How to Check If Tesla has Garage Door Opener and How to Program It

December 3, 2021

By Nuno Cristovao

Teslas have the ability to automatically open your garage door as you’re approaching your home. They can also automatically close it as you’re leaving.

They do this by combining the GPS signal with the HomeLink module that opens your garage door.

How to Tell If Your Tesla Has HomeLink

All Teslas are capable of opening garage doors using HomeLink, however not every Tesla comes equipped with the HomeLink module.

If you have a Model S or Model X, then your car already has the capability to open your garage door.

If you have another model, then whether it’s included in your car will vary. Model 3s included HomeLink only up until Spring of 2019. It then became an option that would be installed after delivery through Tesla service. All Model Ys do not have it installed unless it was installed after delivery.

However, the easiest way to tell if your car has a garage door opener is to check on the car’s display. You can go to Controls > Software then tap on Additional Vehicle Information.

This will bring up a screen that will display several important details about your vehicle and the hardware it includes.

The screen will display which full self-driving computer hardware is installed, your infotainment processor and more. It will also display whether you have the HomeLink garage door opener hardware installed.

Next to ‘Garage door opener’, you will either see ‘Not installed,’ or ‘HomeLink 5 (Opt 2).’ The number may vary, but it will mean that you have the HomeLink module installed and your car is capable of opening garage doors.

Program HomeLink Garage Door Opener

If you have a garage door opener in your Tesla, then you can program the car to automatically open the garage door when you pull up to the house.

You can also operate the doors individually through the car’s interface and even operate the main garage door through the Tesla app.

To program your car you’ll need the remote that came with your garage door opener, or easy access to the garage door motor in your garage.

If you’re programming the car using the button on the garage door opener motor, make sure you have plenty of space and a good step ladder because you’ll need to complete the operation in a certain amount of time. If someone is available to help, that will make the process much easier.

To get started you’ll tap on the HomeLink icon along the top of your Tesla’s screen that looks like a house with an arrow then tap HomeLink Settings.

This brings up the HomeLink screen which allows you to add various garage doors or compatible accessories such as lights or gates.

Start by tapping on Add New HomeLink then enter a name for this garage door, such as ‘Left Garage’ and then tap Create HomeLink.

Standard Mode or D-Mode

You’ll next be presented to set the HomeLink transmit mode. The mode you need to pick will depend on your location and method you’re using to program your car.

Standard Mode - This is the most common mode. If you’re unsure of which to use, you should start with this one, as it’s the simplest to set up. This option requires the use of your garage door remote.

D-Mode - D-mode is usually used in North America. You’ll want to use D-mode if you’re using the ‘Learn’ or ‘Smart’ button on your garage door opener motor.

UR-Mode - UR-mode is similar to D-mode but it’s a standard that’s usually found in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. It’ll also require you to use the ‘Learn’ button on your garage door opener motor.

Set your preferred mode and tap Set Mode.

Next, you’ll want to make sure your car is parked in front of your garage. The car uses this location to determine when to open your garage door when arriving home.

Later you’ll then be able to set how many feet before reaching this location should the car send the signal to open your garage.

Programming With Standard Mode

Get ready to program your car and tap Start. You’ll now want to go outside of your car with your garage door remote and point it at the front bumper closer to the passenger side.

Now press and hold the button that opens your garage door on the remote and keep it pressed. It can take up to 30 seconds to program. Your car’s lights will flash when it’s complete. Keep in mind that your garage door will open or close when you do this, so make sure there is nothing in the way.

Once you see your headlights flash, that means the car was successfully able to record the signal from your remote.

When you go back in your vehicle you should see that the recording was completed and you’re prompted to tap next to continue.

If you’re using Standard Mode, the next step will vary depending on whether your remote is QuickTrain compatible or not.

If your remote is QuickTrain compatible or doesn’t use a rolling code then you can tap Continue, if it’s not either of those, then you’ll be required to press the ‘Learn’ button on your garage door opener motor.

If you’re not sure, you can try pressing continue and see if HomeLink works. If it doesn’t work then you know your remote is not QuickTrain compatible.

Programming With D-Mode or UR-Mode

If you’re using D-Mode or UR-Mode to program your car you will need easy access to the garage door opener motor.

The car will ask you to press the Learn or Smart button on the garage door motor. It’ll be a small button that may be behind a cover or door. It’s usually a bright color such as orange, red, yellow or purple, but it can be any color.

After pressing the button you will need to go back to the car in a short period of time and tap continue. This is to prevent unauthorized use of your garage door.

Testing the Button

After programming your garage door the car will ask you to test it.

The car will have you test the garage door button in the car to see if it works and you’ll be given a chance to go back and choose a different option if it didn’t work the first time.

Once you have your garage doors opening from the car and tap save, you can set various options for the garage door.

Auto Fold Mirrors

This option will cause your car to fold its mirrors right before arriving at your garage. Keep in mind this may make backing out of your garage a little more difficult. Only use this option if you need to.

Auto Open When Arriving

Teslas will combine your GPS signal with your HomeLink transmitter and auto open your garage doors as you’re approaching your house.

This is a really convenient feature and I’d recommend having it on as long as your garage door has the safety sensors at the bottom that will prevent it from closing if anything is in the way.

You can also choose the number of feet away from your garage when the car should send the signal to open it.

It’s nice to have your garage door fully open before you get to it so that you don’t need to stop and wait. However, the number of feet that is right for you will depend on your garage door opener and how far away it could receive a signal.

I’d also recommend having your garage door in view so that for those rare times when you come home and the garage door is already open. This will cause your car to send another ‘open’ signal, causing your garage door to start closing.

It's important to understand that the car has no way to know whether your garage door is open or closed, and unfortunately HomeLink simply sends an "open/close" signal, which causes the garage door to open if it’s closed or close if it’s opened. Some caution is necessary, but the feature works well, especially when you’re arriving home.

Tesla recommends only using the auto-open or auto-close features when your garage door is installed with safety sensors along the bottom.

Keep in mind that the car determines the location of your garage door based on where your car was when you programmed the garage door. The location can be reset at any time.

Auto Close When Leaving

This is the opposite of ‘Auto Open when Arriving’. Your car will automatically send a signal to close your garage door when you’re leaving home.

We do need to be cautious with these features as they’re not discrete open and close signals and they just tell the garage door to switch position.

Reset Location

If you weren’t in front of your garage door when you programmed it, then your car has the wrong location for your garage door. Choosing ‘reset location’ when in front of your garage door will cause the car to change the location of your garage to its current position.

You’ll need to do this for each garage door.

Chime for Auto-Open and Auto-Close

On the HomeLink settings screen you can also set whether you’d like the car to chime before auto opening or auto closing the garage door.

This will have the car make a short ding sound before auto opening or auto closing your garage doors. It’s a little reminder that the garage door is open to move. It also gives you a chance to cancel the auto opening or auto closing procedure before it starts. You’ll see the HomeLink menu come up with a cancel button when this happens.

Limited to 3 Garages or Devices

The HomeLink module that Tesla uses is limited to three HomeLink devices. Unfortunately, this is a limitation of the module itself and not something that Tesla can change.

Add or Install Garage Door Opener in Your Tesla

If you have a Tesla Model 3 or Model Y that does not have the garage door opener, then you can purchase it separately directly from Tesla.

Unfortunately, it can’t be purchased when you buy the car and it needs to be bought and installed by Tesla service after delivery.

The cost for the parts and installation are $325.

If Tesla offers mobile service in your area then it's a convenient and painless process.

Set Which Garage Door Opens In App

In the Tesla app there is a HomeLink icon that will open your garage door. Unfortunately, this button can only be assigned to one garage door.

There is no way to have your Tesla open the other garage doors programmed in the vehicle, however you can pick which garage door to open when you press the HomeLink icon in the Tesla app.

The following procedure requires you to have Enhanced Autopilot (EAP) or FSD. If you go in your car and go to Controls > Autopilot then tap on Summon you’ll be presented with Summon details.

To choose your garage door, tap HomeLink then pick your garage door. You can then turn HomeLink off again. Keep in mind that if you use Summon with HomeLink enabled then you are telling the car which garage door to open before backing out of the garage.

If you do not have EAP or FSD, then you may have to change the order of your garage doors in order to change the one that opens when pressing the HomeLink icon.

Tesla Updates Robotaxi App: Adds Smarter Pickups and Adds Arrow for Finding Robotaxi

July 21, 2025

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

Following the first major service area expansion, Tesla is already pushing another update to the Robotaxi app and service as a whole. The new version includes more quality-of-life improvements, and most importantly, a big change to Robotaxi’s pickup logic that makes the entire experience much smoother.

Robotaxi App Update

This latest update is another one focused on polishing the user experience before Tesla adds more vehicles to the fleet and more riders to the network. The most significant change here is that Robotaxi will now navigate more dynamically. Instead of strictly travelling to the designated pickup point, the vehicle will stop where you are or navigate directly to you if you are nearby, making the pickup just that much easier.

Tesla also introduced a small batch of improvements to improve the app, which is still only available for early testers. First up is a vehicle finder arrow - which is shown in the Robotaxi app to help you find your approaching or parked Robotaxi.

This should be a big help in crowded situations, as visually distinguishing a Model Y Robotaxi from a Robotaxi Model Y is nearly impossible, barring the small Robotaxi logos and lack of a driver.

Tesla has also added in automatic dark/light mode switching to match system settings and some other minor design tweaks and bug fixes. It seems that Tesla is close to their final iterations on the Robotaxi app and will hopefully add it to the official app stores soon. However, an Android version is still MIA, and using the Robotaxi itself is still also limited to invitees, so Tesla may be waiting for those to be available before adding the app to the Apple App Store.

The full release notes for this 25.7.6 app update are listed as:

I am pointing the way! Find your vehicle with an arrow
Automatic light/dark mode setting to follow the system
Design tweaks
Bug fixes

This will be huge and make summon even better.

I didn't get to fully test it, but Robotaxi no longer strictly navigates to the pickup point. I noticed it stops right where I am if I am ahead of the pickup point.

In this video it's supposed to go to the valet, yet it stopped… https://t.co/tGR2064gB2 pic.twitter.com/p3dssaKEhf
— Owen Sparks (@OwenSparks_) July 21, 2025

A Better Summon?

The most exciting part of the update isn’t the piece for Robotaxi - but what it implies for Smart Summon instead. The new dynamic pickup logic could be a huge improvement to how Summon works. At the end of the day, it is exceptionally similar - homing in on the user or a targeted location, and then parking nearby.

Summon currently requires a line of sight, and the range is exceptionally limited, meaning you can’t use it in most larger parking lots without having to walk out halfway to meet the vehicle. It’s also slow enough that by the time you get your vehicle rolling - even with Summon Standby active - you’ll probably have walked most of the way there yourself.

A true come-to-me Summon feature that can navigate both city streets and parking lots is definitely the goalpost for customer vehicles - one that doesn’t need to be directly supervised. Robotaxi is the first real-world deployment of the same technology that future builds of Smart Summon will eventually run on.

Sometime in the near future, you’ll be able to Summon your Tesla directly to you - having it navigate the streets from wherever it found parking. All the learnings from Robotaxi are going to come fast - and they’ll all be amazing to finally get on customer cars.

Tesla Robotaxi FSD Improvements Coming to Customer Vehicles; Global Rollout Update

July 21, 2025

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

After months of no updates, Elon Musk has announced that Tesla will soon release a new FSD update, in what he’s calling a “step change improvement,” so expectations will be high for this one. The biggest change is that Tesla is merging in the changes they’ve been making for Robotaxi FSD into the consumer software branch.

Elon also provided an update on the rollout of Robotaxi to additional US cities like San Francisco, as well as FSD for other regions like Europe and China. Let’s dig in - as this is some of the most exciting FSD-related news we’ve seen in a while.

Next FSD Update

For the millions of Tesla owners using various versions of FSD (Supervised), whether on HW3 or HW4, it has been months since the last update

However, the Tesla AI team isn’t standing still. They’ve been making constant improvements to the Robotaxi version of FSD, so hearing that Tesla will integrate that version into FSD Supervised is certainly exciting.

The FSD update is expected to include a 4.5x increase in parameters, as well as better memory management and improved caching for better reaction times.

Musk says that Tesla still needs to validate that the improvements they’ve made for Austin in particular don’t cause regressions elsewhere. Regression testing is a necessary step when training neural nets, as they can learn and unlearn things extremely rapidly, as one new behavior can cause a regression in another.

We need to validate that improvements for Austin don’t cause regressions elsewhere.

For Europe and China, we are awaiting regulatory approval. Hopefully, soon🤞
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 20, 2025

How The Rollout Will Work

Essentially, we’re at a good spot here. The fact that Tesla is now working on merging Robotaxi FSD into FSD Supervised is a good sign, even if there’s work to be done. We expect these builds to go out to the FSD testing fleet (not the Robotaxi validation testers we’ve seen throughout Texas). These dedicated testers will make sure there are no regressions - and once they give the thumbs up, the standard rollout process begins. Given that the Robotaxis are running HW4 and Tesla is merging Robotaxi FSD into FSD Supervised, we expect this to be an HW4-only rollout.

Once validation is complete, Tesla will likely roll out the update to employees, followed by early access influencers (and potentially also Early Access Program members). Once it is in their hands and we see good progress there, it’ll begin rolling out to customers en masse.

Elon commented on X last night, saying they’re looking good for Q3 release, which puts us in the September timeframe.

Global Rollout Status

Elon also provided an update on two other items - launching Robotaxi in other cities, and launching FSD into other markets - and made it clear that the next hurdle isn’t on Tesla, it is on regulatory approval. Bureaucratic red tape seems to be the biggest obstacle to Tesla’s autonomy ambitions lately - but it is progressing well in some regions, such as Australia.

For the Bay Area, as well as potentially other cities that Tesla is considering, such as Phoenix, Arizona, approval is pending from regulators. Elon mentioned that regulators were being reasonable, which isn’t something we hear often.

As soon as the regulators approve (they are being quite reasonable tbh)
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 20, 2025

For other markets, including China (for HW3 vehicles) and Europe, the red tape is still in place. Both of these markets have big regulatory hurdles that Tesla needs to overcome. In China’s case, every new update must be validated with the government, which takes additional time. In Europe’s case, we’re still awaiting the green light from UNECE regulators to approve autonomous vehicles on European roads.

Elon provided a much-needed update on FSD and Robotaxi, one that we hadn’t had in a long time. Current users can look forward to what is likely a major capability boost, sourced from Robotaxi in Austin, while those outside of North America now have some additional hope that FSD may arrive before the end of 2025.