Carlink T2C wireless Carplay kit for Tesla

[timeshifter]

That is my concern with the Tesla Android project. I see frequent talk about apps beyond CarPlay and Android Auto… if it’s going to be used for things like YouTube, Netflix, Hulu or other apps that could distract the driver then Tesla may feel compelled to shut it down.

In some countries I think you can’t keep WiFi connected while in drive, which makes these devices useless.

 

[jerome8283]

And distract from the original intent, CarPlay.

 

[jerome8283]

What T2C firmware version are you guys running?

 

[jerome8283]

This seller has the T2C for $76 with coupon code. Their site also lists the T2C “hotspot” only clearly. Just thought I’d share for those considering one.

 

[Mikecm1]

Looking forward to your new update, Mike!

Well, after a bunch of use I’ve realized that I don’t have to do any type of shortcut/automation hacking whatsoever. Here’s my experience so far:

1. Stable connection: Had a 300 mile road trip the other day and the t2c didn’t disconnect even once, and the browser window stayed open the whole time. The only app I was using was Spotify though, so maybe I would have had some hang ups if I used more apps.
2. Easy to initialize: After my initial setup, the ONLY step I have to do is either A.) wait for my car to connect to the autokit wifi or simply turn on wifi after I start my drive. Once I see my car is connected, I open the browser and click the icon for tespush and I’m connected. I was expecting to have to toggle my hotspot so it could connect each time since that’s a normal annoyance with most products using the phones internet connection. Happy about this!
   • From sleep: as mentioned previously it takes 30-60 seconds to boot and be ready for CarPlay. No big deal.
   • When out and about with sentry on: connects in 10-20 seconds
3. The not so good: This only happened once, and it was the only time I tried it, but when I used google maps to try and navigate somewhere, the GPS was delayed showing me further back on my route than I was, and the whole CarPlay froze until I disconnected and reconnected. The Apple Maps/google maps show the correct gps location otherwise. Not a problem for me because I use the tesla nav 100% of the time anyway. Might have been an anomaly since like I said I only tried it once.

I should note that my parking situation might be “ideal” for this thing. I have a detached garage about 150 feet from my house so accidental connections with my phone is a non-issue. I don’t have charging in my garage because I live immediately next to multiple L2 and L3 chargers for the same price or less than it would cost at home (SDG&E’s criminal prices), so the high cost to install a garage charger due to distance and wiring path doesn’t make sense. So when I park my car it goes to sleep within 20 minutes, every time.

If everyone needs it I could put together some shareable shortcuts/automations for iOS users, but they would only be theoretical as I don’t have issues I potentially would if my garage was closer to my living space.

All in all, VERY HAPPY with this thing. Pleasantly surprised on how awesome it is. Even my wife loves it, and she usually thinks all of my tesla tinkering is the most uninteresting thing on earth. In addition to the superior (in my opinion) UI for music, which is my main reason for wanting this, the sound quality is FAR superior to the built-in apps as I have my audio settings maxed out on my iPhone. I know there is compression going on over bluetooth, but 320kbps over BT sounds objectively better than the standard 96kbps streaming bitrate.

 

[ElectricAnt54]

Well, after a bunch of use I’ve realized that I don’t have to do any type of shortcut/automation hacking whatsoever. Here’s my experience so far:

1. Stable connection: Had a 300 mile road trip the other day and the t2c didn’t disconnect even once, and the browser window stayed open the whole time. The only app I was using was Spotify though, so maybe I would have had some hang ups if I used more apps.
2. Easy to initialize: After my initial setup, the ONLY step I have to do is either A.) wait for my car to connect to the autokit wifi or simply turn on wifi after I start my drive. Once I see my car is connected, I open the browser and click the icon for tespush and I’m connected. I was expecting to have to toggle my hotspot so it could connect each time since that’s a normal annoyance with most products using the phones internet connection. Happy about this!
   • From sleep: as mentioned previously it takes 30-60 seconds to boot and be ready for CarPlay. No big deal.
   • When out and about with sentry on: connects in 10-20 seconds
3. The not so good: This only happened once, and it was the only time I tried it, but when I used google maps to try and navigate somewhere, the GPS was delayed showing me further back on my route than I was, and the whole CarPlay froze until I disconnected and reconnected. The Apple Maps/google maps show the correct gps location otherwise. Not a problem for me because I use the tesla nav 100% of the time anyway. Might have been an anomaly since like I said I only tried it once.

I should note that my parking situation might be “ideal” for this thing. I have a detached garage about 150 feet from my house so accidental connections with my phone is a non-issue. I don’t have charging in my garage because I live immediately next to multiple L2 and L3 chargers for the same price or less than it would cost at home (SDG&E’s criminal prices), so the high cost to install a garage charger due to distance and wiring path doesn’t make sense. So when I park my car it goes to sleep within 20 minutes, every time.

If everyone needs it I could put together some shareable shortcuts/automations for iOS users, but they would only be theoretical as I don’t have issues I potentially would if my garage was closer to my living space.

All in all, VERY HAPPY with this thing. Pleasantly surprised on how awesome it is. Even my wife loves it, and she usually thinks all of my tesla tinkering is the most uninteresting thing on earth. I’m addition to the superior (in my opinion) UI for music, which is my main reason for wanting this, the sound quality is FAR superior to the built-in apps as I have my audio settings maxed out on my iPhone. I know there is compression going on over bluetooth, but 320kbps over BT sounds objectively better than the standard 96kbps streaming bitrate.

For fantastic audio, put good quality mp3 , ogg vorbis, or uncompressed flac audio on usb device and plug device in to usb ports. Tesla has a usb player. Note 2022+ model 3/y front usb-c module needs to be swapped out to make the ports able to handle data. I did it on my 2022 model y, when I feel the need for the best audio I switch to usb & tesla maps rather than phones Bluetooth audio & CarPlay nav/music gui.

 

[mclark2112]

Thanks for that! Just got the text today that my MYP will be available for pickup on Saturday! Can’t wait to try this out. My vehicle will be about 30 ft from my house, so I may have to play with some shortcuts, but I also got a usb c on/off button. I’ll have to see if either are even necessary.

 

[Mandingo]

I should note that my parking situation might be “ideal” for this thing. I have a detached garage about 150 feet from my house so accidental connections with my phone is a non-issue.

Yes, 150 feet is far enough to lose the connection naturally. My garages are below a section of my house that is probably 30 feet away in a direct line from my family room.

 

[Chet S]

Well, after a bunch of use I’ve realized that I don’t have to do any type of shortcut/automation hacking whatsoever. Here’s my experience so far:

1. Stable connection: Had a 300 mile road trip the other day and the t2c didn’t disconnect even once, and the browser window stayed open the whole time. The only app I was using was Spotify though, so maybe I would have had some hang ups if I used more apps.
2. Easy to initialize: After my initial setup, the ONLY step I have to do is either A.) wait for my car to connect to the autokit wifi or simply turn on wifi after I start my drive. Once I see my car is connected, I open the browser and click the icon for tespush and I’m connected. I was expecting to have to toggle my hotspot so it could connect each time since that’s a normal annoyance with most products using the phones internet connection. Happy about this!
   • From sleep: as mentioned previously it takes 30-60 seconds to boot and be ready for CarPlay. No big deal.
   • When out and about with sentry on: connects in 10-20 seconds
3. The not so good: This only happened once, and it was the only time I tried it, but when I used google maps to try and navigate somewhere, the GPS was delayed showing me further back on my route than I was, and the whole CarPlay froze until I disconnected and reconnected. The Apple Maps/google maps show the correct gps location otherwise. Not a problem for me because I use the tesla nav 100% of the time anyway. Might have been an anomaly since like I said I only tried it once.

I should note that my parking situation might be “ideal” for this thing. I have a detached garage about 150 feet from my house so accidental connections with my phone is a non-issue. I don’t have charging in my garage because I live immediately next to multiple L2 and L3 chargers for the same price or less than it would cost at home (SDG&E’s criminal prices), so the high cost to install a garage charger due to distance and wiring path doesn’t make sense. So when I park my car it goes to sleep within 20 minutes, every time.

If everyone needs it I could put together some shareable shortcuts/automations for iOS users, but they would only be theoretical as I don’t have issues I potentially would if my garage was closer to my living space.

All in all, VERY HAPPY with this thing. Pleasantly surprised on how awesome it is. Even my wife loves it, and she usually thinks all of my tesla tinkering is the most uninteresting thing on earth. In addition to the superior (in my opinion) UI for music, which is my main reason for wanting this, the sound quality is FAR superior to the built-in apps as I have my audio settings maxed out on my iPhone. I know there is compression going on over bluetooth, but 320kbps over BT sounds objectively better than the standard 96kbps streaming bitrate.

Hi Mike and thanks for the comprehensive write up! My experience since installing last week was very similar, and only con was lag you similar to what you noticed when I was using WAZE via CarPlay. Surprisingly it subjectively seems to be like 1000 to 2000 ms which is enough to miss turns if relying on that for nav. Unfortunately- that is my primary use case, although UI to access IOS messages and Pandora/Tidal were big improvements from native Tesla app.

 

[jerome8283]

I also noticed CarPlay lag and connection issues over the weekend. Perhaps this is why I switched back to the Tesla-android solution with a wired connection. I will continue to test more.

 

[JoeyLeee]

Well, after a bunch of use I’ve realized that I don’t have to do any type of shortcut/automation hacking whatsoever. Here’s my experience so far:

1. Stable connection: Had a 300 mile road trip the other day and the t2c didn’t disconnect even once, and the browser window stayed open the whole time. The only app I was using was Spotify though, so maybe I would have had some hang ups if I used more apps.
2. Easy to initialize: After my initial setup, the ONLY step I have to do is either A.) wait for my car to connect to the autokit wifi or simply turn on wifi after I start my drive. Once I see my car is connected, I open the browser and click the icon for tespush and I’m connected. I was expecting to have to toggle my hotspot so it could connect each time since that’s a normal annoyance with most products using the phones internet connection. Happy about this!
   • From sleep: as mentioned previously it takes 30-60 seconds to boot and be ready for CarPlay. No big deal.
   • When out and about with sentry on: connects in 10-20 seconds
3. The not so good: This only happened once, and it was the only time I tried it, but when I used google maps to try and navigate somewhere, the GPS was delayed showing me further back on my route than I was, and the whole CarPlay froze until I disconnected and reconnected. The Apple Maps/google maps show the correct gps location otherwise. Not a problem for me because I use the tesla nav 100% of the time anyway. Might have been an anomaly since like I said I only tried it once.

I should note that my parking situation might be “ideal” for this thing. I have a detached garage about 150 feet from my house so accidental connections with my phone is a non-issue. I don’t have charging in my garage because I live immediately next to multiple L2 and L3 chargers for the same price or less than it would cost at home (SDG&E’s criminal prices), so the high cost to install a garage charger due to distance and wiring path doesn’t make sense. So when I park my car it goes to sleep within 20 minutes, every time.

If everyone needs it I could put together some shareable shortcuts/automations for iOS users, but they would only be theoretical as I don’t have issues I potentially would if my garage was closer to my living space.

All in all, VERY HAPPY with this thing. Pleasantly surprised on how awesome it is. Even my wife loves it, and she usually thinks all of my tesla tinkering is the most uninteresting thing on earth. In addition to the superior (in my opinion) UI for music, which is my main reason for wanting this, the sound quality is FAR superior to the built-in apps as I have my audio settings maxed out on my iPhone. I know there is compression going on over bluetooth, but 320kbps over BT sounds objectively better than the standard 96kbps streaming bitrate.

Thank you for your update, Mike! Much appreciated it.

 

[JoeyLeee]

What T2C firmware version are you guys running?

They released a new firmware on March 7th, now it's v4.4.

 

[JoeyLeee]

For navigating with Google Maps, there was a lag issue with the GPS. I contacted their after-sales service and their suggestion is:
1. Clear the Tesla browser cache (service-clear browser data-clear data)
2. Clear the carplay connection record on the mobile phone and reconnect