Aftermarket Tesla CarPlay and Android Auto Devices

[ricksli]

Can you elaborate? If my phone isn’t connected to the autokit then CarPlay doesn’t work. But I have noticed that when there’s an issue, my phone displays the wifi signal in the upper right corner. When it’s smooth, it still shows as connected to the autokit wifi in my settings but the icon in at the top of my screen only displays 5G.

I’ve forgotten the wifi 200 times and this behavior comes back. If I toggle my wifi off and on it will sometimes work as expected.

Carlinkit says to not connect your phone's wifi to the device otherwise they say that the phone tries to use the device's WiFi and results in performance/connectivity issues. If you did, just forget/ignore the netowrk on your phone.

Also, don't know if you upgraded recently but there's also a new firmware update to 4.0. I never tried it, but it looks like it only requires Bluetooth and Wifi connections now and not the personal hotspot.

 

[Mikecm1]

Carlinkit says to not connect your phone's wifi to the device otherwise they say that the phone tries to use the device's WiFi and results in performance/connectivity issues. If you did, just forget/ignore the netowrk on your phone.

Also, don't know if you upgraded recently but there's also a new firmware update to 4.0. I never tried it, but it looks like it only requires Bluetooth and Wifi connections now and not the personal hotspot.

That’s strange. Mines never worked if I don’t connect to its wifi from my phone. Fully updated too. I’ll look into it more later today.

 

[jerome8283]

That’s strange. Mines never worked if I don’t connect to its wifi from my phone. Fully updated too. I’ll look into it more later today.

I believe mine works the same Wi-Fi connected to the phone

 

[jerome8283]

I believe mine works the same Wi-Fi connected to the phone

I take that back. It does not connect to WiFi via my phone.

 

[InfamousGeek]

Hello everyone,

So I bought the Carlinkit T2C device a couple a weeks ago and have been using it on a 2023 Model X since then. I must say that despite the couple of annoyances that came with it I am mostly satisfied and very happy to finally have Carplay in my Tesla.

The biggest problems I had were fixed, thanks to the contributors of this thread, by ticking the “Remain connected in Drive” box for the home wifi and by finding a switched power source.

Refreshed Model S/X owners will be happy to know that the 12v power socket located just below the two usb-c outlets inside the console is indeed switched! So no need to look any further. (I believe it's the same for older Model S/X with MCU2)

On that subject, here’s a link to a pretty comprehensive guide on Teslatap that pretty much sums up where you can get power sources on most Teslas:
Accessory Power Guide 12v/5v – TeslaTap

Now the only problems I still have with the T2C are:

- When I make a facebook audio call while the device is connected I get a delay in the voice transmission and it’s cutting off a lot. Which is weird since the call isn’t going through the T2C device at all…
- If I exit the browser to go in another Tesla app for a while and come back to the browser, the connection to the phone is lost and I have to trigger the bluetooth off and on to get it back
- not always stable - occasional temporary disconnection
- Wifi that keeps turning off whenever leaving the car for x amount of time, which turns out to be a major annoyance but that one is on Tesla, not the T2C. I can only imagine how frustrated must be the Tesla owners that are not on premium connectivity and relying on their phone’s hotspot for data…

I also ordered the Ownice device out of curiosity. Just like @Mandingo, I will only receive it in a couple of weeks.

 

[Mandingo]

- When I make a facebook audio call while the device is connected I get a delay in the voice transmission and it’s cutting off a lot. Which is weird since the call isn’t going through the T2C device at all…
- If I exit the browser to go in another Tesla app for a while and come back to the browser, the connection to the phone is lost and I have to trigger the bluetooth off and on to get it back

Glad you’re getting a good experience and super convenient to have 12v socket switched already on the X.

Have you tested the Facebook calls just using Bluetooth without CarPlay active?

For browser connection getting lost, as long as the Wi-Fi is still active I can usually bring CarPlay back by hitting refresh on the browser or hitting the tespush bookmark.

 

[ricksli]

I'm anxious to hear some feedback from those of you getting the Ownice. I am really enjoying mine. I have none of the establishing connection nuances with this device compared to my experience with the T2C (v3.0).

I'm still deciding whether to make it switched or not. The only real nuance leaving it on is having the phone still connect to it when I'm outside the Tesla/in the house and it hasn't powered down yet. And it's easy enough to just use the USB switch if I want to power it down. If I'm going to be in/out of the car often/quickly, it's nice to leave it on to have it available instantly when I return.

 

[jerome8283]

Great to hear other options are available. The nuances that you mention, as you know, will likely not go away with either device. I have a on/off switch with the T2C too but no longer use it. I leave it on while in the house now. It will connect if I’m close enough to the car but I just remember not to do it. It’s only when I’m in my bedroom this happens and I’m just not connecting to the car as often as I used to.

 

[InfamousGeek]

For those wondering what the difference between the Ownice T1 & T3 here is what the company had to say:

"T1 is cheaper, without brand logo, with ordinary craftsmanship, one power cord, and normal battery life T3 has stronger heat dissipation, comes with an Ownice brand gift box, two power cables, ultra long battery life, and more exquisite craftsmanship"

Battery life?! @ricksli can you confirm, does it come with a battery?

 

[ricksli]

There's no battery that I'm aware of unless it's something internal. I've seen specs saying that T3 has a better circuit board compared to T1...maybe that's what they mean.

 

[timeshifter]

I'm anxious to hear some feedback from those of you getting the Ownice. I am really enjoying mine. I have none of the establishing connection nuances with this device compared to my experience with the T2C (v3.0).

Are you using a hotspot or a SIM? Or are you "off the grid"?

 

[timeshifter]

I've had this thing for about three months so far. When I first set it up it defaulted to hotspot mode, even though I put a SIM in it. I thought maybe the SIM wasn't working and that's why it went to hotspot mode. Well, I just switch to SIM mode tonight. Seems to work OK in the garage. Will test it out over the coming days and let you know what I think.

Anyone else used it both ways?

 

[ricksli]

Are you using a hotspot or a SIM? Or are you "off the grid"?

No hotspot or SIM (no SIM on the Ownice). All I connected is bluetooth and Wifi for initial setup. Only time I have to do anything to re-establish connection is if I have to turn the Tesla's WiFi back on...and then the Ownice will automatically connect again.

 

[timeshifter]

No hotspot or SIM (no SIM on the Ownice).

Gotcha.

Just want to reiterate for anyone following along, that means your Tesla is not connected to the Internet when you're connected to your Ownice device (or T2C for others who are not using a SIM or hotspot).

For a background... Mike Gapinski is the developer of Tesla Android Project. His project is what the T2C and Ownice are based on. He had the idea to create a WiFi network that the Tesla would connect to to make this happen. In early versions you had to have an Internet connection on his devices. The problem was that the Tesla would disconnect from a WiFi network that was not connected to the broader Internet.

In a later release he figured out how to trick the Tesla into thinking it was online. (Not sure how this was done, of if I'm describing the theory correctly.) So now you could run his project without the need for a SIM or hotspot.

I'm not fully aware of everything you're giving up if you're "off the grid" while driving your Tesla and using a T2C or Ownice without a live connection.

For me I can't:
Rely on Teslafi.com to log my driving data. If I'm not connected the drive didn't happen
Use Tesla's nav and satellite maps effectively (I'm a Premium Connectivity subscriber)
Use any of the streaming services the Tesla offers

I wish I could find a better listing of what and when Tesla cars use connectivity for while driving. I looked but most of it was discussions about Premium connectivity service.

 

[ricksli]

I should add that I have Premium Connectivity as well. With the Ownice, my nav and satellite maps work fine and I've run it in conjunction with Waze on CarPlay to experiment. With the T2C, Tesla nav worked, but was slow and usually locked up.

In the unlikely situation I wanted to use anything from Tesla, this is where the USB on/off switch comes in handy. Just press the switch and car switches back to Tesla Premium Connectivity.

 

[timeshifter]

With the Ownice, my nav and satellite maps work fine

I can't fit that in my brain. So you're not using your phone as a hotspot, there is no SIM, which means when the car connects to the Ownice there is no connection to the Internet. Try searching for a business or a known address in the Tesla nav when connected to your Ownice. I'm guessing it works as it's using data it's already cached.

 

[Mandingo]

Just want to reiterate for anyone following along, that means your Tesla is not connected to the Internet when you're connected to your Ownice device (or T2C for others who are not using a SIM or hotspot).

I think the tesla

I can't fit that in my brain. So you're not using your phone as a hotspot, there is no SIM, which means when the car connects to the Ownice there is no connection to the Internet. Try searching for a business or a known address in the Tesla nav when connected to your Ownice. I'm guessing it works as it's using data it's already cached.

When CarPlay is active the iPhone‘s cellular connection is being used for data - maps, Spotify streaming etc. It is likely that that data connection is shared with the Ownice box and the Tesla too.

 

[timeshifter]

Well then maybe what we have here is a failure to communicate

I keep talking about using a SIM or a hotspot. @ricksli and maybe others are saying they like the Ownice because it doesn't need either of those things.

To clarify, when talking about a SIM that's probably pretty clear that we're talking about the device acting as its own cellular modem and the Tesla gets its data connection off of that.

When I say hotspot I'm talking about using my iPhone as the hotspot, not some separate device or what have you. Maybe when others say their device doesn't need a hotspot they mean it doesn't need something extra - but they're using their iPhone's cellular data aka a hotspot.

In lieu of either of those two options then packets get sent to a null zone. Your Tesla is offline at that point.

Does that make sense?

 

[ricksli]

Thought I'd add the info from Ownice...

Also, I'm assuming because I have Tesla Premium Activity (although not actively using it with Ownice connected) I still retain Live Traffic Visualizations when using the Ownice simultaneously. Thinking they were perhaps connection based (in addition to subscription based) I thought they might not work when not using the Tesla's connectivity, but I confirmed they do this morning.

 

[InfamousGeek]

@ricksli : From what I understand, the Ownice device is capable of using your phone's hotspot, but you don't have that feature turned on, correct?