About 6 months ago as I reading posts here on the TMC forum I came across a post that alerted me to a new product from Hansshow, the Model 3 Center Console Dashboard Touch Screen, V2. The second I saw it supported wireless CarPlay, I was super interested as that’s the one feature I really missed when I purchased my M3P. I was lukewarm about the the rest of the features such as showing your speed and the usual instrument cluster information that is usually put in front of the driver in conventional cars. Included in that post was a YouTube video touting its features and functions that it might be incorporated in the future, but they had me at wireless CarPlay. So I ordered one online without clicking on the discount link on the YouTuber’s channel (more about that later). In the 3+ months I’ve had the screen installed in my car I went through a range of emotions that went from great anticipation, frustration, resignation and finally utter joy.
Let me explain.
I made my order the first week of January knowing I was doing so during the pre-order period as it was supposed to be ready to ship the following month. I was really looking forward to being able to use Waze and Siri Voice Activation in my Tesla so this was a highly anticipated product for me. Due to production and parts delays I did not receive it until the beginning of April which was fine by me.
Installation was fairly simple except for attaching the wiring harness which requires you to have the body size of a 10-year old and the dexterity and hand strength of an adult as the receptacle is located in a hard-to-get location under the dash. Once it was installed was when the problems started. The first issue was its inability to automatically pair with Bluetooth reliably which is required for wireless CarPlay connectivity (fyi, I have an iPhone 12 Pro running iOS 14.6). It seems like every time I got in the car I would have to manually go though the pairing process as it would not do so automatically as it was supposed to. When I was finally able to connect, CarPlay was all but unusable because of the lag time when using the touch screen to navigate though its apps and menus. When I was able to launch Waze I found that my location on the map lagged behind about a half a mile after driving a few minutes. And worst of all when making phone calls there was a serious delay and echo for the person on the other end of the call. The call volume was also so low that I could barely hear what there was of the conversation.
To Hansshow’s credit it was easy for me to contact them using WhatsApp when troubleshooting. As it happens there was a new firmware update that they said would alleviate the problems. Over the next 3 months I downloaded 5 different updates with each one making things a bit better, but the automatic Bluetooth pairing and call quality issues persisted throughout. I was to the point where I would wonder what would not work every time I got in the car. The sad thing is since CarPlay was the primary reason I ordered the screen, I did not even try the included apps so I can’t speak to how they work. Another major issue that I encountered after its installation was the affect it had on the car’s AC system. It’s been heating up here in the Los Angeles area and the negative affect it has on the car’s ability to keep the driver cool is significant. I have to turn the fan up to almost full blast to get any cooling and that’s barely acceptable.
It’s because of the constant fiddling required to get the screen to work (and its affect on the AC) that I was resigned to the fact that I’d spent over $500 for a product that didn't do what’s advertised (and might never in it’s current hardware version) and I will probably never see that money again. Hansshow has a 14-day return policy but I went way beyond that when I was promised firmware updates would solve the problems. I tried contacting them using WhatsApp to see if there’s a way to get a refund but that’s when they stopped responding.
So the best day in my ownership of this product was the day I ripped the screen off the dash freeing me of the constant fiddling with Bluetooth and the frustration of failed phone conversations. There’s no amount of desire on my part of having CarPlay integration that’s been worth the hassle of getting this thing to work. You can’t imagine the joy of getting in car and having things work again after 3+ months of total frustration,
And this leads me to what you’re seeing on YouTube. There are people out there creating videos touting the advantages of the screen without alerting you to its faults. I’m always leery of YouTubers who start out screaming “What’s Up” and imploring you to “click the link below” to get discounts when all they’re really doing is working with the company (and getting a piece of the action?) getting you to buy something no matter the quality, and to boost their own “engagements” to further monetize their channels. So before clicking any links, be aware that this is not a finished product with no guarantees that it’ll ever work in its current hardware version.
These are my personal impressions of my experience with the screen. I'd like to know if there are people out there whose screens work as advertised, so as YouTubers would say, "Leave a comment below."
Edit: The last firmware version on the screen was 0629 before I gave up on it.