Tesla Model S
Playing Music from a USB Drive in the Tesla Model S

The Tesla Model S offers 2 USB ports under the center armrest, both capable of playing music directly from a USB drive.
The USB music interface on the Model S is well is designed. You can swipe between levels of organization (i.e. Genre->Country->Artist), album art is automatically downloaded, and the buttons and controls are presented in an intuitive and clean manner. A high speed scroll function gives you the ability to scroll through long lists very quickly.
Both ports work for playing music directly from a USB thumb drive but it’s important to note that the port closest to the driver provides twice the current than the port closer to the passenger (2.1A for the driver’s side and 1A for the passenger side). Use the port towards the passenger side for USB music and leave the port closest to the driver for charging USB devices.
Also see: The Sound in the Tesla Model S
The sound system will index the music from your USB device (I use a SanDisk Cruzer Fit 64GB) and categorize them into the following buckets:
- Songs (all songs, alphabetically)
- Genres
- Artists
- Albums
- By Folder (folder on the USB drive)
The categorization makes searching for music much quicker especially since the interface does not provide a search function. The ability to favorite a set of songs for quick access also exists.
Tesla supports a broad range of music formats from the more common MP3, MP4 and AAC (without DRM), as well as formats such as FLAC, AIFF, WAV, WMA and lossless WMA. The sound system will attempt to play these formats and download its album art whenever possible.
There are a lot of really nice touches on the Tesla Model S sound system interface and in many ways it is nicer looking than other USB interface I’ve seen in a car.
The Negative
Ok, so I’m a Tesla owner, not a fan-boy nor an employee so I’m going to start with a bold statement and then explain my position.
Tesla’s USB music interface is useless.
Doing the Shuffle
Let’s start with the big one: You can’t shuffle. Thats it, no shuffling, no random play order of songs, albums, folders, anything. Apple believes so much in shuffling that they made a product that only did that. Without a shuffle, the USB music feature is quite useless in the real world.
Songs are arranged alphabetically which can be annoying depending on how you loaded your music. Playing music from the Album view will also play each song in alphabetical order.
Folder Foul Up
The folder function was clearly an afterthought in my opinion. Album art appears for each song but when you find that same song through the folder view, no album art appears.
Take my “Cowboy Casanova” song for example:
The fast scroll option also doesn’t exist in this folder view.
And the rest
There are some other oddities that I noticed in the interface. There’s 2 USB ports to play music through, “USB1” and “USB2” as displayed on the touchscreen.
What’s odd is that the name is based on the order in which you insert the 2 devices and not on the location of the USB port. Essentially “USB1” can represent the driver’s side USB port if you happen to plug the device into that slot first. However it can also be presented with the same name if you plug it into the passengers’s side USB port first.
That’s just silly.
I have favorite artists, albums, playlists (folders), genres etc. Why can’t I favorite anything but a song? I want to go back and (randomly!) play my favorite playlist over and over, not just a song.
USB devices are designed to be inserted and removed whenever you want. Start playing USB music on the Model S and then remove the USB stick. It will attempt to play the songs next in line and fail without being able to detect that the USB device has already been removed.
Conclusion
News
Tesla takes first step in sunsetting Model S and X with drastic move
Tesla won’t be taking custom orders of the Model S or Model X in Europe any longer.

Tesla has seemingly taken the first step in sunsetting two of its older vehicles, the Model S and Model X, by ending international orders.
The flagship sedan and SUV from Tesla are the two oldest cars in the company’s lineup. They account for a very small portion of overall sales, and several years ago, CEO Elon Musk admitted that Tesla only continues to build and sell them due to “sentimental reasons.”
Earlier this year, there were calls for Tesla to end the production of the two cars, but Lars Moravy said that the Model S and Model X were due to get some love later in 2025. That happened, but the changes were extremely minor.
Tesla launches new Model S and Model X, and the changes are slim
Some took this as an indication that Tesla has kind of moved on from the Model S and Model X. A handful of people seemed to think Tesla would overhaul the vehicles substantially, but the changes were extremely minor and included only a few real adjustments.
In Europe, customers are unable to even put a new order in on a Model S or Model X.
We noticed earlier today that Tesla pressing the ‘Order’ button on either of the flagship vehicles takes you to local inventory, and not the Design Studio where you’d configure your custom build:
🚨 Tesla has removed the Model S and Model X Design Configurators from European customers
It will now bring up available inventory for those two vehicles instead of allowing you to build your own config pic.twitter.com/sMnGAr2kuu
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 30, 2025
Tesla simply does not make enough Model S or Model X units to justify the expensive logistics process of shipping custom orders overseas. It almost seems as if they’re that they will essentially build a bunch of random configurations, send them overseas every few months, and let them sell before replenishing inventory.
Inversely, it could also mean Tesla is truly gearing up to sunset the vehicle altogether. It seems unlikely that the company will fade them out altogether in the next couple of years, but it could absolutely think about ending international orders because volume is so low.
News
Tesla confirms massive hardware change for autonomy improvement
Tesla has confirmed that a recent change made to some of its recently refreshed vehicles is, in fact, a strategy it will use to improve its suite as it continues to work toward autonomy.

Tesla has confirmed that a recent change made to some of its recently refreshed vehicles is, in fact, a strategy it will use to improve its suite as it continues to work toward autonomy.
Tesla first introduced a front-facing camera on the front bumper with the Cybertruck.
Then, the Model Y “Juniper” received the hardware update. The Model S and Model X both received the front-facing camera with its latest update, which was officially revealed last week.
Tesla used new language with the release of the front-facing cameras on the Model S and Model X, confirming they will assist with several things, including “using Autopilot and Actually Smart Summon capabilities”:
“Enhanced visibility when parking or using Autopilot and Actually Smart Summon capabilities.”
This tiny feature on the new Tesla Model Y is perhaps its biggest addition
This is the first time Tesla has used this sort of language, as it was a completely different description with the launch of the new Model Y in January.
When Tesla launched this vehicle, it said the front bumper camera “provides a wider field of view for automatic assisted driving and advanced Smart Summon.”
Tesla switched from using cameras and sensors to only cameras with the launch of Tesla Vision several years ago. The company’s utilization of cameras comes from Tesla’s belief that Ultrasonic Sensors (USS) are not needed for self-driving efforts:
“Along with the removal of USS, we simultaneously launched our vision-based occupancy network – currently used in Full Self-Driving (FSD) (Supervised) – to replace the inputs generated by USS. With today’s software, this approach gives Autopilot high-definition spatial positioning, longer range visibility and the ability to identify and differentiate between objects. As with many Tesla features, our occupancy network will continue to improve rapidly over time.”
CEO Elon Musk has said that sensors were only a crutch and that self-driving would be solved through the use of cameras:
“When your vision works, it works better than the best human because it’s like having eight cameras, it’s like having eyes in the back of your head, beside your head, and has three eyes of different focal distances looking forward. This is — and processing it at a speed that is superhuman. There’s no question in my mind that with a pure vision solution, we can make a car that is dramatically safer than the average person.”
News
Tesla launches new Model S and Model X, and the changes are slim
Tesla’s newest versions of its flagship vehicles have arrived with some slim changes.

Tesla has officially launched the newest versions of its flagship Model S and Model X vehicles, but the changes are pretty slim, which is something we expected when a couple cars were spotted during public testing recently.
The new “refreshed” Model S and Model X were spotted recently by The Kilowatts, and the changes appeared to be a new front camera, a new color, and only a handful of other changes.
Tesla officially announced the launch of the Model S and Model X on Thursday night, and here’s what it listed as the changes to the two vehicles:
Model S & X are now even better – launching today in the US 🇺🇸
Highlights:
– Frost Blue paint color
– Up to 410 miles of range (Model S Long Range – our longest range Tesla yet)
– Even quieter inside: less wind + road noise & more effective Active Noise Cancellation
– New… pic.twitter.com/i4PcEklOWj
— Tesla (@Tesla) June 13, 2025
- Frost Blue paint color
- Up to 410 miles of range (Model S Long Range – our longest range Tesla yet)
- Even quieter inside: less wind + road noise & more effective Active Noise Cancellation
- New wheel designs & improved aerodynamics = more range
- Front fascia camera for better visibility
- Dynamic ambient lighting that brings unique animations along the dash & doors upon entry
- An even smoother ride thanks to new bushings & suspension design
- Adaptive driving beams
- New exterior styling for Model S Plaid, optimized for high-speed stability
- More space for 3rd row occupants & cargo (Model X)
We expected most of these changes, especially the new Frost Blue paint color, as it was spotted by The Kilowatts in its initial coverage of the cars being spotted a few weeks back. Here’s what it looks like officially:
Some of the changes are familiar from the Model Y Refresh, which featured the quieter interior through acoustic-lined glass, a front fascia camera, new bushings, and suspension improvements for a smoother ride.
However, Tesla did refine the Model S Plaid’s exterior for “optimized high-speed stability.” You can see the difference between the two below:
The front-end air diffusers are much deeper, and the front end is more boxy than the previous iteration of the Plaid Model S.
Here are some more images of the Model S that Tesla released in a teaser video:
- Credit: Tesla
Tesla sells such a low volume of the Model S and Model X that it was probably less than likely that the company would put endless manpower and effort into completely redesigning it. CEO Elon Musk said a few years ago that the two cars would only stay in production for “sentimental reasons.”
While they are very special to the Tesla family, they are not incredibly important to the mission of the company.
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