Investors are growing increasingly worried about Tesla’s performance, but this is hardly surprising if we consider the less-than-stellar delivery report for Q3 2022. According to the report, Elon Musk’s company delivered only 343,830 vehicles to buyers in the third quarter, which is below the 358,000 units predicted by analysts. Additionally, the EV company was the worst performer in the S&P 500 Index, according to Bloomberg. And to make matters worse, California, a market dominated for years by Tesla, is falling out of love with the EV brand.
During the first six months of the year, Tesla was the second-highest selling vehicle brand in California. Musk’s company sold a whopping 90,895 cars in Cali, while Toyota took the first position with 152,838 vehicles sold. CleanTechnica also highlights that the Tesla Model Y was the top-selling car in the state during the first half of 2022, with the Tesla Model 3 coming in second. However, there are signs that Tesla’s supremacy in California might come to an end.
According to Reuters, in the first nine months of the year, Tesla’s commanding market share in California’s EV market declined once more. As per recent vehicle registration data from the California Energy Commission, Tesla had 73 percent of the battery electric market in California from January to September, the lowest share since 2018. In 2021 and 2020, Tesla had a 75 percent and 79 percent share, respectively.
Given this challenging situation, one would expect Tesla to restore investors’ confidence and develop effective branding strategies. Without a doubt, most businesses would consider how to reclaim lost clients and market share at this stage. This would typically entail sweetening the sale and providing incentives to customers, but Tesla doesn’t follow this tactic. Needless to say that this would be a great moment to offer Apple’s CarPlay and Android Auto, which are standard in almost all other cars. Tesla purists will argue that Musk’s company already has its own infotainment system, which is pretty flawless, but that doesn’t mean consumers don’t have the right to demand more.
This Is Why Tesla Doesn’t Support Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
Probably one of the first thing new Tesla owners miss in their car is the integration of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, but despite endless requests from customers, the EV manufacturer still refuses to integrate them. At this point, we can only speculate about the reasoning. The most obvious answer is that Tesla operates its own software, so there’s no need to add the software developed by a competitor. Also, the most in-demand features offered by Apple and Google are already available in Tesla, so theoretically, drivers and passengers wouldn’t miss out on anything.
Not A Tesla App brings another crucial point up when it states: “One reason for not integrating CarPlay or Android Auto into Teslas is that these systems would break up the Tesla experience.” The website points out that while CarPlay and Android Auto operate independently, “in a Tesla, software features are very tightly integrated, and the addition of CarPlay/AA would break up the seamless experience Tesla currently offers.”
In the past, Elon Musk mentioned that he sees Apple as Tesla’s direct competitor. Furthermore, various industry experts point out that the EV company is not a car manufacturer but a tech company, which means Tesla is a direct competitor to Apple and Google. Conclusion, why would Elon Musk shoot himself in the foot and add the in-car assistant systems from rivals? Musk doesn’t seem to be the only one who thinks this is a bad idea if we consider that other car companies are also moving in the same direction. When Apple presented its new CarPlay vision at WWDC 2022, journalists were quick to point out that BMW wasn’t one of the automakers who took part in the initiative.
This Is How You Can Use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto In Your Tesla
Michał Gapiński, a developer who’s working on Tesla Android, has discovered how to run Apple CarPlay in Tesla’s Model 3. Tom’s Guide reports that Gapiński was able to operate the car’s steering wheel controls to control Apple Music. Additionally, the digital publication revealed that CarPlay doesn’t hamper the other on-screen features. This is an important detail for the Model 3 because this vehicle comes without an instrument cluster and all the wiring data is on the center screen. Tom’s Guide noted the process is complex, and it “requires a Raspberry Pi 4 and a willingness to dig around in Tesla’s software.”
More recently, Gapiński has revealed the second release, and this version has a step-by-step guide.
“Having first gone live with an alpha release in April 2022, the current 2022.25.1 update is only the second release. It uses a Raspberry Pi combined with an LTE modem, Geekworm video capture modile, Wi-Fi access point, microHDMI to HDMI cable and Ethernet cable to enable connection to the car,” says The Driven.
Gapiński also commented on Twitter, “This is a huge release with a lot (of) new features and bug fixes that allow a 100% functional CarPlay integration for any Tesla!”
