EV Car/My Tesla - An Alexa skill for Amazon Echo / Tesla integration

[Akikiki]

First request that I can find in Amazon Echo history matches that time:

Alexa heard: "Alexa, open My Car" MyTesla Action: "Welcome" (gave "How can I help you")

Here's why. You opened a conversation not issued a command. When you said Alexa, open My Car, its a feature in his skill suite that allowed you to continue to issue commands until you said quit or cancel. Check out the commands in his skill set.

 

[WannabeOwner]

Thanks, sounds like a Newbie Error then ...

Can I see the Date/Time in the Alexa history? My recollection is that the "open" was a long time earlier, but I might be mistaken. 'T'was all new at that point in time ...

Without the "Open" the delay in getting COMMs seemed to timeout, but that may have been for other reasons of course, so I was thinking that would Wake Up the car, and then subsequent questions would work just fine.

 

[Akikiki]

Thanks, sounds like a Newbie Error then ...

Can I see the Date/Time in the Alexa history? My recollection is that the "open" was a long time earlier, but I might be mistaken. 'T'was all new at that point in time ...

Without the "Open" the delay in getting COMMs seemed to timeout, but that may have been for other reasons of course, so I was thinking that would Wake Up the car, and then subsequent questions would work just fine.

Ya know, it may be a Newbie Error, but you are still light years ahead of most others. Ya think the skills are cool, look at this.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/muse-alexa-voice-assistant-for-cars-car-bluetooth#/
Buy them in pairs and the price drops to $40 each.
What do you think?

 

[WannabeOwner]

What do you think?

I think that, based on my experience of Alexa, if I asked for something ("Stop at the red light") and it picked up some conversation from the back seat ("Hit it!") that might not turn out very well!

 

[bhakan]

I've created an Alexa skill that lets you monitor and control some Tesla functions using an Amazon Echo. You can get charge status, location & climate state. You can also control your car - flash lights, honk, start/stop charging, start/stop climate system and lock/unlock doors. This does not require setting up any servers and does not store the Tesla account credentials anywhere. A token is generated once and is used only by the Alexa services. If you already have a token, you can enter that directly.

To get started, go to your Echo and say "Alexa, enable EV Car". Now go the Alexa app on your phone or Amazon.com Sign In on your browser, click on the "Link Account" link and enter the Tesla account information.

Here's are some things you can say:
ask EV Car how far can I drive
ask EV Car for charge status
ask EV Car for car status
ask EV Car for climate status
tell EV Car to set driver temperature to 72
tell EV Car to set passenger side to 73
tell EV Car to to honk
tell EV Car to flash
tell EV Car to lock/unlock
tell EV Car to turn climate on/off
tell EV Car to start heating
tell EV Car to cool my car
tell EV Car to stop climate
ask EV Car how warm is my car
ask EV Car dude where's my car ask
tell EV Car to get ready to take off
tell EV Car to go into hyperdrive

The only test subject so far has been my own X. So please try it out and let me know how it goes.

i just noticed this morning that Google Home sent notification that it is available for my Google Home. I linked thro my Google assistant from my Pixel (as I am not near my Home and elsewhere and my MS is parked in a garage further away from me). However, EV car is not able to fullfill the requests. Is it because of not near proximity?

 

[Gol4]

Cannot get this skill to work while the car is sleeping. Every time I use it I have to go to the app, wake up my car, wait a couple minutes, then the skill works. Am I doing something wrong?

I have had some folks report this problem but I have never been able to reproduce it on my X. A new version of the skill was released last week that has a potential fix - it retires a few times when connection can't be established. Please try and let me know if it helps in your case.

 

[Gol4]

Installed Alex at Christmas, and downloaded MyTesla shortly after that. Its been fun (and it is something that will be handy, I'm more likely to remember to just Ask Alexa to turn climate on, than find my phone and open the APP and start climate ...) but I also had a negative experience:

Temperature in car went up from 5.3C to 25C from 28-Dec-2017 5:25 PM. It has stayed at that temperature continuously since then (car was plugged in) until I next drove it evening of 01-Jan.

First request that I can find in Amazon Echo history matches that time:

Alexa heard: "Alexa, open My Car" MyTesla Action: "Welcome" (gave "How can I help you")

Alexa heard: "Alexa Ask My Car how far can I drive" MyTesla Action: "Charge-Request" (gave "Battery level is ... Estimated range is ..." etc)

Several further commands were picked up from subsequent conversation

Alexa heard: "no" (misheard from conversation [without Alexa command word]) MyTesla Action: "Drive-Request" (gave location of car)

Alexa heard: "get car state" (misheard command [without Alexa command word]) MyTesla Action: "State-Request" (gave mileage, firmware version, etc.)

Alexa heard: "stop cooling" (misheard from conversation "that's cool" [without Alexa command word]) MyTesla Action: "ClimateStop-Request"

Alexa heard: "Alexa, where's my car" MyTesla Action: "Drive-Request" (gave location of car)

Alexa heard: "on" (misheard from conversation [without Alexa command word] repeating the location to someone who had not heard it) MyTesla Action: "ClimateStart-Request" and "OK Anything else?"

Alexa heard: "Alexa turn the heating up" (misheard from "Alexa turn the heating off") MyTesla Action: "ClimateStart-Request"and "OK Anything else?"

Alexa heard: "okay more" (misheard from "OK WHAT?, she hasn't said what she did") MyTesla Action: "ClimateStart-Request"and "OK Anything else?"

So looks like that turned the climate on and left it on. All other APPs I have turn on climate for a limited time (30 minutes)

I haven't repeated the actions, so may be wrong, but looks like the "What else can I do for you" is then allowing a command to be "heard" from following conversation without the "Alexa" start-word.

When you start the skill with "Alexa, open My Car" it starts in conversation mode. So it will keep listening for commands until you say "Stop" or "Quit". Sounds like it was in conversation mode when it picked you all the unintended commands. It is usually easier and quicker to issue one-shot commands e.g. "Alexa, ask my car for charge status". I that mode, it will run just the one command and stop listening for other commands.

Regarding climate staying on, as someone else mentioned, it looks like a new behavior by the Tesla APIs (since they turned on camper mode). I will try this out too but its obviously a problem if they the API always turns on camper mode.

 

[Gol4]

i just noticed this morning that Google Home sent notification that it is available for my Google Home. I linked thro my Google assistant from my Pixel (as I am not near my Home and elsewhere and my MS is parked in a garage further away from me). However, EV car is not able to fullfill the requests. Is it because of not near proximity?

No, there is no proximity requirement. There is a Google Home specific thread: Integration with Google Home / Google Assistant - Now available for general use You might get some pointers there.
If not, post more details there and we'll try and help you out.

 

[Gol4]

FYI a new version of the the app was updated last week. Other than a few performance and reliability improvements, you can now ask for "Air Quality". This will query airnow.gov to read out the current AQI index for the location where the Tesla currently is.

This version also adds support for users in Canada.

 

[WannabeOwner]

, it looks like a new behavior by the Tesla APIs (since they turned on camper mode). I will try this out too but its obviously a problem if they the API always turns on camper mode

Thanks. Is it possible for your APP to turn of Climate after a bit? I don't know what the Echo DEV environment allows -e.g. a "set an event" in, say, 30 minutes to then turn climate back off again. Perhaps that would allow "Set climate for 45 minutes" ?

 

[davidc18]

Installed today and the kids are enjoying the commands. I may live to regret telling the about the honk my horn command.

 

[MDR SEA]

Sounds interesting.
Can anyone direct me to the step by step setup process for dummies?
A video, perhaps?
I loaded the Alexa app but I can't find EV Car in skills store.
Thanks for any help.
MDR

 

[WannabeOwner]

I loaded the Alexa app but I can't find EV Car in skills store.

On my screen under "Skills" it is labelled as

My Tesla (Unofficial)

I don't find it if I search for "EV Car"

 

[Gol4]

Here are direct links. Both skills are identical right now:
EV Car: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MU8Q80L
My Tesla: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N9Y4I1E

If you use an Alexa app on a phone, you can go to Menu -> Skills and search for "EV Car"
Click on the skill and click on "Enable Skill" You should be able to find your way from there.

 

[Gol4]

Thanks. Is it possible for your APP to turn of Climate after a bit? I don't know what the Echo DEV environment allows -e.g. a "set an event" in, say, 30 minutes to then turn climate back off again. Perhaps that would allow "Set climate for 45 minutes" ?

I don't think the infrastructure allows us to do that. The backend process is alive only for the duration of the interaction with Alexa.
The right thing would be for Tesla API to do the right thing and revert to the original behavior of turning climate on only max 30 minutes.
Has anyone confirmed that the official App shows the same behavior? i.e. turning climate on keeps it on till indefinitely?

 

[ATL_Canes]

Maybe I’m doing something wrong, but the first time I make a request of Alexa, it returns an error because the car is still “waking.” When I repeat it, it works the second time with no problem. Is there a setting I am missing to not have to repeat the request, or is that just the nature of the car being in sleep mode.

It’s not a big deal to have to repeat - just curious if I’m missing something.

 

[scottf200]

Maybe I’m doing something wrong, but the first time I make a request of Alexa, it returns an error because the car is still “waking.” When I repeat it, it works the second time with no problem. Is there a setting I am missing to not have to repeat the request, or is that just the nature of the car being in sleep mode. It’s not a big deal to have to repeat - just curious if I’m missing something.

May be based on what 'always connected' setting you have in the car? Just a thought. Here are mine.

 

[OCRyan]

When using "Switch Cars", the skill identifies my Model 3 as "AD15" instead of "Model 3". Here is a list of my "option_codes" string if it helps: "AD15,MDL3,PBSB,RENA,BT37,ID3W,RF3G,S3PB,DRLH,DV2W,W39B,APF0,COUS,BC3B,CH07,PC30,FC3P,FG31,GLFR,HL31,HM31,IL31,LTPB,MR31,FM3B,RS3H,SA3P,STCP,SC04,SU3C,T3CA,TW00,TM00,UT3P,WR00,AU3P,APH3,AF00,ZCST,MI00,CDM0"

 

[Gol4]

Thanks for the option codes. I have put in some changes that should identify the model correctly now. Let me know.

 

[OCRyan]

Thanks for the option codes. I have put in some changes that should identify the model correctly now. Let me know.

"I am now controlling Model 3"....nailed it!! Thank you!