What is Tesla Premium Connectivity and What's included

Tesla vehicles receive constant updates to improve functionality, add features, improve reliability and even add games. Teslas will also send you notifications on your phone when your car alarm goes off, if you left your car unlocked, or if the charge level is critically low.

What is Premium Connectivity?

All Teslas come standard with WiFi and cellular modems. When connecting to WiFi either through your home's network or through a hotspot, most features in your Tesla are free to use. However when utilizing your car's cellular connection some features are limited to Tesla's premium connectivity package.

Cost of Premium Connectivity?

Tesla's Premium Connectivity package currently costs $10/month per car in the US. Cars sold before June 30, 2018 include free premium connectivity.

As of February 2022, Tesla has also added a yearly plan for Premium Connectivity in the US. The price of the annual plan is $99/year. You can subscribe to the monthly or the yearly plan by using the Tesla app. In the Tesla app go to the Upgrades section and then tap Manage. If you currently subscribe to the monthly plan, you can also switch to yearly in this same section.

What is included for free, without Premium Connectivity?

The most important data features are included for free in your Tesla, such as phone notifications, software updates, updated navigation maps and even optimal navigation routing that takes live traffic into account.

What does Premium Connectivity include?

The features that require premium connectivity have mostly to do with entertainment while parked or driving. Keep in mind that all entertainment features are available to you if you're connected to WiFi or a hotspot.

Entertainment features that require premium connectivity include music streaming, such as Slacker and Spotify. It also includes video streaming services while parked such as Netflix, Disney+, YouTube and a few others. Keep in mind that some of those services still require a subscription. For example, YouTube is available for free, but Netflix requires a paid subscription. Tesla's premium connectivity simply lets you use the car's data connection to stream those services.

Additional services included in Premium Connectivity are:

• Internet browser - Browse the web to look up restaurants, destinations or other information. It can be used by the passenger while driving.
• Caraoke - Tesla's version of Karaoke which features hundreds of songs and displays the lyrics on the screen.
• Satellite view maps - This displays satellite imagery in your navigation instead of just the terrain view with streets.
• Live traffic visualizations - Traffic visualizations will show you which roads are congested and where traffic jams are located by coloring in the roads in various colors. The traffic view can be turned on or off by tapping the Live Traffic icon on the right side of the maps.
• Traffic Along Route - With Premium Connectivity, your route will be colored in various colors to highlight the areas with traffic.
• Traffic Lights and Speed Camera Icons - Traffic lights, stop signs, speed camera locations and other icons are displayed on the map.
• Traffic in Trip Progress Bar - The vehicle's trip progress bar will show you an overview of the traffic along your entire trip.
• Sentry Mode Videos in the App - If your video has Sentry Mode armed and there is an event, the Tesla app will notify you with a notification of the event and a one-minute video clip. The video clips can also be viewed in the app.
• Sentry Mode Live Access - You can view the live feed of most cameras on the vehicle within the app. Simply make sure Sentry Mode is activated and go to Security and tap on live view.
• Average Speed Zones - If your region uses average speed zones, your Tesla will now display when the speed zone started, how much longer until it ends and your average speed.
• Zoom - You can connect to meetings with the Zoom app (AMD Ryzen processor vehiciles only)
• Steam - You can download and play some Steam games on Model S and Model X vehicles that have access to Steam.

*These features are only available in some vehicles. Steam requires a 2021+ Model S or Model X with 16GB of ram or more, but it's not available on every model. Zoom is only available on vehicles with the AMD Ryzen processor.

Can I share my phone's data (hotspot) with my Tesla?

Yes, with software update 2021.24 and later, you can now choose to share your phone's data connection with your Tesla. It'll get you access to most of the features included with premium connectivity such as music streaming, internet browsing and you'll be able to use all of them while driving.

However there are two features that aren't available without Tesla's premium connectivity, even if you're using your phone as a hotspot. They include the live traffic visualization and the satellite imagery in maps.

Those two features aren't included when on WiFi or using a hotspot because they cost Tesla more than just the data to get them to you. Google provides Tesla both of those features for a fee. Tesla is simply including those fees they pay Google in their premium connectivity package price. So Tesla decides to not provide these features unless you're paying for the premium package.

Find out more about the remain connected to WiFi while in drive.

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Tesla Releases FSD V12.6.1 for Model 3 & Model Y

Not a Tesla App

Last night, Tesla released software update 2024.45.25.15, which includes FSD V12.6.1. This update adds support for all HW3 vehicles, including the Model 3 and Model Y. We’re excited to see the continued support for HW3 owners. 

FSD V12.6.1

V12.6.1 is now going wide, according to Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s VP of AI. This update is going to the Model 3 and Model Y for the first time - as only the Model S and Model X were included in FSD V12.6. 

V12.6 is a big step forward for HW3 - it includes End-to-End on Highway, Improved City Streets Behavior, and Smoother and More Accurate Tracking - all contributing towards a better, smoother, and more comfortable build of FSD. You can read our comparison between FSD V12.6 and V13.2.2 here. 

In short, FSD V12.6 performs considerably closer to V13 than V12.5.4.2 - which is a massive improvement. It performs as well as the Cybertruck version of FSD V13, which is still missing a few features when compared to other HW4 vehicles, but it’s a great sign for HW3. A lot of the improvements can be pointed to in the improvements to lane selection and decision-making - the vehicle tends to hesitate far less on V12.6, meaning the ride is a lot smoother. Many early V12.6 testers mentioned that it felt more like V13-mini than anything else.

Legacy Model S & X

We haven’t seen this update hit any legacy Model S and Model X vehicles just yet. We’re not sure whether Ashok’s statement of “generally” applies here - but it should. If you do get the update, please let us know.

Legacy Model S and Model X vehicles are still on an older FSD build and potentially won’t see another FSD update for a little while longer. While they do have the same FSD hardware as other vehicles, there are enough hardware differences that require a build specifically for these vehicles.

Release Date

FSD V12.6.1 is going out now to the redesigned Model S and X with HW3 and all Model 3 and Model Y vehicles with HW3. The initial wave went out last night, and we expect to see more later today or tomorrow. If this release ends up going “wide,” we should see much larger waves go out next week.

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Tesla Issues Physical & OTA Recall for Hardware 4 Computer

Not a Tesla App

Tesla has issued a recall for some vehicles due to issues linked to a revision of the Hardware 4 (HW4) computer that was introduced this past November. This recall affects all vehicles with the revised hardware except for the Cybertruck, as it uses a slightly modified version of the HW4 system.

Many vehicle owners have reported a complete failure of their Autopilot computer, which not only leaves the vehicle without FSD and Autopilot but also disables many of the active safety features that make a Tesla what it is.

Let’s take a look at this recall - because the recall is partially physical and partially a software recall.

HW4 Failure

Tesla has identified the failure and flagged it to the U.S. NHTSA (but not Transport Canada or Euro NCAP at the time of publishing) as a recall.

Tesla mentions that the vehicle’s FSD computer circuit board may short circuit, resulting in the loss of the rearview camera image. The recall itself is focused on the rearview camera - as not having a functional rearview camera breaks a Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard. However, it does impact more than just the rearview camera.

As previously mentioned, users have experienced the full loss of Autopilot and FSD on these vehicles, as well as reduced traction control and removal of safety features such as automatic emergency braking, collision avoidance assist, and forward collision warnings. 

While the vehicle remains driveable, it is not necessarily a good idea to drive the vehicle with many of these features, especially with the reduced traction control noted by many people. We’ve already noted that while Tesla has been sending tow trucks to pick up some vehicles, it is also prompting owners to drive the vehicle to their service center in some cases.

Remedy

Unlike most of Tesla’s recalls, this one isn’t entirely an OTA recall, owing to the fact that people have already experienced circuit board shorts and are already waiting for replacements.

The software portion of the recall has already been mostly completed for any vehicles with Tesla software update 2024.45.25.3 or greater. However, a significant portion of the tracked fleet remains on update 2024.44.25.2 (approximately 20%), so we recommend updating your HW4 vehicle whenever you receive the notification.

On the hardware side, Tesla is immediately identifying and replacing hardware that has had circuit board failure. Tesla is also reaching out to customers who have expressed intermittent issues with Autopilot features, active safety features, or vehicle cameras that don't display correctly. If you have experienced any of these issues in a late 2024 vehicle, we recommend submitting a service ticket with Tesla to ensure that your vehicle isn’t affected by this recall.

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