Tesla Companion App

[castor]

Looks like I may not be able to release the new version of Tesla Companion for keyless driving and full calendar integration since the current beta is using the new authentication mechanism that requires a client id key and secret key that are not publicly available.

The way to obtain that keys is decompiling the official app or decrypt the HTTPs requests, decompiling the App violates the software license, I’m not sure what the current implication of sniffing the HTTPs request are yet.

I contacted Tesla and they are not providing keys for third party apps.

Using Tesla proprietary client and secret key to authenticate a third party app might have legal consequences.
This is different to the previous authentication mechanism where authentication requires only email/password provided by the user.

The Beta program will continue working for some time however it may be closed as well.

The released version of Tesla Companion will stay on the store using previous authentication mechanism, however it won’t provide any new functionality released on Firmware 6.0 and will stay operational until Tesla decides to retire the old protocol.

As sad as it may sound I need to protect myself from possible lawsuits.

For example in the following link it exposes what certain risks are when developing a third party app for Tesla using their secrets.

https://www.eff.org/issues/coders/reverse-engineering-faq

“It is legally risky to bypass any “technical protection measures” (e.g., authentication handshakes, protocol encryption, password authentication, code obfuscation, code signing) that control access to the code or any specific functionality.”

Castor

 

[Gear]

Looks like I may not be able to release the new version of Tesla Companion for keyless driving and full calendar integration since the current beta is using the new authentication mechanism that requires a client id key and secret key that are not publicly available.

The way to obtain that keys is decompiling the official app or decrypt the HTTPs requests, decompiling the App violates the software license, I’m not sure what the current implication of sniffing the HTTPs request are yet.

I contacted Tesla and they are not providing keys for third party apps.

Using Tesla proprietary client and secret key to authenticate a third party app might have legal consequences.
This is different to the previous authentication mechanism where authentication requires only email/password provided by the user.

The Beta program will continue working for some time however it may be closed as well.

The released version of Tesla Companion will stay on the store using previous authentication mechanism, however it won’t provide any new functionality released on Firmware 6.0 and will stay operational until Tesla decides to retire the old protocol.

As sad as it may sound I need to protect myself from possible lawsuits.

For example in the following link it exposes what certain risks are when developing a third party app for Tesla using their secrets.

https://www.eff.org/issues/coders/reverse-engineering-faq

“It is legally risky to bypass any “technical protection measures” (e.g., authentication handshakes, protocol encryption, password authentication, code obfuscation, code signing) that control access to the code or any specific functionality.”

Castor

I've tweeted Elon asking for some support for us Windows Phone-using Tesla. It'd be nice if others did the same and hopefully he'll dignifiy at least one of us with a response. It seems WP use amongst Tesla owners is growing and we deserve some kind of official support, hopefully via support for Castor's app so he can continue to do great work.

 

[ACDriveMotor]

I would bet that WP represents a larger percentage of Tesla owners than WP market share would otherwise suggest.

 

[ahimberg]

Tesla should be able to figure this out pretty easily if they want, just check the useragent strings on login to tell the difference between android, ios, visibletesla, the 2 winphone apps.

 

[castor]

Definitely they can allow the WP apps if they want, however I'm sure we need to get written consent before we can use the secret key in our code. Using their secret id on a released store app put us on the dark gray area.

 

[132]

Castor,
Thank you for all the time and effort you have put into this. I really hope Tesla is reading these boards and remedy the situation for wp users. As a former IPhone user, I've been much more satisfied with wp on my Nokia. Its strange to me that a company as forward thinking as Tesla chooses not to recognize what some of their patrons consider an equivalent ( better in my view as I switched after owning several generations of IPhones) platform.

 

[ACDriveMotor]

TMC could also just release an official WP app. But I would much prefer that they enable others via an SDK.

 

[simonog]

TMC could also just release an official WP app. But I would much prefer that they enable others via an SDK.

While logically I like the idea of an SDK, it seems to me that as the API increasingly allows control of a 2 ton missile, the disincentive for Tesla to do so rises. Imagine the scenario where someone writes a piece of code which contains a bug and as a result of its use a fatal accident occurs.

It becomes a lawyers' paradise and a huge distraction for Tesla management to handle the fallout. I can see the arguments that Tesla should have protected the interface so that nothing bad could possibly be done. Hard enough to do with their own software; next to impossible with third party software.

Can you see any simple way round this? Until there is, I regret to say that I think an SDK in a diminishing probability.

 

[Gear]

While logically I like the idea of an SDK, it seems to me that as the API increasingly allows control of a 2 ton missile, the disincentive for Tesla to do so rises. Imagine the scenario where someone writes a piece of code which contains a bug and as a result of its use a fatal accident occurs.

It becomes a lawyers' paradise and a huge distraction for Tesla management to handle the fallout. I can see the arguments that Tesla should have protected the interface so that nothing bad could possibly be done. Hard enough to do with their own software; next to impossible with third party software.

Can you see any simple way round this? Until there is, I regret to say that I think an SDK in a diminishing probability.

The mobile apps don't have anything to do with actually controlling the movement of the vehicle, however.

 

[ACDriveMotor]

@simonog If that is a real scenario it can happen today with a bug in one of the existing mobile apps (official or otherwise). I think that is why the REST interfaces are limited in what they can do.

 

[Olen]

With the new (post 6.0) API and oauth, they can easily limit the allowed functions based on the application id. Today we are "forced" to fake the id of either the official android app or the iPhone app. If they allowed 3. party apps, we could use unique ids for each application (Tesla Companion, Visible Tesla and so on) and they could make sure these would only be allowed to do a subset of what the APIs might actually provide. They could then also be much stricter about misusing other application ids.

 

[castor]

New update for Tesla Companion is released to the store, it supports keyless driving and full calendar integration.


Castor.

 

[pvandamcom]

Great stuff Castor!, downloaded it immediately and it works fine.
Fantastic that the Calendar function did make it to the released version.

I've enjoyed it very much so far.

Thanks for this important contribution to the Windows platform!

 

[clea]

New update for Tesla Companion is released to the store, it supports keyless driving and full calendar integration.


Castor.

I have been looking for this in the store but it hasn't shown up yet ... is there some reason why the Canadian store won't publish it or is there something that needs to be done to push it to stores outside of the states?

 

[castor]

I have been looking for this in the store but it hasn't shown up yet ... is there some reason why the Canadian store won't publish it or is there something that needs to be done to push it to stores outside of the states?

Calendar and Keyless driving feature requires Windows Phone 8.1, have you updated your phone?

 

[SlyWombat]

Calendar and Keyless driving feature requires Windows Phone 8.1, have you updated your phone?

I am in Canada and have it, (but yeah I am on 8.1), btw, thanks for this great app, I just switched back to windows phone again after moving to android for a while.

 

[clea]

Calendar and Keyless driving feature requires Windows Phone 8.1, have you updated your phone?

details details ... missed that one ;~) thx!

 

[kevincwelch]

This is great!

I'm running it on Windows 8.1 desktop. Is there a way to run this in a window instead of full screen?

 

[castor]

This is great!

I'm running it on Windows 8.1 desktop. Is there a way to run this in a window instead of full screen?

Windows Store Apps can run only full screen on Windows 8.1, however Store Apps can run in a window on Windows 10

 

[ACDriveMotor]

Can Windows 10 apps on phone run in a window?