It looks like Tesla is about to release a lot of new features in their next software update that were first requested by fans on Twitter.
A Tesla owner in China who is part of the Early Access Program (EAP) revealed details of the latest update, 2020.20.16, and it includes features that will make a lot of people happy.
Update: It appears EAP owners in the US are seeing this update too, but it is numbered 2020.24.5.
Backup Camera Improvements
With this new update, you can finally use your side repeater cameras when reversing your vehicle, given you better visibility while parking. From the image below, the cameras are also available when you turn on the rear camera while driving.
New OTA update in 🇨🇳 utilizes the two-side backward-facing cameras for parking guidance. A very practical feature👍 pic.twitter.com/iAUKFarZqi
— Ray4️⃣Tesla⚡️🚘☀️🔋 (@ray4tesla) June 18, 2020
There have been many requests for Tesla to implement a 360-degree overhead view, something which should be possible thanks to the numerous cameras around the car.
Hopefully this is just the first step towards making that feature a reality.
Dashcam Viewer Improvements
Probably the biggest complaint about Sentry Mode since it was released last year is how difficult it is to find the actual event that triggered the recording.
That’s fixed now, as the recordings will now show a red dot along the video scrubber to indicate where the event occurred. Not only that, when you select the clip, it will start playing from that point.
Walk-Away Door Lock Improvements
You’ll never walk to your garage, only to forget your phone and find a locked car. Another highly requested feature (one that I’ve wanted too) is to have the ability to not have your car lock when its parked in your garage.
Now just like Sentry Mode and folding mirrors, which can be set based upon a location, you can disable walk-away door locks when at home.
On-Route Battery Warmup
You can now warmup your battery for third-party fast chargers, and not just Superchargers.
Cabin Camera
This is a big one, and one that will probably ruffle more than a few feathers. Since the Model 3 was built, it has had a small camera just above the rear-view mirror, that until now was inactive.
Elon Musk has previously revealed on Twitter the cabin camera will eventually be used for the future Robotaxi network, to keep an eye on potentially unruly passengers. He has also mentioned it could be used as a “>Sentry Mode camera in a future update. It will even be used for video conferencing in the future.
But this update turns the cabin camera on for none of those reasons.
If you decide to turn it on, it will record images and video in the event of a collision or “safety event”. That data will be sent back to Tesla to help them develop new safety features and enhancements in the future.
We recently got our first look at the quality of the images from the cabin camera, and what it can exactly see, thanks to Tesla hacker @greentheonly.
The important thing to remember is you don’t have to share that data with Tesla if you don’t want to.
Here are the full release notes, courtesy Ray4Tesla on Twitter.
