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Model 3 Power Liftgate?

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Well, let me put it this way. If Tesla offered that and the price was $650 installed, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

I second this, I would even be willing to pay extra for installation cost if I can get a guarantee it would work exactly how it is shown in the video. The power liftgate (with kick opener) and ventilated seats are the two biggest things I miss from my old MB.

A few months ago I went on a business trip and left my car with the valet at the airport. On the app, I could see the trunk was left open but could do nothing about it. I think my flaw was that I gave the valet the M3 key fob and thinking they may have pressed the open trunk button accidentally trying to lock/unlock the car - as it barely pops up, it is hard to notice. I was tempted to press the horn button on the app a few times and then calling the valet telling them I got a an alarm alert and I see the trunk is open so that they could close it manually. Being able to close the trunk with the app would be great.
 
Not that simple. They say newer software doesn't allow closing trunk from the car screen.
Integration with the M3's electronics is always going to be limited by what Tesla allows.

That's just because Tesla updated their firmware to change it so that when it detects that the latch is open, that it doesn't allow you to try to unlock it again. If you're on older firmware and you did this you can hear the latch actuating again if you press the button (even though the trunk has popped a bit). The app doesn't care because they don't want you to have to wait for it to connect to the car before you can make the decision whether to pop the trunk or not (based on trunk latch sensor).

Every other feature that this liftgate offers is something that is essentially impossible to 'defeat' in the future.

The only possible way for Tesla to 'defeat' this is if they have the ability to reprogram the CAN bus commands to change the way it sends a 'unlatch trunk' command. My guess is that the module that manages the rear trunk either isn't reprogrammable or not reprogrammable remotely. Either way, Tesla doesn't seem to have bothered to shut down the Chinese retrofits of power liftgate on the Model S. They don't really have any financial incentive to do so... so I very much doubt that Tesla is going to do anything to screw with this setup either.
 
It would be nice if Tesla published some sort of API, so third
parties could integrate, not just hang ad-hoc screen-scraper
level hooks into a moving target.

With add-ons some sort of more open documentation would
spur more third party innovation. Of course that opens wider
gates to lesser-skilled hacks, though the pros do their stuff
anyway. Can't have it all.
 
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They've now posted an installation video: Tesla Offer
It looks like a fairly invasive process, probably more than I would want to take on. But the video is detailed enough that I'm pretty confident in thinking that this isn't a scam or vaporware product.
Looks a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. I am still considering it but I would like to see some reviews before I buy this.
 
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Reactions: zhu- and Runt8
They've now posted an installation video: Tesla Offer
It looks like a fairly invasive process, probably more than I would want to take on. But the video is detailed enough that I'm pretty confident in thinking that this isn't a scam or vaporware product.
Looks complicated and the video doesn't make it any clearer. They need to make a better video showing where all the wires get tucked to make it look clean and how and where to mount that electronics box. Seems like there are chunks missing from the video that should be there.
 
Well, I respect digging in. But that's a bit of work for
the bloody trunk to close.

If you don't have to have the electric close, to install
the 4129 struts with the springs was literally 5 minutes
and $40 in parts. The 6304 frunk struts were $20 and
5 min to install. Just sayin'
 
So what’s the warranty on this product? I.e. what do you do when the control box gets glitchy and/or fails altogether, or you have electronics issues with the unit itself? (Either soon after install or down the road). Someone brought up a great point in that will this void any service warranty on your Tesla with all the electrical hacking and tapping?
(Re: Wiring for power directly to the 12V).......Seems there were many numerous issues with people running dashcams off the 12V and the 12V failing and needing replacement. Tesla was replacing them initially out of good will but then caught on and apparently stopped doing this due to the numerous direct wirings to the battery and causing issues.

Ski
 
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