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Seriously, what's the deal with text message integration?

Travis Denardo

VTHokie195
Feb 12, 2016
38
16
Springfield, VA
....uhhh maybe because u should be driving and paying attention to road ?:eek:....I had this feature in my BMW and it’s overrated ...,

I used the feature recently in my wife's new honda with apple carplay. It was convenient to hear and respond to the text messages without touching the phone and taking my eyes off the road.

I agree you should be paying attention to driving! I see plenty of horrible drivers out there swerving on the road, varying speed, etc., and 90% of the time, that person is on their phone. I'm sure all of you may have noticed, however, that text messaging has somewhat replaced phone calls and it often has time sensitive content that could use a quick reply. If the car could handle it like carplay does, that would be a great convenience and safety feature.
 

bob_p

Active Member
Apr 5, 2012
3,608
2,755
Musk promised "screen mirroring" several years ago, though he indicated it would more likely be a 3rd party or custom solution, and not licensing of Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.

And we really haven't heard anything about this for quite a while.

Tesla will likely have the only EV without any form of screen mirroring or increased smartphone integration. At some point, this could impact sales.

We don't know what will be in the 9.0 release. This is the longest Tesla has gone between major releases (which had been roughly once per year).

It's possible we'll see this in 9.0 - though if Tesla was planning to do this, it seems likely we'd have heard something by now...
 

Krash

Data Technician
Apr 18, 2017
1,835
2,018
Intermountain US
My mid 2017 Model S reads and responds to texts over Cortana via a Bluetooth connected Windows device. Are you sure iOS and Android don't do that?
 

Tozz

Active Member
Jan 10, 2018
2,501
1,747
Tynaarlo
Who uses text anyway? Isn't it all Telegram and WhatsApp these days?

I haven't received a text from a real person in at least a year or 5 or so.
 
  • Funny
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David29

Supporting Member
Aug 1, 2015
2,161
1,772
DEDHAM, MA
Texting while driving is illegal in MA and probably in some other states. I am not aware of an exception for hands-free voice-to-text and text-to-voice technology. In case of an accident, I suspect the cop would look at your phone, see the text messages, and charge you. Arguing that your phone or car read them to you might or might not get you off the hook....

Here is the summary (not the actual text) of the relevant section of the law from the state's DMV website. (Note there is a separate section that prohibits all use of cellphones by underage drivers.)

"Civil Offense-No insurance surcharge (Operators cannot use any mobile telephone or handheld device capable of accessing the Internet to write, send, or read an electronic message including text messages, emails, and instant messages or to access the Internet while operating a vehicle. Law applies even if the vehicle is stopped in traffic.)
  • 1st offense-$100
  • 2nd offense-$250
  • 3rd or subs offense-$500"
 
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Krash

Data Technician
Apr 18, 2017
1,835
2,018
Intermountain US
...In case of an accident, I suspect the cop would look at your phone, see the text messages, and charge you...
You should be an attentive driver, but although US state laws very slightly, the police generally cannot look at your phone without your permission or a warrant unless you leave it in the car after an accident.
 
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RobsEV

Active Member
Jun 6, 2018
1,869
950
Gouda, The Netherlands

Logan5

Member
May 11, 2015
75
82
Newton, MA
I purchased my Model S nearly two years ago just after Elon tweeted about screen mirroring. Having owned the car I had imagined some scenarios how what was being described might work.

Aside from Carplay or Android integration through a native API Tesla may have a path to achieve this by using the phone app as a gateway to screen casting. This isn’t dissimilar to already existing apps that enable phones or tablets to be used as touch screen enabled extensions of PC’s.

Alternatively I thought the browser might provide a stopgap if audio streaming were enabled through it (didn’t happen!).

Something along these lines was demoed at CES using Waze last year by Abalta called Weblink. Here’s a video using a Kenwood receiver:


Yep- It’s not ideal but it at least allows third party apps like Waze to be cast onto the screen using some sort of HTML via the phone app.

My concern is that if Tesla does come up with some sort of solution, either through one of the big phone OS’s or a third party/in-house workaround that works like Weblink, that the solution would be contingent upon the new Intel based CPU’s requiring a substantial portion of the fleet to upgrade the motherboards.
 
May 14, 2019
20
9
Hillsboro, OR
....uhhh maybe because u should be driving and paying attention to road ?:eek:....I had this feature in my BMW and it’s overrated ...,
Uhhh, haha yeah that kinda sorta sounds a lot like deflection in defense to a lacking feature. That very same car uses a screen to host the majority of functions of the car with many of those functions requiring you to focus your eyeballs on it while you click-find-click within a menu. My gf called me after driving my Model 3 for the first time and was all flustered with trying to figure out the a/c controls and menu system. I invite you to show me any evidence supporting your stance. Implementing voice-activation would, uhhh, reduce risk, not increase it. I mean, why do you think they added it to making phone calls even? Which, btw, doesn't even have the capability to use that voice activation to choose a specific number for that contact, which incidentally requires another distraction of selecting it on the...yep...touchscreen. Rubbishy-rubbish.
 

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