Tesla Adds Handwriting Recognition and WeChat in Chinese Update

Tesla has added handwriting recognition in China

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Tesla has added Chinese communication app WeChat to its vehicles in China. They also added handwriting recognition, among other features.

Tesla’s version 2022.44.30.8 update in China added a host of features, which included Apple Music, a microcredit program, MangoTV, and a handwriting keyboard, according to IT House.

WeChat

In China, WeChat is the go-to app for everything from calling and video chatting with friends and family to purchasing goods, sharing your location, and playing video games. The application is owned and developed by Tencent Technology, a major technology and entertainment company based in Shenzhen.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said in a podcast with Tesla Owners Silicon Valley that WeChat’s integrations are amazing and that “you can live on WeChat” in China, and the rest of the world doesn’t have anything remotely close to WeChat’s capabilities.

“We don’t have anything like WeChat outside of China,” Musk said at the time. “So, how about if we just copy WeChat?”

Musk has hinted at transitioning Twitter to being a similar all-in-one platform. “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app,” Musk wrote on Twitter last year.

Handwriting Recognition

Tesla adds WeChat and handwriting recognition to its vehicles in China

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In addition to WeChat, Tesla also added a new keyboard type to Teslas in China. Users now have the option of handwriting directly on the screen, which the keyboard will then translate into the closest Chinese character.

The feature appears to work by giving you a space to draw your character, it will then display an array of matching characters that you can select from.

For script-based languages, this makes text input much easier because of the large number of characters in the language.

We may see Tesla add handwriting recognition support in more languages such as Japanese in a future update. However, there likely isn't a need for such a keyboard in most regions that have much smaller alphabets.

Video of New Features

Microcredit program

IT House briefly explained what this WeChat integration means in Tesla (translated from Chinese): “In addition, this update also [adds] the online microcredit program to the vehicle, allowing the vehicle to offer more services.”

Tesla’s making headway in China

In October of last year, a survey conducted by 12365Auto out of China about EV reliability listed Tesla’s Model Y and Model 3 vehicles as two of the most reliable electric vehicles on the Chinese market. The study found that there were an average 19.2 complaints per 10,000 EVs in China.

The data, which was shared on Twitter by @Moneyball_R, showed that the Model Y received only 2.22 complaints, with the Model 3 trailing slightly behind at 2.7 complaints.

The EV market in China is more competitive than in other locations around the world. A report shared by Reuters showed that retail sales numbers were down, and EV demand also slowed down due to China’s strict zero-COVID restrictions, which is one of the reasons why Tesla stated they slashed prices by as much as $5,000.

Tesla’s Referral Program Launches in Europe

Not a Tesla App

Following its recent launch in the United States and Canada, Tesla has launched their referral program in several European countries as well.

The program is available in Germany, Norway, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and possibly others. The program is almost the same as the one available today in North America, with rewards for each referral and a discount for those referred. The cap in Europe is also ten per year.

This program comes right on the heels of a 0% financing offer for the Model Y in Sweden and France. While referrals aren't currently available in Sweden, the 0% financing still is.

European Referrals

The European Referral program accounts for country and local currency, where applicable.

The referral reward program is comparable to the one available in North America. After exchange rates, there is only an approximately 10% difference between the available rewards in the US and EU.

Other Countries

We expect this program to start rolling out to other European countries over the next few days or weeks, as Tesla continues to expand its referral program.

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Tesla's Android App Lags Behind Apple's: The Missing Features

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Tesla has confirmed that they submit app updates for Android and iOS apps at the same time, but we often see the iOS app updates released first possibly due to a quicker app review process at Apple.

However, we often see features implemented on the Apple version weeks or months before they’re implemented on Android. Today, the Android app is missing several key features, and the gap is starting to become a bit glaring.

Delayed App Updates

The Android app just received update 4.36.6 last night, while the Apple update was available as of September 1st.

That might not seem like a big deal, but in order to use the updated Actually Smart Summon, you’ll need app version 4.36.6, so any Andriod users that received update 2024.27.20 with the new Summon, couldn’t use it until yesterday.

We’re sure Tesla is on it, but it’s disappointing to see that key feature updates take days or a week longer to receive on Android. Apple and Google both offer the ability to set a release date for an app update, so Tesla could coordinate releasing the apps at the same time.

Ultra Wideband Support

Unfortunately, there’s no Ultra Wide Band (UWB) support on Android yet, which is an interesting omission since it’s such a great feature. Most Android phones, flagships, and cheaper phones alike, all support UWB.

Without UWB support Android phones can’t use Tesla’s newest phone key, which is only available for devices that support UWB. The new phone key improves reliability for unlocking the vehicle and setting the correct Tesla driver profile. To support the new phone key, you need a compatible phone (iPhone 11 or newer) and a newer vehicle that supports ultra wideband.

Hands-Free Trunk

Tesla’s new hands-free trunk feature, which allows you to automatically open your trunk by simply standing behind it for a couple of seconds, also isn’t available on Android devices. Tesla’s Hands-Free Trunk requires UWB support too, and Tesla originally mentioned it was coming to Android in May 2024.

For now, those are the features we know of that don’t work on Android today, and we’re hoping that Tesla brings both UWB support, as well as simultaneous app updates to the Google Play and Apple App Store by leveraging each store’s publish date feature.

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