Tesla has pushed its ‘holiday update’ and it enables owners to turn their cars into a boombox, as well as a few other improvements.
As we have been reporting over the last few weeks, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been teasing a ‘fire’ holiday update to be pushed over-the-air to Tesla’s fleet before the end of 2020.
Earlier this week, we reported that it included 3 new in-car video games, but we now have the full release notes with all the details.
Arguably, the main new feature of the update (2020.48.25)) is this ‘Boombox‘ mode, which enables you to play sounds through your vehicle’s external speakers.
Tesla writes in the release notes:
“Turn your car into a boombox and entertain a crowd with your media play when parked. You can als customize the sound that your car makes when you press the horn, drive the car or when your car is moving with Summon. Select an option from the dropdown menu or insert your own USB device and save up to five custom sounds.”
This a something that Musk has been teasing for a while after Tesla added a pedestrian warning system to the Model 3 as per regulatory requirements for quiet vehicles in the US and Europe.
Last year, Tesla released an update to Model 3 for an audible tone to play when the vehicle is moving slowly (up to 19 mph) in either drive or reverse.
After being forced to add such a system, which is controversial amongst electric vehicle owners, Tesla decided to build this new feature using the speakers.
The new update also includes ‘Driving Visualization Improvements‘:
The driving visualization has been refreshed and now offers a larger visualization to allow drivers to view more details of the road surroundings. The next turn will now appear above the visualization if the navigation turn list is covered by another app.
Additionally, select items have slightly moved but will continue to look and behave the same. Some notable differences include the following:
– Quick access to the backup camera and wipers has moved to the bottom bar
– Indicator lights have been moved to the side of the touchscreen
Autopilot set speed, Autopilot availability, and ‘detected speed limit are now displayed next to the driving speed.
Those changes can be seen on the image featured above and you can see more details in a video at the bottom.
Tesla has also made improvements to ‘Scheduled Departure‘ in the new software update.
The automaker wrote in the release notes:
Scheduled Departure can now precondition your battery and cabin even when your car is unplugged. To account for the different utility rate plans, you can now set the time when your off-peak rates end to save on charging costs. To access, tap SCHEDULE from the climate control or charging panel when parked.
With the new update, Tesla has also made ‘Supercharger Display Improvements‘:
Supercharger pins on your touchscreen will now display the number of available stalls at charging sites. Quickly search for nearby amenities by tapping an amenity icon on the Supercharger popup display.
Tesla has also removed the clickable ‘T’ logo that would bringing you your vehicle information and software update, but you can now access those through ‘Controls > Software’.
Finally, the way that Tesla displays the release notes has been changed to a single page listing all the different changes, which owners can click for the details of each change.
Everyday Tesla on Youtube did an hour-long live walkthrough of all the features in the new update if you want to see what the changes look like:
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