Tesla could soon support lossless content on Apple Music, according to Discord user Merk, who came across a Hi-Fi icon when listening to Apple Music over WiFi. While Apple Music isn’t the first or only Hi-Fi option, it’ll be great to see another service with high-quality streaming.
With the upcoming 2024.26 update, Tesla is adding YouTube Music and Amazon Music, so there has definitely been a recent trend to add more music services and increase Premium Connectivity usage.
Apple Hi-Fi
Given the screenshot, it seems that Tesla may support Apple Music lossless audio streaming, but this wasn’t announced in any of the release notes or anywhere else. We’re not 100% sure yet whether this is just a bug in the UI or an upcoming feature – but Merk did mention he was on WiFi when he saw it.
He also noted that it sounded clear, but it's hard to assess whether the quality is better without listening to an A:B sample of the same track – one Hi-Fi, and one regular. Apple Music as a streaming service does support a lossless high-quality streaming codec on the AAC format – Apple brought lossless music to its Android Apple Music app in 2022 for flagship Android devices that have DAC support. However, they don’t support “bit-perfect” or “true Hi-Fi” on non-Apple devices.
If you’ve seen the Apple Hi-Fi icon on your Apple Music in your Tesla, let us know on X.
What Is Hi-Fi Audio
What exactly is Hi-Fi audio you may ask? Well, here’s a short, non-audiophile rundown. There are two major types of audio – High Fidelity, and regular. High Fidelity audio is further broken down into two types – regular Hi-Fi and “bit-perfect”.
Regular Hi-Fi audio is still compressed, and some information can still be lost, but it is still higher quality than a CD or MP3 file. Meanwhile, “bit-perfect” audio is uncompressed, raw audio that should be a 1:1 match for what the studio produced and is how it is intended to be heard.
Tidal’s Hi-Fi Audio
For now, Tesla’s Hi-Fi audio choice has been limited to Tidal, a smaller, slightly lesser-known competitor to other music streaming services. While Tidal may be less known, it does bring “bit-perfect” Hi-Fi audio with it, but with some exceptions.
Hi-Fi audio on Tidal has to be downloaded in advance on WiFi and takes up space on your Tesla’s glovebox USB drive (or part of the game storage space on the internal SSD on the Models S and X). This means that while you can listen to Hi-Fi audio on Tidal, you’d have to download albums or playlists in advance, otherwise you’d get stream-quality audio.
Tesla puts a massive amount of effort into their audio engineering, so Hi-Fi music is a great benefit for Teslas.
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on the latest Tesla news, upcoming features and software updates.
Rendering of what Tesla's license plate feature could look like
Not a Tesla App
Tesla update 2024.38 has started rolling out to several regions and vehicles. Thanks to Tesla hacker Greentheonly, we have a behind-the-scenes look at some new features coming to Teslas.
License Plate Display
According to Greentheonly, it looks like Tesla may soon let you display your actual license plate in the vehicle’s visualization on the screen. In our article, The Most Request Tesla Features, several readers suggested displaying the vehicle’s license plate in the visualization instead of a blank, white plate.
It looks like Tesla will be doing just that, at least in China. Green found references that appear to conclude that you’ll be able to display your vehicle’s plate on screen. This will likely be user input, so you could have it say anything you’d like, and it doesn’t have to be your actual license plate.
For many owners, who may find it difficult to remember their license plate, this could serve a practical purpose in addition to adding to the visualization's realism.
While Green was only able to say it’ll be available in China, we expect this is due to China’s software development team working on it and that it’ll eventually be released worldwide.
While code for this feature was found in update 2024.38, we may not be turned on in China yet. We suspect this feature may be a strong candidate for Tesla’s upcoming holiday update.
FSD Hardware Version Display
As part of the 2024.38 update, Tesla has now made it easy to determine whether your vehicle includes Hardware 3 or Hardware 4. You can now simply navigate to Controls > Software and tap Additional Vehicle Information. In addition to other hardware information about your vehicle, your Autopilot hardware version will now be listed as well.
You can see whether your vehicle has HW2.5, HW3, or AI4. This in-car display is useful, but if you don’t have access to the vehicle, you can always use our guide on how to determine the hardware version of a Tesla.
New Battery Health Test & Service Mode Improvements
Green found some additional things as well. There’s a new and improved Battery Health Test. The new test will show you how your car scores compared to similar vehicles in the Tesla fleet.
In addition, maintenance records can now be permanently stored “in the car.” It doesn’t appear that this feature is activated yet, but it’s likely in active development with some parts leaking out in the 2024.38 update.
Tesla has included various Service Mode improvements and new visualizations in this update.
Mr Li on X came across some covered-up Project Juniper vehicles recently and he managed to get various shots of the vehicle.
Juniper Images
This front image reveals what looks like two rows of lights, possibly confirming the front light bar for the Model Y refresh — similar to the one on the Cybercab.
The rear side has a lot of lights on it!
Mr Li on X
The rear side shows a ton of brake lights, but it’s not clear why. While it looks like the Model Y refresh will also feature a rear light bar similar to the Cybertruck, there isn’t strong evidence of that in this photo.
Mr Li on X
There's an obvious set of lights at the bottom, so it looks like the Model Y refresh will be similar to the new Model 3 where the bottom lights can operate as brake lights when the one-piece tail lights and trunk are up.
Mr Li on X
In the last photo, we see that the overall form factor of the refreshed Model Y will remain unchanged, and Tesla is focusing the changes on the front and rear ends of the vehicle, much like the Model 3 refresh. However, in this one shot, we can also see what appears to be red light leaking out of the rear camera cover opening, possibly due to the rear light bar.
The Model Y is not only Tesla’s best-selling vehicle but also the world’s best-selling car in 2023. This year, it’s expected to be the best-selling vehicle in the United States and again in the world, so this refresh will be huge for Tesla.
@DominicBRNKMN made another fantastic set of concepts based on these new images. Given he had the most accurate Model 3 Highland concept before the official launch, we’re pretty sure his latest work be close here as well.
@DominicBRNKMN
We’re super excited to see the eventual reveal of Project Juniper, which is expected in the first half of 2025. However, expect to see a few more leaks before production kicks off at Giga Shanghai.