Aftermarket Tesla CarPlay and Android Auto Devices

[jerome8283]

Push the Tesla app icon on the CarPlay Home Screen, takes you to T2C settings.

The icon may look like this if you did not modify it within settings.

 

[Mandingo]

The Ownice T1 I just received mentioned a Compatibility Mode "for earlier car such as the 2019 Tesla with Atom chipset" for better performance. Not sure if this gives you any better info but just thought I should put it out.

I tried this on my MY2023 - it is significantly lower resolution (“zoomed in”) but the screen refresh is much faster. I think I’ll keep it this way for a few days and see how it works out.

 

[sbtz]

I just received the Ownice T1 12 days after order. I have not tested the 2 phone situation yet, since it is mostly my wife driving on her own. But I want to chime in a data point from using Tesla Android for quite a few months. On Tesla Android, it depends on the Carlinkit to connect to iPhone, and in situations of 2 iPhones showing up about the same time, it seems usually the phone that was connected the last time will connect first. And if the connected phone got out of range, the Carlinkit will go back to searching for device, and if the other phone is present, it will connect to it. This could take some time, and occasionally require a reboot. Also, the latest Autokit version made it worse for me.

I got the Ownice mainly for the 2 wifi so I can use the phone hotspot and skip having another SIM card to maintain. I want the car to remain online so I can receive data and also use Tesla nav with online information. This part seems to setup well on first try, but will have to see how it performs as we drive around.

I notice one feature that seem to have not been mentioned. The Ownice will disconnect wifi with Tesla when CarPlay is not active, so if you leave car without powering off Ownice, car should shortly return to LTE, I have to observe this more to see if true. If so, on days when you are in and out frequently, you can just leave it powered.

What's your understanding of how this "2 wifi" works? Is it somehow actually 2 separate chipsets and/or connections concurrently? With a lot of these products, I've found that their descriptions are either purposely misleading or just inaccurate (i.e. maybe 2/dual wifi actually really only means 2.5GHz/5GHz.)

If the Tesla needs to connect to the Ownice (or T2C) box via wifi, how's it supposed to remain "online" unless it utilizes personal hotspot with a phone (via bluetooth) or a SIM?

 

[Mandingo]

I tried this on my MY2023 - it is significantly lower resolution (“zoomed in”) but the screen refresh is much faster. I think I’ll keep it this way for a few days and see how it works out.

View attachment 937121

Here’s the thing after trying this for a while. It’s zoomed in but I don’t actually think the resolution is different which means the screen refresh isn’t much (any?) faster. So you just lose a bunch of information for no gain in smoothness since it is rendering and streaming the same amount of data.

I also did a drive with the T2C on v4.6 and it still exhibited the dropped connection midway through the drive (T2C black config screen stayed up for 10 seconds then went back to CarPlay) so I’m going to call the Stability a win for the Ownice that doesn’t exhibit this same behavior.

 

[Yipsan]

What's your understanding of how this "2 wifi" works? Is it somehow actually 2 separate chipsets and/or connections concurrently? With a lot of these products, I've found that their descriptions are either purposely misleading or just inaccurate (i.e. maybe 2/dual wifi actually really only means 2.5GHz/5GHz.)

If the Tesla needs to connect to the Ownice (or T2C) box via wifi, how's it supposed to remain "online" unless it utilizes personal hotspot with a phone (via bluetooth) or a SIM?

I think it is 2 wifi chip. One for connecting with Tesla, the other for connecting to a hotspot. The hotspot can be a travel router or your iPhone. For some time, I had the impression that when an iPhone is doing CarPlay it cannot also be doing hotspot, but that is wrong. So, when I read about the Ownice here, I thought it would help me eliminate the SIM I use on my Tesla Android setup. And the Ownice does that. I have also wondered if I can add a usb wifi adapter to the Tesla Android to achieve this, but I don't have the knowledge to achieve this, so I bought the Ownice.

However, I just tested the 2 phone situation. Seems like the Ownice can only reconnect with the last device automatically. So, say phone A was connected to it, then the next time, only phone B was present, you will need to get into Bluetooth of phone B to trigger a connection with the Ownice. It's not much work, just not automatic. Also the hotspot section of the Ownice can only remember one name and its corresponding password, so unless phone A and B have the same name and password, it could be another step if you want Tesla to be online.

Hope this helps. I still have only tested this in my garage, so no actual drives yet.

 

[sbtz]

I think it is 2 wifi chip. One for connecting with Tesla, the other for connecting to a hotspot. The hotspot can be a travel router or your iPhone. For some time, I had the impression that when an iPhone is doing CarPlay it cannot also be doing hotspot, but that is wrong. So, when I read about the Ownice here, I thought it would help me eliminate the SIM I use on my Tesla Android setup. And the Ownice does that. I have also wondered if I can add a usb wifi adapter to the Tesla Android to achieve this, but I don't have the knowledge to achieve this, so I bought the Ownice.

However, I just tested the 2 phone situation. Seems like the Ownice can only reconnect with the last device automatically. So, say phone A was connected to it, then the next time, only phone B was present, you will need to get into Bluetooth of phone B to trigger a connection with the Ownice. It's not much work, just not automatic. Also the hotspot section of the Ownice can only remember one name and its corresponding password, so unless phone A and B have the same name and password, it could be another step if you want Tesla to be online.

Hope this helps. I still have only tested this in my garage, so no actual drives yet.

Thanks for the explanation - I guess I'm still hung up on how the Ownice would essentially have to combine or bridge the two wifi connections for the car to have any connectivity at all. So the Tesla's wifi is occupied by the Ownice, which would then need to provide an internet connection through that connection so the car would have internet. How it'd do so between the two wifi connections is a mystery. I'm assuming this is why the T2C handles hotspot through bluetooth.

 

[Mandingo]

CarPlay Dashboard view on Ownice

 

[ricksli]

I've played with the compatibility mode on my 2018. It's too big and I didn't see any noticeable improvement in performance.

I mentioned earlier, but for Waze I turned off Auto Zoom. That made a big difference in smoothing out Waze as the zooming is where it seemed to build up some lag for me.

 

[InfamousGeek]

One thing I just realized, the Ownice device connects to the phone hotspot through wifi, but I think the Carlinkit T2C is doing so through bluetooth because I don't remember having to enter my hotspot password for it to work. This could explain (partially) why I was having problems with Facetime audio with the T2C, some kind of bluetooth conflict or something.

This being said, the one thing I find annoying with my iPhone Wifi Hotspot feature is that I always need to open the Personnal Hotspot settings page on the phone for it to be discoverable. Does anybody else experience this?

 

[sbtz]

One thing I just realized, the Ownice device connects to the phone hotspot through wifi, but I think the Carlinkit T2C is doing so through bluetooth because I don't remember having to enter my hotspot password for it to work. This could explain (partially) why I was having problems with Facetime audio with the T2C, some kind of bluetooth conflict or something.

This being said, the one thing I find annoying with my iPhone Wifi Hotspot feature is that I always need to open the Personnal Hotspot settings page on the phone for it to be discoverable. Does anybody else experience this?

Can you create a Shortcut/Automation to have your phone activate Personal Hotspot when it connects to CarPlay?

 

[InfamousGeek]

Can you create a Shortcut/Automation to have your phone activate Personal Hotspot when it connects to CarPlay?

I usually just leave it on all the time but the Ownice (or any other device I want to use) won't connect automatically unless i go on the Personnal Hotspot section in the phone settings (even if it was already on). Kind of a weird iPhone behaviour...

 

[Mandingo]

I usually just leave it on all the time but the Ownice (or any other device I want to use) won't connect automatically unless i go on the Personnal Hotspot section in the phone settings (even if it was already on). Kind of a weird iPhone behaviour...

I haven’t even set up the hotspot and CarPlay works 100% - maps, streaming music, iMessage etc. What are the functions I am missing by not having hotspot enabled?

 

[InfamousGeek]

I haven’t even set up the hotspot and CarPlay works 100% - maps, streaming music, iMessage etc. What are the functions I am missing by not having hotspot enabled?

Its just to supply connectivity to your car, not the Carplay apps. If you don't set it up, your Tesla is "off the grid", which is not the end of the world but might come in handy if let's say you want to momentarily use your browser to access the web then go back to Carplay.

 

[Zilla91]

Hi all. I've just purchased the Carlinkit T2C adapter for my 22 Model 3/Y.

I was wondering if anyone could recommend some optimal settings as I've got mine set to HD but it seems a bit laggy and the picture quality is a bit blurry.

I've also noticed that the built in Tesla media apps won't load when using my phone's internet connection - is this normal? Web browser and the Tesla route planning appear to be working as normal.

Finally I've seen some people mentioning Ownice... is this any better than the Carlinkit adapter? I've still got 30 days to return it so if it's better I may as well cut my losses and swap it for that while I still can

 

[Yipsan]

So I played with the ownice a bit more and noticed that while the car have access to internet through my phone hotspot, my phone app cannot see the car. So, the car was not talking with the mothership for some reason. I can access the Internet through Tesla browser but there is always a warning sign in front of the url. also, since the car think it is offline, voice commands are show as error. It does not seem to happen when running Tesla Android setup with sim modem. So, is Tesla blocking something?

 

[Yipsan]

I usually just leave it on all the time but the Ownice (or any other device I want to use) won't connect automatically unless i go on the Personnal Hotspot section in the phone settings (even if it was already on). Kind of a weird iPhone behaviour...

I have setup automation to turn on hotspot when CarPlay starts, this seems to allow the ownice to connect automatically.

 

[Mandingo]

Finally I've seen some people mentioning Ownice... is this any better than the Carlinkit adapter? I've still got 30 days to return it so if it's better I may as well cut my losses and swap it for that while I still can

I respectfully recommend you read this whole thread, lots of good information here including side by side comparisons

 

[timeshifter]

I've also noticed that the built in Tesla media apps won't load when using my phone's internet connection - is this normal? Web browser and the Tesla route planning appear to be working as normal.

I don't think that's normal. When you say "won't load" do you mean they don't appear on screen at all, or that there's just nothing playing through once you open those apps? Which apps specifically?

 

[Zilla91]

I don't think that's normal. When you say "won't load" do you mean they don't appear on screen at all, or that there's just nothing playing through once you open those apps? Which apps specifically?

I've tried Apple music, TuneIn and Spotify. I open the apps but it just times out and presents a reload button.

It's actually sorted itself out when I looked at it just now, must have just need a deep sleep

 

[ricksli]

Disappointed to report that since my last Tesla update, my Ownice T3 has lost some stability with the browser closing on its own and some loss of responsiveness.