Tesla is building more features geared for car-sharing, now cloud-based driver profiles are coming, says Musk

We have recently seen Tesla introduce several more features geared toward Tesla Network, the automaker’s upcoming car-sharing network, like the Model 3’s key card and phone-based unlocking system and the cabin-facing camera.

Now CEO Elon Musk announced another feature apparently geared toward car-sharing: cloud-based driver profiles.

In Model S and Model X, Tesla has a driver profile function that lets the vehicle adjust several settings based on who is driving the car.

It’s mainly to adjust the driver’s seat, driver’s side view mirror, and steering wheel, but it also remembers several smaller setting options, like unit formats or steering and regenerative braking modes.

Those driver profiles can be chosen from the center screen or linked to a key fob.

But now Musk says that they will be in the cloud, or more accurately Tesla’s servers, in order for “any Tesla you drive in the world automatically adjusts to you”:

We are going to move all info and settings to the "cloud" (aka server) so any Tesla you drive in the world automatically adjusts to you

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 20, 2017

To be fair, it could be used for more than just Tesla Network. The feature could also be useful for Tesla owners who have more than one Tesla or even when an owner gets a loaner vehicle while their car is in service, but the feature certainly has more important implications for car-sharing.

Tesla has been talking about its car-sharing network, sometimes referred to as ‘Tesla Network’, since launching its Autopilot 2.0 hardware suite last year.

Not much is known about the upcoming new service, but the automaker expects that future software updates will enable full self-driving capability on the hardware and Tesla Network has been linked to the autonomous driving effort. It would create an electric self-driving ride-sharing network – something that has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of traveling per mile and compete with car ownership itself.

In the note about the full self-driving capability option on Tesla’s online configurator, the company says that it will release more details about Tesla Network next year.

In the meantime, we are certainly starting to see more and more features apparently geared toward the upcoming service.