Ten Things to Do With Your Tesla Screen
The display in a Tesla is far more than a speedometer and a map, and learning a handful of Tesla screen tips unlocks features many owners never discover. Parked, the screen becomes a cinema, a games room, a karaoke bar and a security monitor, and even on the move it does more than it first appears. Here are the ones worth knowing.
Turn it into a cinema
The headline trick is Tesla Theater, the built-in video hub reached from the Entertainment menu. Parked and connected to WiFi or Premium Connectivity, it streams Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, Hulu, Max and Twitch on the full screen. With the seats reclined and the climate holding steady, a charging stop turns into a genuine movie session, which is the feature most likely to surprise a passenger seeing it for the first time. On the newer cars the screen is bright and sharp enough that the picture holds up even in daylight, which is more than most phones manage.
Play in the Arcade
From the Application Launcher, Tesla Arcade offers a set of games playable while parked, from the kart racer Beach Buggy Racing to the gentle farming of Stardew Valley and a SpaceX docking simulator. The steering wheel doubles as a controller for some titles, and Bluetooth controllers pair for the rest. On the latest Model S and Model X, Steam adds thousands of PC games, though that feature is limited to those cars’ more powerful hardware.
Sing with Caraoke
Switch the media player source to Caraoke and the screen becomes a karaoke machine, scrolling the lyrics to a large catalogue of songs. It is one of the rare on-screen features Tesla allows to run while driving, with the caveat that the lyrics are meant for passengers. On a road trip with the right crowd, it is a reliable way to make the kilometres pass.
Find the Toybox and easter eggs
Tesla hides a playful streak in the Toybox: light shows synced to music, a whoopee-cushion function for the seats, a sketchpad for drawing on the screen, and a rotating set of seasonal jokes and references. None of it is essential, and that is rather the point. Exploring the Toybox is a small pleasure of ownership that the car never advertises and many drivers stumble on by accident.
Keep watch with Sentry and Pet Mode
The screen also earns its keep on the practical side. Sentry Mode uses the car’s cameras to monitor the surroundings and record incidents when you are away, displaying a warning on the screen to deter mischief. Pet Mode, the feature formerly called Dog Mode, keeps the climate running for an animal left briefly inside and shows a reassuring message with the cabin temperature. Both turn the display into a tool rather than a toy.
Small touches that add up
Beyond the big features, the screen hides a raft of smaller ones worth a look. The sketchpad lets passengers draw, and on some models sends their artwork to the car’s other screens. The web browser opens any site for a quick search or a boarding pass. Scheduled Departure, set from the screen, has the car warm and charged for a chosen time. Your phone doubles as a key through the Bluetooth settings, and the glovebox can be PIN-locked from here too. Individually these are minor, but together they are the difference between using the screen as a map and using it as the control centre it was built to be. Spend ten minutes exploring the menus and you will almost certainly find a feature you did not know your car had, which is part of the fun of living with the thing.
Go beyond the built-in apps
For everything Tesla’s software does not include, there is TaaDa. It brings apps from your Android phone, streaming services not in Theater, games beyond the Arcade, productivity tools, onto the Tesla screen through Android Auto, all on your phone’s connection. It is the way to extend the screen past the built-in catalogue when you want an app Tesla has not added. Between the native features and that extra reach, the screen is easily the most underused part of the car.