Model S REST API

[tliving]

After a day of peace, it seems the war is back on today. Tesla is blocking all incoming traffic from AWS to their API for the cars (https://owner-api.teslamotors.com). Anything trying to access the car API from AWS will be affected (I've heard of several sites).

The block appears to be totally on Tesla's side. Nobody I've been able to reach seems to know about it. Things work fine from other providers like IBM, Google etc.

 

[wschenk]

Ok. Do you believe this is a temporary issue?
Who is to blame? Heroku? Tesla? Amazon?

I'm not sure that I'd use the language "blame", but I believe that Tesla is doing it.

If I had to make up a story based on zero evidence and wild speculation, there's probably someone one AWS slamming them and inadvertently DOSing them. Since places like heroku don't give you fixed IPs, they just blocked the whole thing. We spend a lot of time trying to minimize our load on their servers, and only hit the api every few minutes per user. (Which obviously goes up when you have more users.)

Still works great from my laptop!

 

[Gol4]

Great, I waited a month for Amazon to reinstate a Alexa skill and the day it gets reinstated, Tesla starts blocking the API. (The skill backend runs off of AWS Lambda). Hope this is a temporary scenario.

 

[tliving]

There's a thread over on Tesla's forums too but no action there either:
Tesla is blocking access from AWS | Tesla

 

[markb1]

And this is why Tesla needs to properly open up their API to third party developers and assign developer keys. Then they can just block individual developers that are badly behaved instead of all of AWS.

 

[tliving]

And this is why Tesla needs to properly open up their API to third party developers and assign developer keys. Then they can just block individual developers that are badly behaved instead of all of AWS.

Yes, or perhaps contact them first then block if they don't comply.

 

[f8K37Sq31]

Ok. Do you believe this is a temporary issue?
Who is to blame? Heroku? Tesla? Amazon?

I think Tesla is probably being hammered by all the 3-rd party apps which send it queries periodically. I fear that at some point they just invalidate this API key that we all using. We should be more judicious about sending them periodic queries. I wish Tesla handed out proper API Keys and did OAuth.

 

[AllenWong]

I wish Tesla handed out proper API Keys and did OAuth.

They do, and I have one. I'm not going to say more than that, but Tesla does have an official API guide and does provide API keys to non-Tesla companies. It's very hard to obtain one, though. You'll need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to get one.

 

[incinie]

They do, and I have one. I'm not going to say more than that, but Tesla does have an official API guide and does provide API keys to non-Tesla companies. It's very hard to obtain one, though. You'll need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to get one.

Wow. Really?
Please DO say more than that!
How do you have to spend hundreds of thousands og dollars to get it?
Is Remote S making THAT much money?

 

[AllenWong]

Wow. Really?
Please DO say more than that!
How do you have to spend hundreds of thousands og dollars to get it?
Is Remote S making THAT much money?

I'm not going to say how I got it, but I will say that they aren't just going to hand it out to some random person who wants to make an app or website.

No, Remote S operates at a loss. Tesla apps in general make very little money. Ever notice that a lot of tesla websites and apps eventually stop being updated by the developer? So many abandoned Tesla projects. And there's a reason for it. It's because there are so few users, so it's not very profitable. They probably have one or no new user a day and that's about it. I happen to be profitable from the other apps I make, such as 5-0 Radio Police Scanner, which has been the #1 news app for like the past decade. So I could afford to keep Remote S maintained and updated. But after the patent troll sued me, Remote S itself has been operating at a loss, even though Remote S is the most used Tesla app on iOS. So if anyone is reading this and hoping to make a 3rd party website or app for huge profits, good luck. Do it because you love Tesla and do it as a hobby. It's always sad to see another abandoned Tesla project, because I know in the back of my mind that they were doing it for the money and then got disappointed by how little it makes.

 

[MDK]

It's always sad to see another abandoned Tesla project, because I know in the back of my mind that they were doing it for the money and then got disappointed by how little it makes.

Not everyone is motivated by money. VisibleTesla has (sadly) been abandoned but was open source from the start.
I figure the author (Joe Pasqua) wrote it to fill a need for himself and decided to release it for everyone to enjoy - and in the mean time real life got in the way of continuing with it.

 

[hjtinon]

I'm still having trouble with Amazon.

 

[f8K37Sq31]

I'm still having trouble with Amazon.

Yes, I think we can't rely on AWS for backend to communicate to Tesla servers. Too many people are hammering Tesla servers from AWS too frequently and they've ruined it for everyone.

 

[f8K37Sq31]

IBut after the patent troll sued me, Remote S itself has been operating at a loss, \.

Curious. Sued you over what?

 

[thimel]

Curious. Sued you over what?

Having a watch app control a car. See Remote S: Tesla app for Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch

 

[hjtinon]

Yes, I think we can't rely on AWS for backend to communicate to Tesla servers. Too many people are hammering Tesla servers from AWS too frequently and they've ruined it for everyone.

Sadly, I'll have to stop being super lazy by asking Alexa to check in on my car and actually use my hands and check the app. It was cool while it lasted but I'm hoping they are just figuring out a way to block Alexa commands to unlock or start the car (if that's their concern).

 

[rv10driver]

Wow, this is quite an amazing thread. I got my MX two days ago and got a basic app running in no-time with Tim Dorr's apiary documentation (thanks Tim!). Out of curiosity, how have people (Tim et al) figured out the API signatures? I see that there is no known way to control heated seats. How do people go about finding the breadth of endpoints and parameters?

 

[dpskipper]

By pulling apart the official phone app

 

[wschenk]

The API seems down in general for me right now.

 

[dpskipper]

Yes its down. Getting a 502 bad gateway.