What do you lose if you don’t pay for Tesla’s premium connectivity version?
When you buy a Tesla car you get to enjoy premium connectivity for a month, but when it’s over, it’s a bit of a bummer because you don’t know how much control you’re going to lose over basic things about your car. But don’t worry, it’s made in such a way that it’s a bit uncomfortable but it doesn’t feel like the end of the world.
In Europe, Tesla Premium Connectivity costs €9.99 per month.
This plan includes:
- Navigation
- Real-time traffic display
- Satellite maps
- Video streaming
- Karaoke
- Music streaming
- Internet browser
There are three of these features that you can still use when you are connected to a wifi network:
- Video streaming
- Music streaming
- Internet browser
The experience isn’t as seamless when you have premium connectivity as it is when you have to connect to a wifi network.
In the case of music, you can connect your phone via Bluetooth and listen to music from your personal Spotify account, but it’s still just a simple player that doesn’t give you access to all the features that Spoti provides.
How the UI changes when your trial version expires
Let’s see what the screens look like when premium connectivity disappears.
If you usually listen to Spotify you get the message that you don’t have premium connectivity, if you want to listen to music, you have to connect the car to a wifi network.
The satellite map version disappears, only the flat grey map is available.
But it’s not only that you lose the ability to see the map with detailed images, you also lose for example the warning of speed cameras, the possibility of knowing the real-time status of traffic, and the possibility of taking faster alternatives.
As for the UI, there is also a progress bar that indicates how the route is progressing and disappears.
What other features will you miss if you don’t purchase the Premium plan?
You will no longer have access to the vehicle’s cameras from the app on your smartphone. For me, that is an important thing because I have a dog, and I use doggy mode quite a lot, so it gives me a lot of peace of mind to be able to see inside the car to check on my dog and even talk to her to calm her down if she’s nervous. Some people like to check what’s around the vehicle when it’s parked, so they miss out on that too.
These screenshots show that the sentry mode is on, which indicates that the cameras are active while the vehicle is parked, but for “Stich” there is no way to access the cameras. In the image, you can see the slight change in the app's UI between what the plan offers without the connectivity of the “Stitch” car and the Premium plan that “Link” car has.
And how easy is it to switch back to Premium connectivity?
The system simply informs you that you must park your vehicle to proceed with the purchase.
This first screen once the premium is activated changes by adding the progress bar of the estimated arrival zone and speed cameras are included.
And when you switch to the map view you can enjoy the satellite display again and the vehicle’s Spotify account is now also available.
Some thoughts from my user perspective
Finally, I would like to share how I felt when I stopped having access to the full version of the software. At first, I was a bit disappointed, by the grey map, and not being able to access the speed cameras, because the speed cameras are useful but how it shows the section radars is very well worked, it tells you how much time is left, what average speed you have… Also, as I mentioned, not being able to access the vehicle’s cameras from the app… But when I spent a few days using the non-premium version I didn’t feel that the vehicle had lost really valuable elements, I think they have managed to make you a bit annoyed but you don’t feel that you have lost really valuable things that you can still use.
The main reason for me to buy Tesla cars is the software updates, the feeling that the car is constantly evolving, they iterate and improve and you feel that the car is not out of date the day you drive it off the dealership forecourt and you don’t lose that if you stick with basic connectivity.
