Tesla has always prioritized user privacy, and its recent software update, 2024.20, introduces an enhancement to location privacy, allowing Tesla owners to see exactly which applications are accessing their vehicle’s location in real-time.
You might not have noticed it, but since last year a location sharing icon appears on the in-car display when an app is accessing your live location. This icon appeared regardless of whether the request came directly from Tesla’s mobile app, or a third-party app.
It was however just a notification, and didn’t provide details on who, or what, was trying to access your location. Tapping on the icon just provided a basic message to inform you what it was for.
However, the 2024.20 update takes this a step further. Even though there was no mention of it in the release notes, tapping on the location icon will now give you detailed information about which specific service is accessing your vehicle’s location.
This includes not only the Tesla mobile app but also any third-party apps that have permission to track the vehicle’s location. (h/t: Francois) In the case of the latter, the location sharing icon may always be present on your display.
Here are two examples we were able to get, showing the “Owner” accessing the location, and then also a “Driver” account, both through the Tesla mobile app.
If you don’t want to share the location of your vehicle with anyone, including a third-party app, you can disable location sharing by going to Controls > Safety > Allow Mobile Access through the in-car menu. While this option is available to you, it’s important to note that disabling location sharing will hinder the functionality of many features within the Tesla app.
We first posted this news over the weekend to our account on X, and there was interesting suggestion for Tesla, in that they should add a feature that allows a driver to push their location to a friend to allow them to track their arrival, similar to how you can do so with Google Maps and Apple Maps on your mobile device.
Do you think that is a good idea? Would you use that feature if it was available? Let us know in the comments below.
Undocumented change in @Tesla software update 2024.20. Tapping on the location sharing icon will now tell you who is requesting your live location.
— Drive Tesla 🇨🇦 (@DriveTeslaca) June 28, 2024
Here are a couple of examples from our car – owner and driver.
Previously it would only give a description of why the icon was… pic.twitter.com/GyrPcch9Sr
