Tesla Hacker Finds In-Car Upgrade Purchases, New Languages and More in Source Code

Tesla hacker @greentheonly has found a number of exciting updates before they’ve appeared publicly, all by digging into a Tesla vehicle’s internal source code for new changes and old departures.

On Thursday, Green shared a number of new features discovered in the source code of Tesla’s recent 2021.12.25 software update, including a ton of rewritten UI and new UI assets, which Green calls “spillover from the S/X refresh cars, including their 3D models.”

Among the features discovered, Green also found that Tesla may be preparing to offer upgrade features straight from the vehicle itself for things like Full Self-Driving (FSD), Basic Autopilot (BAP), and Enhanced Autopilot (EAP), among others still.

In addition to the software upgrade capabilities to be added, Tesla has also added support for a number of new languages which include Russian, Hindi, Greek, Croatian and Finnish.

Green also mentions, “Autoraise suspension on rough terrain”, while adding “some cars get cold battery performance improvements,” without mentioning which vehicles.

Also the 2021 Model 3 Performance on 19-inch wheels “got a battery range display improvement.”

Tesla’s Toybox access in Hong Kong has been removed due to government regulations says Green, while he also mentions “Powerwall coordination”.

Green’s update also included that there is a new billing protocol when connected for Fast-Chargers and for Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE), though Green reports not knowing which they are.

The hacker also notes the auto shifter for the Model S Plaid is also within code, currently only built to shift out of park in a beta format, and “does not appear to be neural network based”. Tesla has previously said auto shift is supposed to ‘learn’ your driving habits in the Model S refresh.

The update also includes information about high bitrate media from USB, with 320 kbps mp3 in relation.

The recent thread from Green also includes information about a pre-service “vehicle self-test mode,” playback duration limited of some sort, a Romanian manual, and new sounds for shifting into forward, reverse, and park – among a slew of other interesting tidbits.