Elon Musk has announced a set of upcoming features for the Model 3, including app-based temperature controls for the rear seats, blind spot notification, advanced voice commands, and the highly-anticipated dashcam feature.
Musk’s latest announcement came as a response to a Model 3 owner who goes by the handle @MacTechGenius on Twitter. According to the Tesla enthusiast, his vehicle, an early build of the Model 3, has been great so far, though it would be even better if Tesla would introduce a set of new features for the electric car. The Model 3 owner gave a list of his requested features, such as the capability of rear passengers to adjust their climate control and seat heaters through the Tesla App, the ability to select a song to play with the Tesla App, blind spot notification chimes, and a better way to document issues with the vehicle.
Musk responded in classic fashion, stating that all the features requested by the Model 3 owner would be rolled out within the next few months with the release of the vehicle’s v8.2 firmware.
All items below will go to all Model 3s within next few months with V8.2 software. To report a bug or ask for a feature, press voice button, say “bug report” followed by issue description. https://t.co/ea7FTOn2cE
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 30, 2018
In later tweets, Musk further stated that the climate control updates for rear seat passengers would be coming to the company’s other vehicles such as the Model X. Apart from this, Musk also noted that the Model 3 dashcam feature for the electric car would probably be coming in firmware v8.3.
Prob 8.3
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 30, 2018
Tesla has been emphasizing its capability to improve its vehicles through over-the-air software updates. The same day, Consumer Reports updated its score for the Model 3, giving it a “Recommended” rating after the Silicon Valley electric carmaker pushed out a firmware update to improve the braking performance for the vehicle.
The update, which was promised by Elon Musk after CR’s first report on the vehicle, was able to reduce the braking distance of the Model 3 by roughly 13%. According to Consumer Reports Auto Test Director Jake Fisher, he has never seen an automaker improve a car’s brakes through a firmware update in the 19 years he has been testing vehicles.
Particularly interesting in Musk’s recent updates was his emphasis on voice commands for the Model 3. Back in January, Musk posted a tweet stating that the Model 3 will have more features that are controlled by voice. According to Musk, owners would be able to do “pretty much anything” via voice command. The mention of rear seat climate control is also notable, considering that the heaters for the Model 3’s back seats were just activated earlier this year.
It’s not just the Model 3 that is receiving new features through OTA updates, however. The Model S and Model X, for one, recently received an updated Navigation and Maps system, which was a lot smoother than its previous iteration. Musk also noted that Model S and Model X owners would soon be able to use their smartphones as keys to their vehicle, similar to the Model 3.
