Photo: Google Play Store
Despite their focus on all things technology, Tesla cars lack Android Auto and CarPlay support, and at this point, there’s pretty much no reason to believe such a thing would ever be offered officially.
On the other hand, it’s not a secret that third-party developers out there have been trying to find a way to bring the two to Tesla cars. And earlier this year, Emil Borconi, the developer of the famous AAWireless Android Auto wireless adapter, provided an early look at a project supposed to allow Tesla owners to run Google’s app.
Called TeslAA, the application was mostly an attempt to emulate Android Auto on a Tesla display using the pre-loaded browser.
The good news is the project has evolved substantially in the last few months, so the application has exited the beta stage and is now available for everybody from the Google Play Store.
While the original implementation was rather buggy (and this wasn’t necessarily a surprise given it was just a preview), the final version of TeslAA is said to be much more stable and polished. Though someone in the reviews section of the Google Play Store listing says, the touch input isn’t registered correctly, while others claim there’s also a 1-second lag when using the screen.
The developer says every Tesla with hardware accelerated video should be able to run the app, and setting up everything is rather easy.
Just select the Tesla Bluetooth profile from the list of Bluetooth devices, connect the Tesla Wi-Fi to the mobile phone hotspot, open the car’s browser and go to androidwheels.com, and that’s it. The audio source must also be set to Bluetooth in order to get audio from apps like Spotify and Google Maps.
The application, however, isn’t available free of charge, as it comes with a $4.99 one-time purchase on the Google Play Store. Your phone must be running at least Android 8.0 to be able to install the app and then emulate the Android Auto UI through the browser.
Called TeslAA, the application was mostly an attempt to emulate Android Auto on a Tesla display using the pre-loaded browser.
The good news is the project has evolved substantially in the last few months, so the application has exited the beta stage and is now available for everybody from the Google Play Store.
While the original implementation was rather buggy (and this wasn’t necessarily a surprise given it was just a preview), the final version of TeslAA is said to be much more stable and polished. Though someone in the reviews section of the Google Play Store listing says, the touch input isn’t registered correctly, while others claim there’s also a 1-second lag when using the screen.
The developer says every Tesla with hardware accelerated video should be able to run the app, and setting up everything is rather easy.
Just select the Tesla Bluetooth profile from the list of Bluetooth devices, connect the Tesla Wi-Fi to the mobile phone hotspot, open the car’s browser and go to androidwheels.com, and that’s it. The audio source must also be set to Bluetooth in order to get audio from apps like Spotify and Google Maps.
The application, however, isn’t available free of charge, as it comes with a $4.99 one-time purchase on the Google Play Store. Your phone must be running at least Android 8.0 to be able to install the app and then emulate the Android Auto UI through the browser.
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