Siddhant Awasthi, the Cybertruck Vehicle Program Manager, confirmed today on X that the offroad lightbar is coming soon.
Awasthi also pointed out that Cyberbeast customers will receive it first, most likely followed by dual-motor AWD owners. While he didn’t specify a date, soon is as good news as any.
Lightbar
While the Cybertruck’s original renders and pre-production model showed off in November 2019 included a built-in lightbar at the top of the windshield, it unfortunately never made it to the production build. There was even talk of a laser lightbar at the time – the current lightbar is an LED lightbar – but still extremely powerful.
Instead, the off-road lightbar lives on as an optional accessory, installed on the outside, at the top of the windshield. The off-road lightbar uses the top-mounted 48V auxiliary power tap to get power.
Soon for Foundation series Cyberbeast customers. They will receive it first
It is installed by Tesla Service and is a permanent install. The off-road lightbar is installed using urethane glue – the same automotive grade glue used for Tesla’s spoilers – and a lot of it. It won’t be coming off easily.
The lightbar is extremely bright – and actually ships with a blackout film already attached, which is optionally removable by the user. Tesla, however, doesn’t recommend removing the blackout film, and employees will not remove it after the installation.
Cybertruck in Action
Tesla also recently showed off the Cybertruck in action offroad, including with the upcoming lightbar.
Following its recent launch in the United States and Canada, Tesla has launched their referral program in several European countries as well.
The program is available in Germany, Norway, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and possibly others. The program is almost the same as the one available today in North America, with rewards for each referral and a discount for those referred. The cap in Europe is also ten per year.
This program comes right on the heels of a 0% financing offer for the Model Y in Sweden and France. While referrals aren't currently available in Sweden, the 0% financing still is.
European Referrals
The European Referral program accounts for country and local currency, where applicable.
Country
Referral Discount
Referral Award
UK
£1,000
£500
Germany, France, Netherlands
€1,000
€500
Norway
kr11,500
kr5,750
The referral reward program is comparable to the one available in North America. After exchange rates, there is only an approximately 10% difference between the available rewards in the US and EU.
Other Countries
We expect this program to start rolling out to other European countries over the next few days or weeks, as Tesla continues to expand its referral program.
Tesla has confirmed that they submit app updates for Android and iOS apps at the same time, but we often see the iOS app updates released first possibly due to a quicker app review process at Apple.
However, we often see features implemented on the Apple version weeks or months before they’re implemented on Android. Today, the Android app is missing several key features, and the gap is starting to become a bit glaring.
Delayed App Updates
The Android app just received update 4.36.6 last night, while the Apple update was available as of September 1st.
That might not seem like a big deal, but in order to use the updated Actually Smart Summon, you’ll need app version 4.36.6, so any Andriod users that received update 2024.27.20 with the new Summon, couldn’t use it until yesterday.
We’re sure Tesla is on it, but it’s disappointing to see that key feature updates take days or a week longer to receive on Android. Apple and Google both offer the ability to set a release date for an app update, so Tesla could coordinate releasing the apps at the same time.
Ultra Wideband Support
Unfortunately, there’s no Ultra Wide Band (UWB) support on Android yet, which is an interesting omission since it’s such a great feature. Most Android phones, flagships, and cheaper phones alike, all support UWB.
Without UWB support Android phones can’t use Tesla’s newest phone key, which is only available for devices that support UWB. The new phone key improves reliability for unlocking the vehicle and setting the correct Tesla driver profile. To support the new phone key, you need a compatible phone (iPhone 11 or newer) and a newer vehicle that supports ultra wideband.
Hands-Free Trunk
Tesla’s new hands-free trunk feature, which allows you to automatically open your trunk by simply standing behind it for a couple of seconds, also isn’t available on Android devices. Tesla’s Hands-Free Trunk requires UWB support too, and Tesla originally mentioned it was coming to Android in May 2024.
For now, those are the features we know of that don’t work on Android today, and we’re hoping that Tesla brings both UWB support, as well as simultaneous app updates to the Google Play and Apple App Store by leveraging each store’s publish date feature.
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Although we share official Tesla release notes, we are not affiliated with Tesla Motors. We are Tesla fans and supporters.
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