So, whatever happened to the promised in-car apps? While there have been some nice (relatively minor) UI tweaks, no new functionality has been introduced to that giant touch screen. Seems like such a wasted opportunity.
What happened to the promised in-car apps?
- Thread starter Argelius
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- Model S User Interface
eye.surgeon
Active Member
Hopefully they came to their senses and realized that apple carplay and the android equivalent make it completely unnecessary for them to develop their own apps. Technology has moved on. Tesla really hasn't in this regard.
Exactly. If Tesla doesn't want to develop an SDK for their infotainment system, they should open it up to CarPlay/AndroidAuto and let those "app experts" do the heavy lifting.
f-stop
Active Member
Earlier this year at an event in Hong Kong, Elon Musk mentioned they are likely going to ditch the idea of an SDK and apps and instead mirror the display of your smartphone onto the 17" screen
“As we have sort of thought about it more, the logical thing to do from an app standpoint is to maybe allow apps on your iPhone or Android to project onto the center display, as opposed to trying to create a new app ecosystem,” Musk said.
Tesla SDK likely a no-go, targets iOS and Android app mirroring instead
“As we have sort of thought about it more, the logical thing to do from an app standpoint is to maybe allow apps on your iPhone or Android to project onto the center display, as opposed to trying to create a new app ecosystem,” Musk said.
Tesla SDK likely a no-go, targets iOS and Android app mirroring instead
Chopr147
Active Member
Well then, I guess I will still be using my phone data for navigation with Waze 
Except that means there won't be any data from the car in these apps. That might fix the current ridiculous media app, but won't help the navigation app or allow experimentation with how the menus work.
What kinds of apps, apart from media, would be useful and not actually dangerous? Games, Twitter, photo editing, email, what?
What kinds of apps, apart from media, would be useful and not actually dangerous? Games, Twitter, photo editing, email, what?
Third party navigation apps like Waze would be useful. A better web browser. Apps that log stuff for your car, like some of the current web based Tesla services.
Sure, if it was a native app, or even an app running on a real browser in the car that also had an interface to the car's information, such as the state of charge and the navigation destination. The problem with phone apps displayed on the screen is you don't have any of that information.
Again, these would be much more useful if they could access information from the car. Restricting apps to just what can run on a phone seems very limiting and unnecessary to me.
I still say that Tesla should just do a modified Chrome browser as their entire user interface with a set of custom data sources that could be read by browser apps. Chrome is well sand boxed, has plenty of capabilities, and Tesla wouldn't have to deal with it at all once they converted everything over.
steve841
Active Member
The only way to "mirror" iOS and retain the ability to touch a remote screen is through Carplay. Otherwise, mirroring on iOS only displays its screen on a remote display without the ability to accept touch input from that display. There is no way Tesla can give iOS users "mirroring" without giving them Carplay. Unless you want to see your iPhone on the 17" screen while interacting on the phone itself. That's how it would work with a non-Carplay mirroring setup with iOS.
Elon is batshit crazy if he doesn't offer Carplay. Tesla doesn't seem to be listening to its own customers when it comes to vehicle features.
Elon is batshit crazy if he doesn't offer Carplay. Tesla doesn't seem to be listening to its own customers when it comes to vehicle features.
Dithermaster
Member
It's pretty ironic that folks have to dash-mount their smartphone to do things the 17" CID can't. If Tesla saw pictures of that perhaps it would encourage them do finish this project already.
When people first see the 17" they are amazed. When they find out its limitations they are amazed.
When people first see the 17" they are amazed. When they find out its limitations they are amazed.
Maybe owners should start posting photos of their mounted iPads, iPhones and Android things to Elon and Tesla's Twitter pages with the hashtag #GiveUsCarplay or #YourSoftwareSucks? Just thinking out loud...
Yes. I have a magnetic phone mount because the navigation is terrible in comparison to Waze. All I want is Waze and text integration and I will be happy.
Maybe throw in a screensaver that you can load pictures on. The Honda Accord has that.
xcell
MX Driver
The only thing that I recall changing substantially in the 2.5 years that I have owned a MS is the media player, and some of the changes have caused other problems. Elon said last October that the web browser would be updated soon but it is still pretty much unusable.
The irony here is that the "over the air" updates are often touted as this big Tesla advantage and yet it seems to be a mostly wasted opportunity. One could argue that both the first and second gen autopilot iterations were simply released before they were ready and the "updates" are just Tesla owners participating in the software development life cycle as testers.
Kind of a bummer really.
Kind of a bummer really.
Definitely wasted because having open apis would allow many to bring features to the car at a quicker pace. Vetted third parties could even develop apps the tie into car systems
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