Teslamate as a service?

[Medved_77]

Trying to get an idea of appetite for a project that I've been considering, if you could answer the poll that would be most appreciated.

Firstly, for those who are unaware of TeslaMate: adriankumpf/teslamate

I've been using TeslaMate for a few months now and really enjoy it. Following the TeslaMate Update thread there are quite a few users that experience difficulties with the setup and maintenance of their TeslaMate instances and it's understandable why. There are some good guides available but if you're not familiar with advanced computing or work in an IT type role, I imagine it can seem a bit daunting.

The idea would be to auto provision cloud based instances of TeslaMate for individual users:

1. A user would subscribe monthly to have their TeslaMate instance hosted so it's available on the web.
2. Authentication would require an API token only, no Tesla username or password would touch the platform.
3. TeslaMate updates would be pushed automatically to your TeslaMate instance or you could update manually via the UI.
4. TeslaFi imports of existing journeys would be managed via the UI should you wish to migrate.
5. Supercharger locations and costs would be automatically updated in your region(s)
6. Backups would be taken and stored automatically, available to download via the UI.
7. Integration for charging fees with supported home electricity providers would be available to configure via the UI.
8. Contribution to the open source TeslaMate project to assist with its ongoing development would be commissioned and made available for all.

The commercial arrangement would be to cover hosting and development of the configuration instance, not to resell TeslaMate as that is open source (MIT License) and available to all for free. Looking at ~$5/£5 per month.

Thoughts?

 

[jmaddr]

It already exists in the form of TeslaFi. (sorry, had to but TeslaFi is also $5/mo or $4.1667/mo when paid yearly and gives you similar functionality as Teslamate)
I have to commend you on a great entrepreneurial idea, but I would contact Adrian Kumpf who, along with other contributors, have dedicated their time to coding TeslaMate, if nothing more than out of simple courtesy. BTW, I love running Teslamate locally.

 

[Medved_77]

It already exists in the form of TeslaFi. (sorry, had to but TeslaFi is also $5/mo or $4.1667/mo when paid yearly and gives you similar functionality as Teslamate)
I have to commend you on a great entrepreneurial idea, but I would contact Adrian Kumpf who, along with other contributors, have dedicated their time to coding TeslaMate, if nothing more than out of simple courtesy. BTW, I love running Teslamate locally.

Yes, both TeslaFi and TeslaMate are great applications and I've given each a good trial and ultimately preferred TeslaMate. I just wonder how many Tesla owners would be interested in trying out TeslaMate if it was as simple to sign up to and maintain as TeslaFi is?

Adrian and others have done a brilliant job developing TeslaMate, the hope is that it's usage and subsequent donations could be expanded if access to it required less technical investment.

 

[webbah]

I like the thought and initiative to help users here, however as an open source solution I think there might be other ways to contribute. People that compare to TeslaFi miss one important distinct difference in that YOU control the entire stack and your data. Not a third party. I switched from TeslaFi for this reason.

One idea I had was to reach out to Digital Ocean and see if they can add this to their MarketPlace as a 1 click install app. I was running mine on DO for about 6 months and it was fantastic and cheap. Cost me about $4 a month. I was using the full stack with reverse proxy, but also enabled their free firewall with some IP based ACL's as well. If it was a 1-click install/setup from the marketplace that would go a long way already to help new users that don't have the docker skills. And they have regions available in the US, EU and APAC. I was hosting in Frankfurt for my needs being in Switzerland. The free setup on GCP I think is US only if I'm not mistaken? Granted this just get's things installed and then you still need to do some fine tuning if you want automated backups to BackBlaze B2, etc. But it might be a start?

I'm now running mine on my home NAS as I've got a new beefy QNAP TVS-H1688X to satisfy my geeky home lab cravings, but DO was great for things like this!

 

[exlatccatsa]

It would be great to have a trial month just to see the diferences, but it sounds a bit more complicated to set up than TeslaFi

 

[init6]

It would be great to have a trial month just to see the diferences, but it sounds a bit more complicated to set up than TeslaFi

I think that's a good point. Even having a demo setup might allow people to see just how powerful Teslamate is.

 

[Durzel]

The reason I went with TeslaMate is because:

1. I had the technical resources to host it myself
2. I felt more confident giving my Tesla credentials to a service that I was hosting myself, where I could audit the source code, etc.
3. (minor point) I didn't like the antiquated TeslaFi UX.

As great as this idea is I would struggle to be on board with it simply because the loss of control/oversight of the code. Having said that plenty of people give their Tesla credentials out to 3rd party apps without great consideration, so shrug.

 

[init6]

The reason I went with TeslaMate is because:

1. I had the technical resources to host it myself
2. I felt more confident giving my Tesla credentials to a service that I was hosting myself, where I could audit the source code, etc.
3. (minor point) I didn't like the antiquated TeslaFi UX.

As great as this idea is I would struggle to be on board with it simply because the loss of control/oversight of the code. Having said that plenty of people give their Tesla credentials out to 3rd party apps without great consideration, so shrug.

I think number 3 is more important. The functionality of the out of the box graphs IMHO are far better than Teslafi. If you have the technical ability you can also change or add to these, but really pretty much everything is already covered.
It can be quite a challenge for a non-techie to setup, but once setup it's remarkably easy to use. That's where I think the market could be, but since people can't try it out then they can't easily compare the two products.

 

[cwanja]

I wonder if this is really worth the headache - do you have to deal with data sovereignty and data transfer laws? US to UK, UK to US, etc.? I realize a small shop like this would probably never end up on the governing radar, but then TeslaMate was exposed and probably ended up on a few peoples radar.

 

[init6]

I wonder if this is really worth the headache - do you have to deal with data sovereignty and data transfer laws? US to UK, UK to US, etc.? I realize a small shop like this would probably never end up on the governing radar, but then TeslaMate was exposed and probably ended up on a few peoples radar.

Aren't you and I already running Teslamate as a Service over on the other thread?

 

[cwanja]

Aren't you and I already running Teslamate as a Service over on the other thread?

We are, and it is not something I am necessarily interested in. Just raising what might (or might not) be a point of concern if someone goes a SaaS route.