Top Tesla tips you may not know

August 13, 2021

By Nuno Cristovao

Redictate your text message

If you're replying to a text message and it wasn’t transcribed correctly, you can redo it. In a Model 3 or Model Y, just push in the right scroll wheel twice. The previous transcription will be thrown out and you can dictate your message again.

Top Tesla Tips

Not a Tesla App

Delete previous destinations

You can remove a recent destination from your navigation by swiping right on the address. You can remove favorite destinations the same way.

Quickly set GPS to home

You can quickly navigate to your home or work destination by swiping on the Navigate button. If you're near work it will navigate home, and if you’re near home it will navigate to work.

Quickly open calendar

You can tap the time on the screen to quickly jump into your calendar in the vehicle instead of having to go through the app menu.

Some settings are global

Some driver settings are global, meaning they affect every profile in the vehicle, while other settings are considered a personal preference and will only affect your profile. This lets you and your spouse have different stopping modes, favorite radio stations, etc.

A single USB drive for Sentry/Dashcam, Music and Boombox

You don't need to have separate USB drives for each feature. You can format your USB drive to have different partitions which makes the drive act as separate drives. You’ll want to create one partition for each feature.

Use voice commands while driving

There are close to 200 voice commands, there's likely one to do what you'd like so that you can keep your focus on the road. For example, you can say, “set temperate to 70 degrees”, instead of having to fiddle with the temperature slider on screen. Take a look at our full list of Tesla commands, and our Top 5 most useful voice commands.

Trunk height

If you have an automatic trunk, you can set the maximum height it will open to. This is useful if you're on the shorter side or if you have a lower garage. Read more about how to set your trunk to a desired height.

Charging at 240 volts is cheaper than using 120 volts

Charging at a higher rate is actually cheaper than charging at a slower rate. Your Tesla needs to power an inverter that translates your home’s AC energy into DC energy that is stored in your batteries. Powering that inverter uses quite a bit of energy, so the longer it's running the more electricity you’re using so the faster you can charge, the less time you need to run the inverter. Charging at 240 volts is about 12% more efficient than charging at 120.

Send address from your phone

If the app you use on your phone supports sharing an address to an app, then you can look up an address on your phone and share it directly to your car. For example if you’re using Google Maps, you can share a destination directly to your Tesla and avoid typing it again later.

Turn off HVAC

You can hold down the temperature icon in the launcher to turn off the HVAC completely.

Adjust seat heaters, check charge level and others functions while watching full screen video

While watching full screen video, there are controls to adjust climate temperature and screen brightness if you tap near the top of the screen. However, you can control even more settings without leaving your video by using your Tesla app.

Easily adjust wiper speed

The easiest way to change your wiper speed on a Model 3 or Y is to push the button on the left stalk for a single wipe, which will also bring up the wiper speed adjustment on the screen. You can then easily adjust it.

Screen Clean Mode

You may find that while wiping down your screen you touch buttons accidentally. There’s actually a 'screen clean' mode that requires you to hold your finger on the display in order to exit it, which means you can now clear your screen of smudges without tapping various buttons. You can find it under the Car > Service menu.

Charger handle opens charge port

This one may be obvious to most, but a surprise to some. If you use the charger that came with your Tesla, there’s a button on the handle that will open your charge port door. It does require your car to be unlocked and awake, so sometimes it’s useful to open one of the doors to wake up your car then push the button on the handle.

Easy way to stop the Autopilot nag screen

If you're on Autopilot and the car asks you to place your hands on the wheel, you can either torque the wheel a little bit, or just use one of the scroll wheels on the screen to let the car know you’re paying attention.

Range display

The range displayed in a Model 3 and Model Y are EPA values and they will not adjust based on your driving habit or weather conditions. It's roughly locked in to about 4 miles per kilowatt, depending on your exact model.

However, if you're trying to plan when to charge or how much charge you'll have left at the end of your destination then you’ll want to use the Energy app (under the ^ Apps menu). This will display a graph of your charge level and the distance to your destination that considers your driving style, weather elevation and much more.

If you enjoyed these quick tips, take a look at our list of more in-depth Tesla Tips and https://www.notateslaapp.com/how-to/how-tos.

Tesla Vehicles Spotted With LiDAR: What Do They Use It For?

July 13, 2024

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

Tesla recently hit the news for purchasing approximately $2M in LiDAR sensors from Luminar, one of Tesla’s long-term suppliers. You’ve probably seen photos of Tesla’s Semi and various Tesla models, including the Model 3 and Model Y sporting LIDAR equipment on the roof. These cars drive around with manufacturer plates scanning streets and highways.

However, many people confuse Tesla’s purpose in purchasing LiDAR equipment with using it for FSD versus testing. So, let’s look at what LiDAR is, and why Tesla uses it on its Fleet Validation Vehicles.

What is LiDAR?

LiDAR stands for Light Detecting and Ranging – essentially using lasers to measure distances. A laser pulse is sent out, and the time it takes to return is measured – providing extremely accurate distance measurements.

Some companies working on self-driving vehicles, including Waymo and BYD, use LiDAR as part of their self-driving suites, but Tesla is one of the few stand-outs that does not. Even Rimac’s “Verne” Robotaxi – which uses self-driving technology from Mobileye, also uses LiDAR.

While LiDAR can produce extremely accurate and high-quality 3D environments, it comes with its downsides as well. Not only is LiDAR costly and requires large gear strapped to a vehicle, but it also can not be used in bad weather and can have interference issues if there are other strong light sources present.

Why Does Tesla Use LiDAR?

A LiDAR rig mounted on a Tesla Semi for testing FSD.

Not a Tesla App

At Autonomy Day in 2019, Elon Musk mentioned that LiDAR isn’t the solution for self-driving cars – it's just a crutch. Thus, Tesla hasn’t used LiDAR for any production self-driving software.

Instead, Tesla uses it exactly how it's described – they use it to gather ground-truth data. This data is then used to feed Tesla’s Full Self Driving system – which helps validate its vision-only system's accuracy. LiDAR provides very accurate measurements to help ensure that FSD’s perception of space is accurate – and is only used by Tesla to ensure that its AI technology which is the brains of FSD is capable of accurately interpreting depth from just visual data.

Tesla’s vision-only system has been seen to be extremely accurate, with Vision-only Autopark being able to park in even narrower and tighter spaces faster than the previous version that relied on ultrasonic sensors.

We’ll likely continue to see Tesla purchase LiDAR systems, as well as use them for validation well into the future.

Tesla's Upcoming Robotaxi Event in August Delayed, According to Bloomberg

July 12, 2024

By Karan Singh

Sugar Design

In a report from Bloomberg, it is claimed that Tesla will be delaying its much-anticipated 8/8 Robotaxi event by two months to October 2024.

While sources other than Bloomberg haven't confirmed this report, Bloomberg has a positive track record of reporting on financial decisions. We’ll be sure to update the article if there is confirmation on X from Elon Musk or another Tesla senior official.

Tesla’s stock has dropped nearly 8.5% over the day, ending back-to-back gains over the last two weeks. It closed yesterday at $ 241 after hitting a peak of $270 earlier in the day before the news broke.

Why the Delay?

The delay – of approximately two months – has been communicated internally, but not publicly announced just yet. Bloomberg goes on to mention that the design team was told to rework certain elements of the Cybercab, necessitating the delay.

If Bloomberg’s report is correct, it sounds like Tesla’s unveil event will be largely focused on showing off the vehicle, instead of demoing how it will work. Of course, it could still be both, but given past events, Tesla has always shown off the vehicle years before it hits production.

Rimac recently showed off their version of robotaxi vehicle named Verne, and surprisingly, it could almost pass for Tesla’s own robotaxi. A lot of design cues in Rimac’s version are elements we have already seen or expect to see in Tesla’s autonomous taxi.

A recent Tesla patent revealed that Tesla is incorporating a sanitation system into their robotaxi that will be responsible for analyzing and cleaning the vehicle’s interior, although the delay itself is likely tied more to a physical feature rather than software.

Another element we know almost nothing about is how Tesla plans to charge these robotic taxis. Will they rely on the existing charge port and adapt a solution like the robotic charging arm (video below) we saw almost eight years ago, or will wireless charging or a dock finally become realized?

While the delay for Tesla’s event appears to be related to the vehicle’s design itself and not further development of FSD, Tesla is wasting no time in getting FSD working for the upcoming vehicle. Model 3 vehicles have already been spotted with camera locations that resemble a robotaxi.

Is the Delay Accurate?

We expect that this delay might actually be true – Elon Musk usually takes to X within hours of such news breaking if it's false to refute it and hasn’t done so yet.

Tesla has delayed several of their events in the past, and a delay of a couple of months seems plausible. We should hear from Musk himself soon on whether this report is accurate.