Tesla provides a robust set of fleet-manager and user-level APIs for its vehicles, each with distinctly useful features. If you’ve ever wondered what other unique things your Tesla is capable of, here is some additional insight.
One of the coolest things we’ve seen are some updated APIs that expose additional data that could provide hints for Tesla’s 8/8 Robotaxi announcement. Read on to find out!
Vehicle Data
Tesla recently added a new property in the API that leverages the cabin camera to find out if there’s anyone inside the car. It doesn’t identify who or where they’re seated or give Tesla access to the camera, but it does let you know whether there’s anyone inside the camera.
The data in the API is usually to be leveraged by the Tesla app, but the detection Tesla is doing here could be used for things like automatically enabling cabin overheat protection if someone was left inside the car.
"is_user_present": true,
Guest Mode
Tesla has outlined a new Guest Mode in their API, potentially pointing to a Robotaxi tie-in. According to Tesla’s API documentation, Guest Mode restricts user functionality in the vehicle. Similar to Tesla’s Valet Mode, Guest Mode requires PIN to Drive or to open the Glovebox. It also limits the vehicle’s speed, prevents the addition or removal of keys and more. This is quite similar to the functionality that’s used by Hertz for its fleet-level management, but there have been some additional updates to this entire API. This Guest Mode endpoint is only accessible on vehicles on update 2024.14 – The Spring Update.
Rider Quality Score
Whole Mars Catalog recently shared a screenshot of a new API property called “Rider Quality Score” on X. The property appears to give the user a score, presumably from 0 to 5 (or 10) based on some characteristics, although Tesla may be simply testing the feature and the values don’t provide any real guidance yet.
“rider_quality_score”: 5
A quality score could be assigned to riders for ride-hailing and could be a part of Tesla’s upcoming August 8th Robotaxi announcement. This one was buried under the User API, which also provides a user’s name, email, and profile photo. You may be able to configure your future Robotaxi or current Tesla to only accept riders with a certain quality level – thereby enabling you to keep your car clean and fit for duty and reducing risks.
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Tesla purchased SolarCity, a large solar and backup installer, back in 2016 and shortly thereafter began installing its unique Tesla Solar Roof, regular Tesla Solar panels, and Tesla Powerwalls for both commercial and residential customers.
However, as the years have passed, Tesla has lost its interest in the actual installation portion of the business. They’re more than happy to continue producing Solar Roofs and expanding Powerwall production, but for the most part, their in-house rate of installations has slowed drastically.
Since Q2 2020, Tesla has seen a 10% or greater drop per quarter in the number of in-house Solar Roof, Solar, and Powerwall installations every quarter.
Third-Party Certification
Tesla has instead begun to certify third-party installers throughout North America and Europe for Powerwall and solar panels and within the United States for Solar Roof.
Tesla launched the Certified Installer Program in 2020 and said it has approximately 2,000 certified installers in over 14 countries—and those certified installers have set up over 1 million installations. James Bickford, Tesla’s Director of Global Sales, Residential Energy Products, announced the expansion of the Certified Installer Program and its new push on LinkedIn.
The Certified Installer Program provides several things to get third parties ready to install and commission Tesla’s home energy ecosystem, including virtual and in-person training, on-site training, custom installation tools, and the Tesla One Software Platform.
In addition to those supports, Tesla’s Partner Platform offers marketing support resources and a dedicated access system for a personal Account Manager from Tesla.
Tesla One Dashboard
The Tesla One dashboard offers third-party installers a one-stop-shop platform for managing quotes, installations, and repairs in one mobile app.
It is a convenient-looking application that lets third-party installers see what tasks they need to perform for specific installations and also helps them scale particular installations to customer requirements.
While this isn’t a new direction for Tesla overall, we’re seeing a distinct move in the energy business from Tesla as a first-party installer of its products to a more hands-off approach where local electricians and contractors will install Tesla products under its auspices.
We’re interested to see where Tesla continues to go with this, as they’ve seen their Powerwall business expanding in the last few years, while Tesla Solar and Solar Roof have dropped off many people’s radars lately.
Tesla has sent out its first batch of event invites to its “We, Robot” event – the Robotaxi Event. Invitees must confirm their attendance no later than midnight on Sunday, October 6th.
In order for a chance to get an invite – Shareholders had to confirm their shares and participate in a raffle. The selected winners started receiving emails last night.
It seems that space for the event is extremely limited and that tickets will be issued on a first-come first-serve basis. We’re not sure if Tesla intends to add another wave of invites at this point, but we’ll keep an eye out.
Event Details
Event details haven’t been issued just yet, but once invitees confirm their RSVP, they will receive another email with the next steps and exact event details. The tickets remain non-transferable, and unlike other Tesla events, not everyone is receiving a +1. It appears some invites let you add on a guest, while others are just for the invitee. The event is for those aged 21+, and IDs will be checked upon arrival.
In terms of timing, the doors open at 5 PM local, and check-in begins around 5:30 PM. The remarks for the event will begin around 7 PM.
Those who have received invites have confirmed that “RSVP Received” is displayed on the Tesla Investor Relations site after clicking through. It seems that the actual tickets themselves will come as a separate e-mail.
We’re super excited to see what Tesla will reveal – this event is one of their most anticipated, and we expect to see the Robotaxi driving around on Hollywood set stages as part of the demo.
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