8 Ideas For Tesla’s Next Software Update

Preston Smalley
5 min readOct 18, 2018
My wife and I taking delivery at Tesla’s Fremont Factory in 2015

I’ve been driving a Tesla Model S for three years now and I simply love it. It’s the first vehicle I’ve owned that gets better with age. With every software update, a new set of tricks and features appear at my disposal. It’s hard to imagine commuting and driving along winding roads now without features like AutoPilot and Forward Collision Warnings (features that were automatically added to my car after I had already bought it).

Naturally, as a product person, spending several hours commuting in my Tesla everyday, I dream up some feature ideas of my own from time to time. And I’ve decided to share some of them here. According to the six degrees of separation theory, someone at Tesla is bound to have a look.

Who knows?

Maybe something will stick.

Eight Feature Ideas and Improvements For Tesla

1. Curated radio and podcasts

I utilize my commute to stay up on my favorite audio content (news, tech, leadership, …), but the media playback experience can be cumbersome while driving, as you have to know exactly what you want to play and select it specifically. I know from my time spent in the TV industry that people love to be entertained with as a little decision making as possible.

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Preston Smalley

Product & Tech Leader for digital TV entertainment, two-sided marketplaces and mobile apps used every day by millions of people. http://www.prestonsmalley.com