Earlier this week, Tesla hacker @greentheonly discovered Tesla will soon move user profiles to an online cloud, allowing users to have their preferences included in any Tesla they hop into. Some believe the concept could actually have far-reaching implications for Tesla’s future business model.
On Tuesday, Tesla enthusiasts The Kilowatts posted to Twitter that they had just discovered enabled filtering for Supercharging receipts – a big discovery for them and others who share Teslas via ride-sharing service Turo, now letting them view only Supercharger purchases for customer reimbursement if they choose.
Combined with @greentheonly’s cloud migration discovery earlier in the week, The Kilowatts have posited that this may be Tesla laying the groundwork for its upcoming Robotaxi network.
We just discovered @Tesla enabled filtering for Supercharging receipts!!
Stay with me because while this might seem minor at first but is actually a really big deal in context… pic.twitter.com/I0RtcKe0b7
— The Kilowatts 🚗⚡️ (@klwtts) February 24, 2021
On top of that, @greentheonly found this week showing that Tesla is working to bring all driver profiles into the cloud meaning whenever you get into a Tesla, it will know all of your favorite settings, preferences and maybe even transfer purchases such as premium connectivity.
— The Kilowatts 🚗⚡️ (@klwtts) February 24, 2021
The technology, if it is to progress in the direction predicted, could easily allow Tesla to charge users directly, even if they’re signing into their account from a shared or different Tesla than usual.
Those who currently facilitate ride-sharing fleets via Turo are forced to go through a tedious process of charging their Teslas’ users, typically well after the fact of the rental, and even if Tesla doesn’t progress in this direction, it’s useful to know that users can filter their past purchases to only include Supercharger purchases.
It’s now also possible to export a monthly CSV report of all your Supercharging sessions by going to the last page of your charging history, says The Kilowatts.
Regardless, only time will tell if Tesla chooses to unleash its own ride-sharing service. If it doesn’t however, it’s only missing out on an easy revenue stream, and causing a little extra work for those making money from ride-sharing. And with the software already moving in the direction of the cloud, the service seems like a no-brainer.
