Tesla Ownership, day 9

I’ve had the 2024 Tesla Model Y Long Range a little over a week now.  Overall I’m very happy with it.  My main gripe so far is the lack of Apple CarPlay.  While the built in infotainment system is sufficient, it’s simply not as good as CarPlay.  One of the most irksome things is the color scheme in the map.  The whole map is basically black and white, and the turn-by-turn directions are also monochrome.  I find it visually confusing; if the next-turn instruction was a different color it would solve this particular issue.

Also, lack of integration with my preferred podcasting app (Overcast) is kind of annoying.  I did sign up for Spotify premium and the Tesla premium connectivity plan just to give the whole system a fair shake, but I still just hate everything about Spotify’s UI (I primarily use Youtube Music since I have Youtube Premium), and don’t want to listen to podcasts inside Spotify.

On the positive side, I am completely in love with “scheduled departure” and wish I had this feature much earlier in the winter.  Having the car warmed up and ready for me when I walk out the door for work is simply an S-tier feature.  My old car had remote start via iPhone app, but did not enable the seat heater or even the defroster, so it would start the engine but I’d still get into a cold car – not really sure what the point of it was.  I’m also surprised how comfortable the seats are.  The EV performance stuff has been beaten to death so I don’t need to rehash it, but it’s real and it’s awesome.  Probably bad for battery, but extremely fun.