Tesla Adds New Ambient Lighting Options in Update 2024.26.1

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Tesla recently added ambient accent lighting to several of its vehicles, including the 2024 Model 3 Highland Refresh and the Cybertruck. Additionally, the Model Y in China also received ambient lighting, but this hasn’t come to other regions yet.

The Model S and Model X are also supposed to eventually receive this ambient lighting feature, alongside a rumoured front camera.

New Options for Ambient Lighting

As part of update 2024.26.1, Tesla is adding on to the already great ambient lighting feature. In update 2024.14 Tesla added the ability for the ambient lights to turn red when you enter Service Mode, which is a nice touch.

Now, they’re taking it a step further with update 2024.26.1. You’ll now be able to control the brightness of the ambient lights in the Cybertruck and the 2024 Model 3. Previously, you could adjust the color to whatever you liked, but not how bright they were. The brightness of the lights was directly linked to the brightness of the vehicle display.

Tesla has also added a new “Night Only” option, which turns on the accent lights when conditions outside get dim. This is a nice addition, as while the strips are visible during daytime, in direct-light they’re not very noticeable. While LEDs do last for a considerable amount of time, this could help reduce the wear on the accent lights and let them last longer.

If you want to adjust the brightness or enable the new Night Only mode, you can navigate to Controls, and then look under Lights > Accent Lights. Since this is now uncoupled from the vehicle display brightness, you won’t have to worry about having your display too bright at night.

We’re not quite sure yet whether this applies to the Chinese Model Y with accent lighting, but it should.

We’re happy to see Tesla updating the accent light controls with the ability to adjust the brightness. Next up, we’re hoping to see Tesla change the color of the lights for certain features, such as when there’s a vehicle in your blind spot and perhaps even fun things such as syncing to the music being played.

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Tesla’s Referral Program Launches in Europe

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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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