What to expect from Tesla’s 2024 Summer Update

Each summer, Tesla releases its annual ‘Summer Update,’ which typically includes improvements, important bug fixes, and the occasional new feature. The 2024 release should be rolling out any day now, and as a Tesla owner myself, I’m looking forward to a slew of updates for my Model Y. So, what exactly can we expect in the Summer Update?

New music streaming apps

Tesla will add native app support for Amazon Music and YouTube Music to all of its vehicles. The company currently supports Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal.

Parental Controls

Tesla’s software already supports PIN to drive, valet mode, and speed limits, all configurable from within the Tesla app. But until now, the company hasn’t offered a cohesive parental control package.

The update will add a PIN system for parents to apply a maximum speed limit, restrict the acceleration mode to ‘Chill,’ force certain active safety settings to be set to ‘on,’ and add a nifty little feature called ‘send curfew notifications’ that will notify parents if their child is driving the car between certain hours.

Additional Google Maps features

The navigation in the Tesla operating system is powered by Google Maps, but its feature set is limited by how much Tesla is willing to pay for additional features from Google. Over the years, Tesla has slowly added more features to meet drivers who are accustomed to using the full version of Google Maps.

Recently, Tesla added waypoints, allowing users to add stops along the way to a destination. Now the Summer Update is adding sub-destinations, such as choosing specific terminals when you navigate to a large airport. I personally love that the Google integration has gotten richer over the years.

Enhanced weather forecast and air quality info

A simple but useful update is an enhancement to your car’s temperature reporting. Now, when drivers tap on the temperature, the car will pull up a detailed weather report and notify them if poor air quality has been reported in their area.

Details on this change are sparse, and I’m very curious to test it as soon as I get the update. Tesla has said that the climate control interface for the Model 3 and Model Y has been rethought to make it “more intuitive” and “less visually complex.” Some reports say this will include more detailed fan speed controls, including the passenger and rear fans.

Related

Tesla is selling karaoke mics for your car, for some reason

It’s one of many gimmick products Tesla and other Musk companies have shipped.

TeslaMic now supported in the United States

Tesla released a set of proprietary mics in China compatible with the in-car Caraoke app. Now, Tesla has brought the TeslaMic to the US, and we’ll be testing them as soon as we can get our hands on them.

Gaming updates and more

The Summer Update is also adding a few gaming improvements, including added touch support for Castle Doombad and some tweaks in a couple of other titles.

Additionally, your Tesla will now reduce the AC fan speeds when you are on a call if the fans are above a certain threshold. This is one I’m looking forward to, as I always get slightly annoyed when I first get in the car, the AC starts blasting, and someone calls me soon after. I have to manually turn down the fans so that they can hear me.

The update will also bring some small updates to preconditioning and charging, allowing one-time scheduling as well as more detailed recurring schedules. In another small addition, users will now be able to control the brightness of their car’s ambient lighting.

Availability and release date

The Tesla Summer Update should be rolling out soon with all the above tweaks and more, after which we Tesla drivers will be anxiously anticipating the yearly Winter Update.