Tesla has announced its 2024 Holiday Update, the latest iteration of its annual OTA Holiday Update rolled out across its vehicle line-up at no extra cost.
Historically, these updates have brought new and notable features to Tesla owners at no extra cost. In 2023, for example, it launched Custom Lock Sounds, which allowed users to replace their vehicle’s default lock sound with either a pre-set sound option provided by Tesla, or a sound of their own choosing by uploading a compatible sound file to the infotainment system. The 2022 Holiday Update provided new, native, apps for Steam – a PC gaming platform that allowed users with a Steam account to log in, download, and play games from their library via the central screen, when the vehicle is stationary – Apple Music, the tech giant’s music streaming service, and Zoom, the video conferencing app.
For 2024, Tesla’s latest Holiday Update offers a broad variety of upgrades, from app enhancements to new in-vehicle app launches, and more. At the height of the Holiday Update, however, is the launch of Tesla’s iOS app onto the Apple Watch. Through it, customers who own the smartwatch can now use it as a ‘digital key’ to lock/unlock their Tesla, with the ability to view the battery’s state-of-charge, open the frunk, and active the EV’s climate control system remotely. A similar upgrade to Tesla’s mobile app, on both iOS and Android, is the ability for users to view footage recorded by the vehicle’s Dashcam and Sentry Mode cameras, select a 30-second clip from that footage, and save it directly onto their phone for editing or sharing.
Within Tesla’s IVI, the update will launch a native version of the SiriusXM satellite radio app for Models 3 and Y, as well as the Cybertruck with a free one-month trial. The app (which was previously exclusive to the Model S and Model X) allows users, who subscribe to Tesla Premium Connectivity for $9.99 per month or have an active Wi-Fi connection, to access a broad variety of music and radio-related content, including curated ad-free music, artist stations, celebrity-hosted talk shows, world/national news, live sports coverage, and video footage of in-studio shows and performances. Across Tesla’s full EV lineup, the 2024 Holiday Update adds a new game to Tesla Arcade, Boomerang Fu. In this multiplayer party game, up to six players control anthropomorphic food-based characters and fight each other with boomerangs.
Having launched shortly before the 2023 Holiday Update, Tesla’s Cybertruck is a key beneficiary of this year’s update, receiving new and vehicle-specific upgrades, additions and improvements. For example, Cybertruck owners will soon be able to customize the 3D avatar (of the vehicle, seen in the instrument cluster) with a custom wrap and license plate. Much like the custom lock sound, users can choose from a set of preloaded designs or create and upload their own designs to the infotainment system via a USB drive.
Rear-seated occupants of the Cybertruck will now be able to play games on Tesla Arcade, with the app now available for use in the rear screen, while the rear camera gains a larger video feed that users can zoom in on, or out of, with a pinch gesture. The update will also offer a ‘Santa Mode’, that allows the Cybertruck avatar to be changed into Santa’s sleigh, complete with reindeers, elves, and more that can be enabled within the customization menu, or with a ‘Ho Ho Ho’ voice command.
All Tesla models will benefit from the update’s navigation enhancements, for both the Trip Planner and the navigation map itself. Here, Trip Planner now allows users to set a preferred battery charge level for when they arrive at their destination, factoring this into the route, while the system itself gains a new Search Along Route function, that filters search results to show options along the user’s route, and displays the estimated detour times for visiting these locations. When planning a route, the navigation app will now also directly display the latest precipitation data in the area as well as the weather at their selected destination.
The update also issues smaller improvements and updates to existing functions. Among these are an enhanced TuneIn Radio app (which remains free for all users), a new Seats control panel that allows users to adjust the position of an unoccupied passenger seat (including second-row seats), the ability to view and track maintenance items from the touchscreen, and an extension of the ‘Emissions Testing Mode’ that now allows for a whoopee cushion sound to be played on a seat of the driver’s choosing, as an occupant sits down on that seat.
While announcing it earlier this week, the OEM confirmed that the 2024 Holiday Update will roll out to users on the week commencing December 9, with Tesla employees testing it this week. Upon launch, it will be issued to the Model S, X, 3, and Y vehicles as well as the Cybertruck.
