Tesla's Model Y Juniper Refresh: What to Expect & Wishlist

@TeslaTruckClub on X

With more images of the Model Y Refresh – codename Juniper – making their way onto the internet, it’s a good chance to build a little wishlist of features and upgrades we’d love to see on the refreshed Model Y.

We’ll keep it simple to start, and list some of the features we fully expect on the refreshed Model Y.

Bumper Camera

The bumper camera is already on the Cybertruck, expected to be on the Model S and Model X, and we’ve seen a covered-up Model Y with a bumper camera already. At this point, we’re fully expecting this feature.

It’ll certainly be useful when parking and it’ll be extra useful for those who want to overland or off-road their Model Ys.

Adaptive Suspension

The refreshed Model 3 Highland arrived with frequency-selective damping, softer springs, and an overall smoother ride. In addition, these options are somewhat tuneable in the Dynamics vehicle menu. We’re hoping to see the same, or perhaps even more improvements on this front for the Juniper.

Updated Steering Wheel

Like the Model 3, we expect the gear stalks to be removed from the Model Y in the Juniper refresh. Hopefully, we can even get a squircle steering wheel option like the Cybertruck.

Rear Screen

The Highland 3 brought an 8” rear screen to all variants – we’re fully expecting this to show up in the refreshed Y as well. The addition of the rear screen adds very little cost for Tesla since the screen is powered by the same computer that powers the infotainment system up front, but it adds a ton of value for customers. In turn, it likely increases the take rate of Premium Connectivity since it allows rear passengers to watch YouTube, Netflix and more while driving.

Ambient Lighting

The leaked Model Y images that came out recently confirmed that the Juniper Y has ambient lighting – and even better than the retrofit ambient lighting offered in China. These ambient lighting strips will extend onto the front doors. We’re always happy to see interior upgrades, especially improvements to the ambient lighting. Ambient lighting is something we’ll see Tesla continue to improve as we saw with update 2024.26 where owners can now adjust the brightness of the lights and choose whether they come on during the day or only at night.

Ventilated Seats

The same leak earlier late last month also confirmed that the Model Y will have ventilated seats, just like the refreshed Model 3. These were previously a Model S and Model X feature, but this helps to really cement Tesla’s luxurious interiors as industry-leading.

Rear Lightbar

We also saw a brand-new rear lightbar on the back of the leaked Model Y, and it looks pretty cool. Tesla appears to be switching back to the written branding on the rear of the vehicle, rather than just the simple, but deep Tesla logo.

Improved Speakers

The Model 3’s refresh also improved the speaker system – bringing it up from 14 speakers to 17. We’d love to see the same improvements to the Model Y, especially since Tesla takes such care in engineering their audio systems.

Wishlist

Now, let’s get into some of the features we’re hoping make it into the Juniper Model Y. Some of these might be reaching a tad far, but that’s what wishlists are for.

Increased Range

While the Model 3 did get a range increase in its refresh, we’d hope to see something similar here, with a better drag coefficient and overall better range bringing us to a 10% increase. 350mi (550km) would be the ideal range for the Long-Range Dual Motor variant.

Structural 4680 Battery

Tesla has been working on their 4680 cells recently, with the first dry-cathode Cybertruck prototype roaming Giga Texas. Tesla also announced that their dry-cathode 4680 process will begin mass production in late 2024, and a structural 4680 on the new cell could further improve the Model Y as one of the safest vehicles on the road, while also driving down its cost to manufacture.

Better Performance Model

Faster. Runs Cooler. Better Brakes. Ludicrous Seats. A better performance variant of the Model Y is likely in the works, given the improvements to the Model 3 “Ludicrous”. We’d love to see all these features come to the future Model Y performance trim. We’re probably going to have to wait a bit longer for this one, just like the Model 3.

Air Suspension

Tesla’s amazing air suspension features have also been limited to just the Model S and Model X. This is an expensive package, so we don’t expect this to arrive on the refreshed Y, which is made more as a mass-market vehicle. However, even a scaled-down or simplified air suspension would be an amazing improvement to the Model Y, especially as a premium SUV.

Tiltable Center Screen

The Model Y is the vehicle for families. And what better way to amuse or anger your passenger than tilting your screen towards you? Well, a tiltable center screen would be a slick upgrade, again previously constrained to the Model S and Model X. Many people, including the author, use a tilting center screen mod, and Tesla making it OEM would be a nice addition.

Better Charging Pads

Tesla’s wireless charging pads for its phones are… OK at best. At worst, they can get hot enough to cook you a meal, and this is especially bad with Apple devices. We’d love to see Tesla bring some improvements to its cell phone chargers and make them faster too — possibly with some integrated cooling. Most cell phones support at least 30w wireless charging today, and Tesla’s wireless charging pads aren’t exactly fast.

Steam Gaming Support

While Tesla has slowly snubbed Steam Gaming support, we’d like to see this feature make a come back to Tesla vehicles. Steam Support has previously been offered only on the Model S and Model X, but it would be perfect for the Model Y – the quintessential family EV. Tesla doesn’t necessarily need the horsepower that was in the discreet GPU of the Model S and X, but just the ability to play some Steam would be a great addition.

AI5

Given that Elon Musk just recently confirmed that AI5 is about 18 months out from mass production, there is a very good chance that the Juniper Model Y could launch alongside the official debut of the new AI5 hardware. That would be an exceptional way for Tesla to debut their new FSD hardware, right alongside the refreshed best-selling vehicle in the world.

Automatic Doors

This is a more premium feature suited for the Model S and Model X, just like Steam gaming support, but we’d love to see automatic front doors or automatic door handles on the refreshed Model Y.

Many other vehicle brands have similar auto-door features at the same price level, so it would be pretty cool to flex Tesla’s fantastic vision tech and have the doors open when the vehicle arrives after being Actually Smart Summoned to you.

48V Architecture

The Cybertruck brought 48V architecture to a vehicle for the first time. While the Model 3 Refresh was likely going on behind the scenes at the same time, 48V is now tried and tested. The Model Y Juniper offers Tesla the ideal chance to bring a 48V architecture to mass-market vehicles for the first time, and the cost savings will be huge.

Faster Supercharging & Wireless Charging

We’d love to see faster Supercharging because of better vehicle architecture and batteries, but we’d also love to see Wireless Charging. Tesla purchased Wiferion and kept its engineers to develop an in-house solution – which we expect to see on 10/10 with the Robotaxi event. Let’s hope they bring that wireless charging solution to the Model Y too.

Better 7-Seat Variant

The 7-seat variant in the Model Y is fairly cramped and takes up a lot of cargo room even when the seats are down. We’re sure Tesla can work some engineering magic and bring out some more space to help expand the rear seat legroom.

Steer-by-Wire

The Cybertruck was the steer-by-wire testbed, and it only makes sense that this same technology starts getting used on every single Tesla vehicle. Just like the 48V architecture, this likely didn’t make it in time for the Model 3 Highland, but the Model Y Juniper will offer a mass-production platform for steer-by-wire.

Starlink Integration

This one has been asked for really often – Starlink integration for Tesla vehicles. There’s no reason not to have it – except for the cost of the hardware. Starlink integration would be far more reliable than cellular and could be used globally. If you’re out camping with your Model Y Air Mattress, you’d appreciate some built-in Starlink too. A cellular connection would need to remain in place for when the vehicle doesn’t have a clear view of the sky, but this would certainly be a nice add-on.

Smart Electro-Optical Glass

Back in 2019, Tesla filed a patent for an “electro-optical” sunroof. This is pretty much a touch-button sunroof that activates or deactivates a tint but with a smart twist. Tesla’s version of this, which was included in the patent, could automatically adjust how much light is let in. It could also provide more light at night with a built-in LED layer.

Cyber-Y

Ok, put down the pitchforks and hear me out. Cyber. Y.

We already know the Model Y will likely not become angular and metal, but getting some Cybertruck-style vibes would be pretty cool – lightbar in the front, with wicked-cool Cyber styling throughout the interior.

Tesla’s Model Y refresh isn’t expected at least until early 2025, but as leaks and renderings start flowing, it’s hard not to get excited.

Now, we’re sure you’ve all got more ideas – so come and discuss them in our forum.

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Is Tesla Planning to Add Steam Support to All Vehicles?

Not a Tesla App

Yesterday, we reported that Tesla updated their Steam integration on Model S and Model X vehicles. The update was part of their 2024 Holiday Update, but it looks like there may be more to this than a simple update.

Steam, a video game library app, makes it easy for users to buy or launch games on their computers. However, a couple of years ago, Valve, who created Steam, launched their own standalone device, the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck runs a custom OS based on Linux.

Steam Launch

When Tesla launched the redesigned Model S and Model X, Tesla introduced a dedicated gaming GPU with 16GB of RAM and touted the ability to play top-tier PC games in Tesla vehicles.

In 2022, Tesla finally launched the Steam app for the Model S and Model X as part of its 2022 Holiday Update. The Steam app runs Steam OS, the same OS as the Steam Deck in a virtual environment.

However, earlier this year, Tesla stopped including the GPU and Steam (Beta) in their vehicles, and we haven’t seen any updates to the Steam in quite some time. In fact, we thought Tesla was axing their gaming-on-the-go dreams.

SteamOS Update

The Steam app, which is still in Beta, is getting an interesting update for the Model S and Model X vehicles with the discrete GPU.

Those vehicles received an update to SteamOS 3.6 - the same version of SteamOS that runs on the Steam Deck. While nothing has visually changed, there’s a long list of performance optimizations under the hood to get things running smoother.

Comparing Steam Deck to Tesla Vehicles

Let’s take a look at the Steam Deck - according to Valve, its onboard Zen4 CPU and GPU combined push a total of 2 TFlops of data, which is fairly respectable, but much lower than today’s home consoles. The Steam Deck is capable of 720p gaming fairly seamlessly on low-to-medium settings on the go and is also built on the AMD platform.

AMD-equipped Teslas, including the Model 3 and Model Y, are packing an older Zen+ (Zen 1.5) APU (processor with a combined CPU and GPU). AMD claims that the V1000 - the same embedded chip as on AMD Tesla vehicles (YE1807C3T4MFB), brings up to 3.6 TFLops of processing power with it, including 4K encoding and decoding with the integrated GPU on board.

While that’s not enough for 4K gaming or comparable to a full-blown console or desktop GPU, that’s enough raw horsepower for light gaming and is currently more powerful than the Steam Deck.

The Model S and Model X’s GPU brings that up to about 10TFlops of power - comparable to modern consoles like the Xbox Series X at 12 TFlops.

Steam Gaming for All Vehicles?

The fact that Tesla is updating SteamOS even though the feature is no longer available in any new vehicles could indicate that Tesla is not only bringing Steam back to Teslas but that it’s going to play a much bigger role.

While SteamOS is run in a virtual environment on top of Tesla’s own OS, we could see Tesla bring SteamOS to all of its current vehicles, including the Model 3, Model Y, and Cybertruck. Steam in these vehicles would likely support any game that’s capable of running on the Steam Deck.

We think this Steam update, which includes performance improvements and a variety of fixes, has quietly passed under most people’s radars. This could be a very exciting update for those who enjoy gaming, especially for those who love to do it in their Tesla.

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Tesla Holiday Update Weather Features: All the Small Details

Robert Rosenfeld / YouTube

As part of Tesla’s 2024 Holiday Update, Tesla included two awesome new features - Weather at Destination and the long-awaited Weather Radar Overlay. These two features are big upgrades built upon the weather feature that was added in update 2024.26. The original weather feature added an hourly forecast, as well as the chance of precipitation, UV index, Air Quality Index, and other data.

However, this update also added some smaller weather touches, such as the vehicle alerting you if the weather at the destination will be drastically different from the current weather.

Not a Tesla App

Weather At Destination

When you’re navigating to a destination and viewing the full navigation direction list, the text under the arrival time will show you the expected weather next to your destination. You can also tap this, and the full weather pop-up will show up, showing your destination's full set of weather information.

Note the weather under the arrival time

Not a Tesla App

You can also tap the weather icon at the top of the interface at any time and tap Destination to switch between the weather at your current location and the weather at your destination.

You’re probably considering that the weather at your destination doesn’t matter when you’re three hours away - but that’s all taken into account by the trip planner. It will add in both charge time and travel time and show you the weather at your destination at your expected arrival time.

And if the weather is drastically different or inclement, such as rain or snow, while you’ve got sunshine and rainbows - the weather will be shown above the destination ETA for a few moments before it tucks itself away.

Tesla also recently introduced a new voice command. Asking, “What’s the weather?” or something similar will now bring up Tesla’s weather popup.

The weather pop-up above the ETA

Not a Tesla App

One limitation, though—if you’re planning a long road trip that is more than a day of driving, the weather at destination feature won’t be available until you get closer.

Weather Radar Overlay

As part of the improvements to weather, Tesla has also added a radar overlay for precipitation. You can access the new radar overlay by tapping the map and then tapping the weather icon on the right side of the map. It’ll bring up a radar overlay centered on your vehicle. It’ll animate through the radar data over the last 3 hours so that you can see the direction of the storm, but you can also pause it at any point.

You’re able to scroll around in this view and see the weather anywhere, even if you zoom out. It also works while you’re driving, although it can be a little confusing if you’re trying to pay attention to the navigation system. If you like to have Points of Interest enabled on your map, the weather overlay will hide POIs except for Charging POIs.

Requirements / Data

Unfortunately, you’ll need Premium Connectivity for any of the weather features to work, and being on WiFi or using a hotspot will not be enough to get the data to show up. The data, including the weather radar, is provided by The Weather Channel.

As for supported models, weather and weather at destination are available on all vehicles except for the 2012-2020 Model S and Model X. The weather radar has more strict requirements and requires the newer AMD Ryzen-powered infotainment center available on the 2021+ Model S and Model X and more recent Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.

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