rome, Italy

Pending regulatory approval pic.twitter.com/TXh3uQIfrx
— Tesla Europe & Middle East (@teslaeurope) June 12, 2025

DCAS Phase 3

While the approval process has been slow, Kees Roelandschap pointed out that there may be a different regulatory step that could allow FSD to gain a foothold in Europe.

According to Kees, the European Commission is now taking a new approach to approving ADAS systems under the new DCAS Phase 3 regulations. The Commission is now seeking data from systems currently operational in the United States that can perform System-Initiated Maneuvers and don’t require hands-on intervention for every request.

This is key because those are two of the core functionalities that make FSD so usable, and it also means that there may not be a need to wait years for proper regulations to be written from scratch. Now, the Commission will be looking at real-world data based on existing, deployed technology, which could speed up the process immensely.

What This Means

This new, data-driven regulatory approach could be the path for Tesla to reach its previous target of September for European FSD. While the cogs of bureaucracy are ever slow, sometimes all it takes is a little data to have them turn a bit faster in this case.

Alongside specific countries granting approval for limited field testing with employees, there is some light at the end of the tunnel for FSD in Europe, and hopes are that a release will occur by the end of 2025. With Europe now looking to North America for how FSD is performing, Tesla’s Robotaxi results could also play a role.