Tesla car owners in the United States are getting new treats starting Thursday this week with the rollout of V10.0, its release highlighting the much-awaited system integration of music streaming service Spotify. The software update will land in phased mode, the carmaker said.
In a Twitter post, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that "Tesla V10.0 just started rolling out to all US Tesla owners with FSD option and Advanced Download selected in vehicle software settings."
Take note that FSD is Full Self-Drive, and this feature plus the Advanced Download activated are required to receive the firmware version 2019.32.10 early. Musk, however, has assured that V10.0 will be delivered as well to all Tesla U.S. models, including the units without FSD, CNET reported.
Prior to the firmware update, Tesla users in the U.S. were left to stream with Slacker although they have Netflix and YouTube as consolation.
The software bump with Spotify integration is actually several steps behind as the streaming service has been part of the Tesla menu in the past years. While late in coming, the latest addition is welcome as Electrek said in a related report that Spotify in Tesla vehicles works better than Slacker.
Such observation came from European users, who have been using the service years ahead partly because Spotify operates from the continent.
In order to get the most of Spotify on a Tesla, the carmaker reminded that users need to get a premium account. Or as an alternative, they can simply connect a phone with the system via Bluetooth and immerse in nearly the same experience.
That's because "Tesla also made other improvements to listening to music through a Bluetooth connection," said the same report from Electrek.
Of note, it's a puzzle why Tesla did not bother earlier to bundle Spotify with its car packages in the U.S. and the North American market. Per Electrek, it might have been a simple case of a contractual issue that the company had only managed to iron out recently.
Meanwhile, another anticipated feature-packed with Tesla V10.0 is the enhanced "Smart Summon" that will be deployed with the new firmware in beta function. As the name of the car feature implies, Smart Summon enables Tesla cars to drive to their owners and collect them.
The release note, however, for Smart Summon comes with a warning that for safety reasons, the feature should be used only within the owners' driveways or parking space. Tesla explained the function was not designed for public places, so this should be kept in mind.
