Foxconn, a major assembler of the iPhone, announced plans to build EV manufacturing plants in the US and Thailand next year, with mass production scheduled for 2023. With this move, Foxconn looks to leap from the slowing wave of smartphone manufacturing to the tidal surge of EV demand.
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The Jeda Wireless Pad is a just-released wireless charging option for the Tesla Model 3. Like the Nomad Wireless Charger that I reviewed last year, the Jeda Wireless Pad is Qi-enabled, meaning it can charge both iPhones and Android phones that comply with the Qi wireless charging standard.
As someone who’s been using the Nomad Wireless Charger for the last four months, I was keen on seeing how Jeda’s latest interpretation of wireless charger compared. How does it stack up? Watch our hands-on video review for the details.
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In version 3.3.3 of the Tesla iOS app, released today, Siri integration now works with the Model 3.
The changelog states that it’s only “minor fixes and improvements,” but I’d argue that this is more than just a minor improvement.
Tesla has had Siri integration for the Model S and X since November, but this is the first time it’s been possible to control the Model 3 with Siri. This merely gives access to much of the information and controls which are currently available in the Tesla app, but it’s still nice to be able to use many features of the app without having to launch it.
Tesla last night posted 11 “howto” videos showing how to use the giant capacitive touch display in the middle of the center console as well as the smartphone app. Veteran Model S owners will find them mostly repetitive but there might be some nuggets of wisdom inside. However, new and prospective owners need to see all of them to understand how the car works. See all embedded below:
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Earlier this year at CES, Seth and I had the opportunity to test drive the new Chevy Volt hybrid (okay, I actually just held the camera in the back seat) which has one of the best CarPlay screen we’ve seen yet. Check out our hands-on experience with the Volt’s very nice display from our test drive below …
As Electrek covers, the automobile landscape is clearly changing with electric vehicles replacing gas-powered cars, autonomous features potentially replacing drivers, and iPhone-maker Apple developing an EV of its own. But Porsche wants no part in that future says CEO Oliver Blume. Reuters reports that Blume told German media this week essentially that a Porsche is meant to be driven, and an iPhone is meant for your pocket, not the road:
“One wants to drive a Porsche by oneself,” Blume said in an interview with regional newspaper Westfalen-Blatt published on Monday.
“An iPhone belongs in your pocket, not on the road,” Blume added, saying that Porsche did not need to team up with any big technology companies.
While Blume was using the iPhone line largely to explain away the need for computerized vehicles and embrace the nature of high-performance cars like Porsches, it’s a curious one as the new 911 features Apple’s CarPlay …
Since Tesla launched the Model S in 2012, the automaker has been talking about releasing a software development kit (SDK) to create a full third-party app ecosystem for its 17-inch touchscreen, which acts as a center console for the Model S and X, but despite several inquiries from eager app developers, there has been little communication about the project until now.
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Just barely in time for Christmas, Tesla updated its online store to add new apparels and accessories, including new iPhone 6 and 6 plus leather cases/wallets. If you have a Tesla enthusiast on your Christmas list, this might be your best last-minute shot for a holiday gift.
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Stephen Colbert, on his popular Late Nite television show, discussed the Tesla V7 software update and the ability of the car to “drive itself”. Colbert noted driving his Tesla into Manhattan and how the autopilot would improve that. Additionally he noted that a lot of billionaires are working on self driving cars including Google’s founders and guests Apple CEO Tim Cook, Tesla CEO Elon Musk of course and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.
The spot was a great one for Tesla, shining a light on its ability to upgrade cars through software and putting a very positive and funny spin on autonomous driving. Watch the video clip on Youtube below:
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Those who updated their Tesla Model S app today are seeing a new red button in the upper right hand side called “From Elon”.
Clicking that button brings up the text of the announcement of the affiliate program which we covered last month (full text). From there you can “choose friends” from your contacts list to send invites to set up a Model S and soon a Model X with including your unique affiliate code.
What’s even cooler is that the leaders globally (currently leader is Bjorn from Norway) and local leaders (I’m tied for 1st with 1 in my area!) are also listed, see below.
Oh and don’t forget to get your $1000 off Model S here using my link.
Tesla’s Model S (or a wrecked one) got the IHS Supply teardown treatment and if you are wondering what makes the car tick, it is a worthy watch/read (PDF). Notably Tesla “really wanted to do things differently and employed virtual controls—rather than physical knobs and buttons—to take over the user experience. This approach required a major investment in big displays and touch panels, similar to the approach Apple took when designing the iPhone and iPad.”
It is no secret the NVidia processor runs the display and the center stack. Other notables:
| INNOLUX CORP (Chi Mei) | Display – Premium Media Control | |
| NVIDIA CORPORATION | Visual Computing Modules – Media Control and Instrument Cluster | |
| JAPAN DISPLAY INC | Display – Instrument Cluster | |
| TPK Holdings | Touchscreen – Premium Media Control | |
| S1NN GMBH | Audio Amplifier PCBA and separate amp module for sound system | |
| FREESCALE SEMICONDUCTOR INC | MCUs – In Assorted modules | |
| TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC | Assorted Analog, Logic, and Specialized IC Content in multiple modules | |
| SIERRA WIRELESS / QUALCOMM | Wireless module / chipset | |
| ST MICROELECTRONICS | Audio Amplifiers and assorted integrated circuits in multiple modules | |
| ALTERA CORP | FPGA – in Premium Media Control Unit | |
| PARROT | Combo Module (BT and WLAN) | |
| SK HYNIX INC | DRAM and NAND Flash in NVidia Visual Computing Modules | |
| LINEAR TECHNOLOGY CORP | Power management Ices in multiple modules | |
| CYPRESS SEMICONDUCTOR CORP | Touch Controller ICs for large format capacitive touchscreen | |
| INFINEON TECHNOLOGIES AG | Assorted IC Content | |
| ANALOG DEVICES INC | Assorted IC Content | |
| MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY INC | Assorted IC Content |
Dragtimes has a nice little rundown of the latest in hacking the Tesla Model S. It turns out that there is an exposed 4 pin connector on the left side of the dashboard that is actually a 100mb Ethernet connection. That connection was actually connected to with a laptop and after some port scanning and sniffing…
The car’s internal 100 Mbps, full duplex ethernet network consists of 3 devices with assiged IP addresses in the 192.168.90.0 subnet, the center console, dashboard/nav screen and one more unknown device. Some ports and services that were open on the devices were 22 (SSH), 23 (telnet),53 (open domain), 80 (HTTP), 111 (rpcbind), 2049 (NFS), 6000 (X11). Port 80 was serving up a web page with the image or media of the current song being played. The operating system is modified version of Ubuntu using an ext3 filesystem. Using X11 it also appears that someone was able to somewhat run Firefox on both screens as per the pictures. All of this technology certain brings up the question as to when and if Telsa’s internal systems will be hacked and jailbroken to allow 3rd party applications to run on the large 17″ touchscreen. Hacking your iPhone s one thing, hacking your car is quite another. We should also note that apparently Tesla engineers detected this hacking or exploring and sent a nastygram to the cars owner, “Tesla USA engineers have seen a tentative of hacking on my car.”, “can be related to industrial espionage and advised me to stop investigation, to not void the warranty”. Does Tesla have an network intrusion detection system installed on the cars? Do they have the right to not allow you to tinker with your own car?
All really good questions. Will Tesla eventually allow hacking. IT seems like the type of company that would want to encourage it from its extremely savvy customer base. Its APIs for the app are already being used by various companies for things like Google Glass interfaces and Chrome extensions.
Oh lordy. The press has gotten ahold of a lunker with its latest TESLA RECALL! meme. Unfortunately for the sensational, Tesla has already announced (last week) that it would be replacing the NEMA 14-50 adapters on its built-in charging cables (pictured above, circled). It also issued a software update that would step down charging if it had detected thermal resistance. Here’s the official letter (PDF).
It is the equivalent of Apple replacing its iPhone USB cable AC adapters.
All of this was in reaction to a garage fire that was likely caused by bad internal wiring (the investigation is still pending).
Today’s formal announcement says “recall” so the dimmer of us is running with that even though the facts on the ground are this:
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/423145289310953473
Tesla is mailing new power adapters to less than 3% of Model S owners and updating software. "Recall of 29k cars" is overstating. $TSLA
— Jeremy C. Owens (@jowens510) January 14, 2014
(1/2) The term “recall” is outdated. No vehicles are being physically recalled by Tesla.
— Tesla (@Tesla) January 14, 2014
(2/2) We issued a software update in Dec. & as an additional measure will be sending upgraded adapter by mail to customers.
— Tesla (@Tesla) January 14, 2014
Tesla seems to be joining many other Silicon Valley companies in hiring employees away from Apple. Only weeks after poaching Apple Mac Hardware Vice President Doug Field to run Vehicle Design, we have discovered that Tesla has made another notable hire from the Cupertino tech giant: Rich Heley. He was hired away from Apple in November and joined Tesla in that same month, according to his LinkedIn profile:
