Tesla has made a spate of improvements to its vehicle software recently, starting with the big Spring Update, and then the Summer Update more recently. While we see most of the updates mentioned in the release notes, Tesla often also adds smaller quality-of-life improvements along the way.
Browser Controls
When using the Tesla Browser in the vehicle, you can now swipe left and right to go back or forward a page in your browser history. When you start swiping on the screen, Tesla’s Chromium-based browser will now display an arrow that slides out from the left or right. The circular icon is initially white, meaning that the action won’t be executed, but if you continue moving to the left/right, the icon will eventually turn blue. The blue icon means that the action will be executed once you let go of the screen.
This is a simple quality-of-life improvement that makes using the built-in browser easier.
We’re happy to see updates like these come to the browser, whose last major feature was the full-screen button that was added in update 2024.14.
Future Browser Improvements
While we’re on the topic, let’s look at some future Tesla web browser improvements we’d love to see.
Access to the Mic
Full access to the vehicle microphone isn’t allowed through the web browser right now. That means if you want to get into a Discord, Slack, or Teams call, you’ll only be able to listen – not speak. All of these apps fully function in the Tesla browser for sending messages, but are fairly limited for meetings.
Better Bookmarks
Tesla’s current bookmark system is simple and barebones. You can bookmark a page and give it a name. Once you visit a bookmarked page enough, it’ll show up as an icon in the center of the browser when you go to the homepage.
However, it's difficult to keep a larger set of bookmarks since there aren’t any organizational tools provided. A better bookmark system or the ability to sync bookmarks would be a welcomed feature.
Custom Homepage
Tesla’s current homepage in its browser is simply just a Tesla logo in black or white, depending on whether your car is in dark mode or not. A custom homepage that provides widgets with basic local news, stock information or other details would be fantastic. We’d ask for weather too, but the recent Summer update shows weather at the top of your screen.
If you’ve got more ideas for the fairly barebones Tesla web browser, let us know.
