I got a notification on my phone that the there was a new software update. I was so excited to get 2020.8.1 update. I went to the car to make sure it was plugged in, because I needed it charged for the next morning. I clicked the Update button on the Tesla mobile app.
The screen in the car immediately changed to this 2 minute warning. and displayed a yellow timer logo on the top status bar.
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| 2 minute warning that the car is about to do a software update |
While the update was going on, the mobile app displayed the the updated percentages and showed when the car was rebooting (Lol!)
and finally gave a notification that the update was completed.
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| Car is rebooting, so awesome. |
I did not get a chance to see the release notes on the screen that night as I had to an early am flight the next day. But before I left, I had a chance to snap a few pictures of the release details on the screen to read on the plane. So made this a picture heavy blog post to share all the details.
First off, so excited about track mode V2. It appears that track mode ennables the customization of 6 different settings and saving up to 20 of these customized settings.
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| Track Mode V2 |
Additionally the option to use the dash cam as a track cam, with telemetry data saved as a CSV ,and using the a start & stop pin on the map as points to automatically record lap times. Now that's just clear and convenient. Obviously some of the engineers at Tesla have track experience. Sweetness.
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| Lap timer, Track Cam and telemetry |
Adding Bluetooth switch audio from the phone only when the driver is in the seat and all doors are closed is also just smart, as well as a highly requested feature on Reddit. Improvements for voice command in areas of low cellular connectivity is awesome, because I have experienced this as well.
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| Better voice command in low connectivity areas |
Some of the improvements that came with the major December/November (?) release that are part of the same major release followed and are here for posterity. Driving visualization improvements allows the HW3 version to detect and display stop signs, stop lights including color changes. The additional voice command were awesome. My kids love that the glove box is now voice commanded.
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| HW3 visualization of more road artifacts and lots of new voice commands |
Said Auto Pilot Visualization Preview looks like this. I love the fact that it saw the bicycle lane and symbol.
Continuing on. This was the update that added ability to read and respond to messages via voice command. Still pretty basic compared to other systems, but I am sure it will get there.
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| Ability to voice reply to a text |
Addition of camping mode to use the car as a big ass radio and battery. Then the addition of twitch to the Theater. Still got to get Disney+ on there to watch some Madalorian :-)
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| Added camping mode and Twitch to the theater |
Improvement to the games included as part of the Tesla's entertainment system.
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| Improvements to games |
Even more game improvements, and the addition of voice keyboard and virtual musical instruments to the Sketchpad
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| Voice keyboard and TRAX |
Saving the clip on honk is an awesome feature. I have used it a few times when idiots run reds, 4-way strops and other general stupidity.
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| Save clip on honk is just simply genius! |
So a little more about the track mode enhancement, I had a chance to quickly flip through the screens while stopped on the way to the airport and it has two modes by default. The race preset is shown and the features that can be adjusted are:
- Handling Balance between front and rear default is 50/50
- Stability Assist which is 0 and can actually be set to negative
- Regenerative Braking - nice to have those big brakes when setting is set off
- Post drive cooling
- Compressor overclock
- DashCam for Laps
The default settings for track mode are as below.
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| Default Race Preset |
The default preset for drifting by contrast:
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| Default Drift Preset |
Well that's the update. Pretty awesome what Tesla can do with just software. Software FTW!
