Tesla Hints at Upcoming Rental Service: 'Big Things Happening'

Tesla appears to be starting a pilot for a rental program

Tesla

"Big things happening..." — this tantalizing phrase, shared by Melissa Porche Blakely, staff program manager at Tesla, has stirred excitement and curiosity in the Tesla community. The comment was made about a new job listing for the Tesla Rental Program in Texas, as spotted by @SawyerMerritt.

A Revolutionary Rental Program

Tesla is on the brink of launching a Tesla Rental Program in Texas, with a pilot program slated for collision centers. The automaker seeks a Program Manager in Business Development to lead this ambitious initiative. Speculation around Tesla's move into the rental space centers on various potential benefits:

• Customer Convenience: Offering rental cars at collision centers can be incredibly convenient for customers whose cars are being repaired. This service can fill a temporary need, especially if repairs are extended.
• Brand Exposure: By extending the program to airports for employees and potentially the broader public, Tesla can increase exposure to its vehicles. Those unfamiliar with Tesla may enjoy the unique experience, leading to potential future sales.
• Competitive Edge: With competitors already renting Tesla vehicles (e.g., Hertz), the automaker might want to control the rental experience, ensuring brand quality and potentially retaining rental revenue.

Details of the Pilot Program

The pilot program will encompass all Tesla collision centers in Texas, with Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas locations. It's unclear if Tesla only plans to launch the rental program for customers at collision centers or if a broader car rental program might come later. The extension to airports, particularly for a Tesla employee pilot, further hints at the wider ambitions of this program.

Beyond Rentals: Glass Repair Optimization

Apart from the Rental Program, the new hire will also focus on Glass Repair Optimization. This signals Tesla's continual drive to enhance customer service, aiming to reduce repair times and further streamline the collision repair experience. Remember, we also speculated that Tesla might be going into the car wrap business in North America, similar to what the company has in China.

The Tesla Rental Program represents more than just a new service. While the full scope and implications of this initiative remain to be seen, it is clear that Tesla is keen on expanding its footprint and enhancing its brand experience.

As the industry watches this development closely, the question remains: will this move set a new standard in the rental space? What other surprises might Tesla have up its sleeve? "Big things happening" indeed.

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Want to See the New Tesla Model Y? Here's Where It’s on Display

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Tesla’s refreshed Model Y has started hitting display and Tesla showrooms across North America and Europe, where you can now get up close and personal with the new Model Y and all of its improvements, including the smallest of details.

The refreshed Model Y surprised all of us by sporting its own unique look instead of just being a stretched-out Model 3. While it’s available to order now through the Launch Edition, which includes FSD and Acceleration Boost, deliveries won’t start for another couple of months.

The new front light bar and rear indirect lights make the vehicle unique and worth checking out. There are plenty of new items to check out in the updated interior as well, including new door panels, powered rear seats, and more.

Here’s where you can check out the new Model Y in North America and Europe:

North America

In North America, the updated Model Y can be seen in 19 showrooms across the United States and Canada. The photo below shows the 17 locations in the U.S. and two in Canada. We expect this list to grow as Tesla produces more vehicles and we get closer to the official launch.

New Model Y Displays in North America

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Europe

In Europe, the Model Y is already on permanent display at two locations - the Mall of Berlin in Germany, and at Tesla’s Amsterdam Europe Headquarters - both publically accessible. If you’re in the area, definitely drop by and take a look.

Tesla is also holding special events throughout Europe where they’ll be showing the new Model Y through select dates. place to check if you’re far away from the ones above is on Tesla’s Events List.

We recommend checking the page out to confirm any dates, as Tesla will be rotating the locations until each showroom receives its permanent display vehicles.

Tesla will also be visiting major auto shows, including the Toronto and New York International Auto Shows with the new Model Y - so keep an eye out for those events as well.

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Tesla's Holiday Update: The 15 Undocumented Features

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While Tesla’s exciting holiday update is now behind us, it left us with amazing new features, such as weather radar, Apple Watch support, mobile Dashcam viewer, SiriusXM, and so many other great features that some of us now use every day.

However, it doesn’t end there. Tesla always includes other smaller changes that don’t make it into the release notes, and the holiday update was a big one in terms of undocumented changes.

We’ll go through all the new features that are now available in your vehicle that Tesla didn’t show in their release notes.

Precipitation Map

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While this feature did make it to the release notes, some users may still not be aware that the Precipitation Map (weather radar) is now available on all Teslas with the Intel infotainment unit (except for legacy Model S/X). This feature was requested so long ago that, honestly, we didn’t think it’d ever be released. All Model 3, Model Y and 2021+ Model S and X vehicles now have access to the weather radar map overlay.

Fart on Sit

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For the Emissions Testing Mode easter egg, you can now have your vehicle fart when someone sits down in their seat.

The sound will come from the direction of their seat. For example, a fart sound will sound from the front-right speaker when someone sits in the front passenger seat. It will play the sound selected in the fart selection box, or play a random fart if you choose "I'm so random."

This option defaults to off after every drive.

Voice Assistant

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You can now say 'Hi' or 'Hello' to your vehicle through the voice command prompt, and the vehicle will respond with "Hello!"

This is the first sign of Tesla adding a smart voice assistant to the vehicle, which is expected to be powered by Grok.

Voice Command Changes

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If you use Tesla's voice commands, there are a few changes. When you press the voice command button on the steering wheel, you may now not get audible feedback that the button has been pressed. This will depend on whether there’s music playing or other circumstances.

When sending a text message through a voice command, you may now have to press the steering wheel button again to start dictation after choosing a recipient. It’s not clear what’s causing this change, as sometimes it goes straight into dictation mode, while other times it ask you to press the button to start dictation.

Equalizer

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You can now reset the equalizer settings with the touch of a button by tapping the new circular arrow to the right of the equalizer. This will bring all settings back down to 0.

Performance Improvements

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Intel users are seeing performance improvements while using the Tesla interface, especially in more demanding areas like Tesla Theater. Videos on YouTube now stutter less and Tesla Theater can be minimized more smoothly than before.

The media controls can now control YouTube videos and other web video content as well, even after the vehicle is put into drive.

Service Mode Updates

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Several screens in Service Mode have been updated to show larger visualizations, such as the Airbags and Seats menu.

Tesla has also introduced several new visualizations to vehicles with the Intel infotainment unit, that were previously only available on AMD-based vehicles. Some of these includes Coolant and HVAC options.

The only new feature in Service Mode is for the Cybertruck under Service Mode Plus, which includes:

Connector Reference (Service Mode Plus): A new Connector Reference panel is available to help find connectors and highlight harnesses on the vehicle. Rotate the 3D model to explore or type in the search bar to find a specific connector.

Rearranged Menus

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With the addition of the Seats menu to settings, Tesla has now rearranged the menu options so that the more used options are now more easily accessible.

The Software menu has been moved up, while other options like Navigation and Trips have been moved down to be close to WiFi, Bluetooth and Upgrades.

Selected Custom Lock Sound

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The currently selected custom lock sound is now shown underneath the Lock Confirmation Sound option in the Controls > Locks menu.

Ambient Lighting Easter Eggs

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The Rainbow Road and Santa Mode easter eggs have been updated on vehicles that include the ambient lighting feature.

There are new options in these easter eggs that let you enable or disable the ambient lighting while the easter egg is active.

If enabled, the light strips will cycle through colors of the rainbow when the Rainbow Road easter egg is enabled. For Santa Mode, the interior lights will cycle between red, green and white.

Updated Energy App

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The Consumption tab in the Energy app has been updated with several changes, including:

• The last 200 miles are now shown, instead of a user-selectable, 5, 15 or 30 miles.

• Instant Range / Average Range has been removed to simplify the interface.

• The average range as moved to the top left and now shows the offset from the vehicle's EPA-rated Wh/mi

• Total energy consumption is now displayed at the bottom left.

• The colors now have different meanings. Before this update, yellow meant the vehicle was using energy, while green meant the vehicle was generating energy through Regenerative Braking. However, now, yellow means that the vehicle consumed more than the EPA average, and green means that the vehicle consumed less than the EPA average and doesn’t necessarily mean it generated energy.

Toll Roads

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When navigating to a destination, the alternative routes menu that is displayed when you first enter a destination will now show you which routes include tolls by displaying a dollar sign icon next to the travel time.

Limiting Explicit Content

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The Exlicit Content toggle under Audio Settings now applies to YouTube Music as well. This now supports LiveOne, Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, and TIDAL.

Charging Icons

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Tesla has redesigned the charging pins that appear on the map. Supercharger and third-party charger pins are now oval-shaped instead of circular.

Instead of just having the number of charging stalls available, Tesla has added the charging icon to make it more obvious these are charging stations.

Adjust Dashcam Viewer Speed

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You can now adjust the Dashcam Viewer's playback speed. Users can pick from 0.5x, 1x or 2x playback speeds by tapping the playback speed button.

Tire Pressure Indicator

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Tapping the tire pressure indicator will now open the tire pressure card on the left side of the screen instead of opening the Service menu under Controls > Service.

If you ever spot a change that isn’t listed in Tesla’s release notes, we’d love to hear about it!

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