The Model 3 does not come with HomeLink built-in anymore. It can be purchased as an accessory after the fact for $300.
My suspicion is that this was done to keep licensing costs to HomeLink by Tesla low, so that instead of it being licensed on every car, it is just on the ones that need it. Annoying for those that need it, but good business strategy. On the flip side I like that the Model 3 doesn't come with XM radio, which is a waste on most cars.
A service center receives the accessory when ordered and then a mobile tech can come and install it if you do not want to go to a service center.
My local mobile tech came over with the part and installed in my garage. The install requires, both hardware and software to be installed. The hardware gets installed behind the front bumper, which must be removed by the tech and then the software loaded remotely and finally the user configuration.
The configuration is simple. Just click on the HomeLink icon and configure attach to the existing garage door as per the instruction here: https://www.tesla.com/support/homelink-faq
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| Configuring HomeLink on the Model 3 |
Awesome video at the end of this blog.
I found this to be better than having the car outside. With the HomeLink configured when the car outside, the GPS assumes that that is the home and it closes and opens the garage door to far from home for my liking. I had no way of knowing if the garage door did actually close when dricing away and it opens too early, which I do not want either. If my kids are playing outside with the garage door open, and it triggers it to open (actually close since its already open) that can cause a danger to kids. Changing the distance did not help as much since driving speed affects the distance. So I found ti best to set the distance to 100 ft and configure it while in the garage. Works best for my liking.
Now to the fun part. Once the HomeLink is configured. The Summon feature can be linked to the HomeLink setting so that Summon can open and close the garage door automatically.
To enable this Enabled the Summon (Beta) under Autopilot.
Then click the Customize Summon button. Adjust the settings depending on the garage. These worked best for me so it did not keep aborting the Summon.
To link the HomeLink to the Summon, turn the last slider to ON and select the HomeLink setting name that was configured in the HomeLink name. For example if you link multiple garage doors then you can select the appropriate one which will let the Model 3 out.
And that's it. After this it is just a matter of testing the Summon with Homelink. You could use Smart Summon, which works, but also simply using Summon works too. At first it is a little scray because the car will move up to 8" as per the settings before it stops then opens the garage door. Here is an awesome little video my daughter shot of me using the Summon with Homelink.
Some may think that this is just a neat gimmick, but actually it has been quite useful. I have used it a few times - for example, once while I was hosing the garage to simply use my phone to pull the vehicle out and then back in inside without getting in with wet feet. Another time I was working on my other car and I needed space for my floor jack and had greasy dirty hands and was able to pull it out without having to get in.
Such an awesome feature