Tesla to add option to turn off your wireless charger

February 25, 2022

By Gabe Rodriguez Morrison

Tesla introduced the Model 3 in late 2017. The Model 3 came equipped with a phone dock that was capable of charging your device when you slid it into the dock.

Tesla to allow you to disable your wireless charger

However, adding a wireless phone charger to your Tesla quickly became a popular upgrade. Companies such as Jeda and Nomad offer retrofits to make your vehicle capable of wireless charging your phone.

In 2019 Tesla added their own built-in wireless charger to the Model 3. However, some users prefer to use the phone caddy as a simple phone holder and would like the option to turn it off.

There are various reasons why you may not want to constantly charge your device.

In the same way that charging your car battery to 100% isn't a good idea (unless you have an LFP battery), keeping your phone at 100% isn't ideal either.

It's a good idea to stop charging your device when the additional charge isn’t needed because excess heat and keeping your battery at a high state of charge can have negative effects on your battery life.

Some users prefer not to wirelessly charge their phones due to heat issues while some users' phone cases are incompatible due to their design, material or other reasons.

As per the request of Twitter user @24_7TeslaNews, Tesla will soon add the ability to turn off wireless phone chargers in your vehicle.

Ok
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 16, 2022

Another potential feature for this update could be to automatically turn the wireless charger off once the phone is sufficiently charged.

If the phone is connected to Bluetooth, the vehicle can read the phone’s battery level and charge it accordingly. It would be advantageous if Tesla automatically disabled the wireless charger when the phone is fully charged and automatically enabled it when the battery is low.

All Tesla owners that have wireless phone chargers can at minimum expect a manual on/off feature to come in an upcoming software update.

Tesla's Android App Lags Behind Apple's: The Missing Features

September 6, 2024

By Karan Singh

Maxim

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.

Musk Says Tesla 'Actually Smart Summon' Goes Wide Next Week: What to Expect

September 5, 2024

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

Elon Musk has confirmed on X that Actually Smart Summon, will be going to wide release next week. Let’s take a look at what that means in the context of Tesla updates – because we know for sure it won’t be on every single vehicle next week.

Actually Smart Summon

The new feature set of Actually Smart Summon is fairly broad, and it's a feature that many have been waiting a long time for. So far, it's been completely unavailable on vehicles without ultrasonic sensors (USS) and has been more of a party trick on older vehicles that did have the sensors. It was pretty much only safely usable in straight lines and with direct supervision.

This updated version of Smart Summon uses Tesla Vision – just like AutoPark, to accomplish the task in a faster and safer manner. You’ll be able to summon your vehicle from its parking spot to another location or have it come directly to you.

Wide Release

Wide release will include hardware 3 and AI4 vehicles alike – as some early access HW3 testers have already received update 2024.27.20 with FSD 12.5.3 and Actually Smart Summon. As a reminder, in order to be able to use Actually Smart Summon, you’ll need to be subscribed to or own FSD and be in North America at this time. It’ll eventually be available to users with Enhanced Autopilot, when FSD 12.5 and Actually Smart Summon become part of the regular feature releases.

This wide release will come in gradual, small waves at first. These small waves serve as a test pool for Tesla to ensure that the update is safe to install on a wider pool of vehicles. After that, it’ll go out in larger waves. Once large waves start getting pushed out, it takes approximately a week for most users to receive the update.

Expect Tesla to start rolling out update 2024.27.20 with Actually Smart Summon next week, and if everything goes well, waves will continuously get larger and most users will have it about a week later. Unfortunately, if there are issues found with Summon or FSD 12.5.3, there will be a delay while Tesla issues a patch.

Other Regions

This release is only going out to North America for the time being – as it is only available on the primary FSD release branch. Eventually, it will be released to users with EAP in North America, as well as other regions.

This will happen when Tesla bundles FSD V12.5 with its feature updates, which will likely happen later this year. At the moment, Tesla is still bundling FSD V12.3.6 with its newest feature release update, 2024.32. So for those waiting for vision-based Actually Smart Summon in other regions, you’ll likely be waiting at least a month before it hits the regular feature branch.

We’re still waiting for Park Seek and Banish Autopark, but seeing Actually Smart Summon finally show up, including for hardware 3 vehicles is exciting. September is going to be a month filled with good Tesla news, including the Cybertruck getting FSD and all the other news that Tesla announced for September.