Tesla V11 Changes Coming: May lead to best UI yet

Version 11 of Tesla's software was one of the most anticipated releases over the past year.

V11 improvements are coming

When it finally arrived last week in the holiday update, it offered a clean interface with customizable buttons and a bunch of new features.

However, when decluttering the UI, Tesla put many options that were accessible with a single tap behind menus, causing some core features to take two or more taps.

This makes some features less obvious and takes the driver's eyes off the road for a longer period. For core car functions that you may use while driving, requiring two taps to turn a feature on isn't ideal.

Overall, v11 provided a cleaner, more modern interface that was mostly well-received, but it had its fair share of criticism.

The majority of the criticism involved two areas, removal of features from the top status bar such as the Driver's Profile button, and removal of features from the launcher bar, like seat heaters and window defrost.

These features are still available, but now require multiple taps to check their status or turn on, as opposed to just glancing at the screen or tapping a button.

All UI changes take some time to get used to them. Over the years we've built muscle memory on how to turn on and off various car features, and we almost instinctively knew where to tap with just a glance.

If we're driving and a button isn't where we expect it to be, there could be some annoyance or frustration.

Tesla has developed and added many features over the past year. It felt like it was time for the UI and menus to be reconsolidated.

I understand that not everyone needs seat heaters where they live, and maybe they don't need access to driver profiles if they're the only driver of the vehicle, but others may need quick access to these functions.

I think if you go into the situation understanding that some vehicles are driven by multiple members of the same family and that the car doesn't always select the correct profile, then it's easy to understand that hiding the active driver profile behind the Controls menu isn't intuitive.

V11 Improvements Coming

Tesla has heard everyone loud and clear. We now have multiple reports that improvements are coming.

The improvements will focus on the top status bar and the bottom launcher.

Many items were removed from the status bar, such as WiFi/cellular connection, driver profiles, Sentry Mode, Dashcam, HomeLink, and Bluetooth.

Some of these can be considered settings, such as Bluetooth and they're likely to remain in the Controls menu.

HomeLink, in my opinion has found a better spot on the bottom left of the screen in the Model 3/Y and will only show up when you're close to home.

This prevents the HomeLink menu from appearing on top of the reverse camera image when backing out of a garage, which is a nice improvement.

However, I would expect other settings to return to the status bar, with the biggest offender being Driver Profiles.

Tesla may also add back connection information, Sentry Mode, and Dashcam.

Tesla may even let you personalize the top status bar and pick exactly which options you'd like to appear, with most of them being hidden by default.

App Launcher

One of the biggest changes in v11 was the app launcher. With it came a great new feature; the ability to customize which apps appear in the launcher. Again, not everyone needs heated seats, or window defrost so this was a welcome feature for many.

However, to make room for customizable icons and provide more direct access to your preferred music choices, some functions were removed. The problem is that there is no way to add back the functions that were removed.

So although we're now able to customize the launcher, owners are not able to add back some of the features that were previously available.

Seat heaters are now two taps away, instead of one. And data that was once glanceable, such as whether the window defroster is on, now requires the driver to go into a menu.

The good news is that Tesla is listening and that changes are coming to the launcher.

In fact, because of the v11 shortcomings, we may end up with a much better product than was initially planned.

Will Fealey, the president of a Tesla Facebook group compiled a list of owner criticisms. After sending them to a couple of his contacts at Tesla, he heard back from Tesla saying that Tesla is not only listening, but the team is already working on concepts on how to improve the launcher.

According to Will, the concept will let you add new controls to the app launcher, such as seat heaters, dashcam, windshield wipers, and more.

Tesla has taken all the feedback that I gave them yesterday regarding V11 and they've sat down with the relevant teams (presumably in the US) and I'm pleased to feedback the following to you all:

Points 1-3: The team do understand that many users want to be able to adjust [demister, heated seats, profile, dash camera etc] manually, so the team are working on a concept that allows you to customise the bottom bar further with actions like this. This is getting worked on.

Point 4: The team acknowledge we definitely still need to improve British voice recognition. The team will circle back around on this topic.

Points 5-6 [MCU1 / MCU2 differences with V11]: There are nuances to different hardware variants which do impact the release of particular features. This means there will always differences on the features available based on the age/hardware of the vehicle. Tesla thanked us all for the continued feedback and they will share further details when they can.

Thank you Tesla for listening to your owners Regards,

Will Fealey

Tesla Owners UK Club President

Since Tesla is looking at the concept of adding controls to the app launcher, we may gain the ability to add numerous new control options that could be pinned to the launcher.

These new buttons in the launcher can give you direct access to certain menus like Charging or Trips or let you add a voice commands button for passenger use.

Tesla v11 UI

It could even give you direct access to options like the parking brake, HomeLink buttons, the ability to open the glovebox with one tap, and more.

Elon Confirms Changes Coming

Elon has also confirmed that changes to the v11 update are coming. On Twitter he has said that UI improvements are coming.

Many UI improvements coming

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 30, 2021

Understandably, Tesla owners would like certain features they had quick access to back as soon as possible. However, developing a proper solution that offers even greater flexibility than before will take some time.

I wouldn't expect any changes in a point release of 2021.44, but we may start to see some changes in the first major release of 2022.

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Is Tesla Planning to Add Steam Support to All Vehicles?

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.

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Tesla Holiday Update Weather Features: All the Small Details

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.

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