Tesla app a bit rubbish?

[bingbongbing]

I thought the app would be a bit better, its worse than my previous cars apps.

No trip data
no est charge needed for routing
can't change car location when its wrong
No overall car energy data

is there a 3rd party one that's better?

 

[phil4]

Dunno, but if you compare it with the one for Honda E, it's worlds better.

 

[JonB]

It’s full of annoying little bugs, but for the most part, works.

 

[Alan J]

I thought the app would be a bit better, its worse than my previous cars apps.

No trip data
no est charge needed for routing
can't change car location when its wrong
No overall car energy data

is there a 3rd party one that's better?

There are several other options personally I like the Tessie App which covers most of what is missing it's free for a fortnight and then £5 a Month.

 

[phil4]

If you want to control the car, then there's really nothing else that does that. There's a specific API that tesla provide, so any other apps pretty much just rearrange how it looks, since they can't do anything functionally different.

If you want to analyse stats, then things like TeslaMate (which I use) and TeslaFi do a really good job.

 

[NISFAN]

I think the app works pretty well for basic remote functions, charging, pre heating, etc.

What would be useful is an integrated route planner that would be adopted by the car when you get in, to allow off line route planning. BMW app does this, but this is even more important on an EV where en route charging stops need to be carefully factored in.

The biggest issue I have with switch from ICE to EV is with route planning, especially so with round trips. The car nav seems to like getting to an end destination with less than 10% SOC. No good if there is no destination charger on a round trip. In car not easy to navigate an accurate return when you are not physically there. Very clunky. Even ABRP is just as clunky, but maybe I need more seat time with it to be able to set all the rules up properly for each trip.

 

[Mr H]

What would be useful is an integrated route planner that would be adopted by the car when you get in, to allow off line route planning.

You can plan a route on google maps and 'share' it with the car

 

[NISFAN]

You can plan a route on google maps and 'share' it with the car

That I didn’t know so thanks for the HU, but the critical information is the range and charging options along the route. Google maps is no good at that right?

 

[Yachtsman]

That I didn’t know so thanks for the HU, but the critical information is the range and charging options along the route. Google maps is no good at that right?

No it’s not but ABRP is and the car navigation.

 

[Mr H]

That I didn’t know so thanks for the HU, but the critical information is the range and charging options along the route. Google maps is no good at that right?

Correct, but you'll get used to it. I drove to Spain and back with virtually no planning

 

[Jason71]

I thought the app would be a bit better, its worse than my previous cars apps.

No trip data
no est charge needed for routing
can't change car location when its wrong
No overall car energy data

is there a 3rd party one that's better?

It could do more but what it does do it does well and reliably. Which cannot be said of the apps for a lot of cars.

 

[JonB]

You can plan a route on google maps and 'share' it with the car

I read (on here) that that's not the case. Yes, you can share the destination, but not the actual route (in particular if you customised it). Correct me if I'm wrong - it's possible waypoints allows it (recent update).

 

[adsheff]

I find the app very very laggy on my Pixel 2. Before it was revamped, it worked perfectly, but the new one has huge delays after pressing things like 'unlock cable'. When you set the preconditioning time, it sometimes reverts to the previously set time, but when you go back into it it has updated. No idea why they updated it to make it more rubbish, and everything became more tiny. Still, it all works but just jittery.

 

[fancealot]

I've not minded the app since i've had the car, albeit this weekend when going xmas shopping and plugging in at a tricky EV charge point I kept getting a prompt about 'just release the cable with the button on the carge cable' notification even though it was not a tesla supercharger was starting to bug me when I kept having to plug and unplug the cable due to public charger crappiness!

 

[DrJFoster]

I read (on here) that that's not the case. Yes, you can share the destination, but not the actual route (in particular if you customised it). Correct me if I'm wrong - it's possible waypoints allows it (recent update).

You're correct. You can share the destination, just like you can share a location via email, text etc, using the same feature on your phone just selecting Tesla as the target

The app is primarily for control and not for info. There seems to be a perpetual struggle with letting the car sleep and then the time it takes for the car to wake up when the app tries to connect.

I was talking to some technical wizards at work and they talk about the virtues of the "minimum viable product' and getting the 'functional core' out there, but then they conceded they sometimes struggle to expand the features as certain design decisions have already been implemented and they can not go back and rework. I guess some of this may be going on with Tesla given the pace they've developed things. The flip side I imagine is you can't wait forever and personally I just go with what we've got.

 

[markgyork]

There are several other options personally I like the Tessie App which covers most of what is missing it's free for a fortnight and then £5 a Month.

Another vote for Tessie here. I’ve tried a few of the others and this one both looks gorgeous and captures all the data I’m interested in. The counterpart Apple Watch app is included in the subscription and works really well too.

 

[Filbert1884]

I use and would recommend TezLab, you can do a fair amount without paying for it too.

 

[Pagemakers]

I’ve had Teslas for about 7 years now and always used about 3 non-Tesla apps. Since I removed them and solely using the l Tesla app my phantom battery drain has dropped to almost zero.

The 3rd party apps were obviously waking the car serval times an hour causing a significant amount of drain.

 

[mikeyg_ev]

I read (on here) that that's not the case. Yes, you can share the destination, but not the actual route (in particular if you customised it). Correct me if I'm wrong - it's possible waypoints allows it (recent update).

Not only that but when you share the destination it seems to just share the name and not the precise co-ordinates. The car will sometimes find a similarly named place somewhere completely different and take you there.
Fortunately the first time it did this I knew it was wrong by the first turning and only lost a couple of minutes trying to find somewhere to pull over and fix it.

 

[bingbongbing]

thanks all, so it seems it is a bit 'crappy' but it does work.

my bmw and Mercedes app from 4 years ago just offered 'more'.