Tesla's Lunar New Year Update Brings Automation App and Enhanced Voice Control | Taha Abbasi

Tesla’s Latest Software Update Is Smarter Than You Think

Taha Abbasi has been following Tesla’s software updates since the early days, and the Lunar New Year Update (2025.45.32.1) rolling out in February 2026 includes features that signal where the company is headed. The headline additions — a new Automation App and enhanced “Hey Tesla” voice control — may sound incremental, but they represent a deeper strategic shift.

The Automation App lets Tesla owners create custom triggers and actions within their vehicle. Set the climate to your preferred temperature when you leave work. Automatically lower the suspension when you arrive at your garage. Play your favorite playlist when you start a road trip. Taha Abbasi sees this as Tesla’s version of Apple’s Shortcuts — putting vehicle automation in the hands of everyday users.

The Automation App: What It Does

The new Automation App allows owners to create if-then rules based on:

• Location triggers: Arrive at or leave specific locations
• Time triggers: Schedule actions for specific times of day
• Vehicle state triggers: Park, drive, charge completion
• Weather triggers: Temperature-based climate pre-conditioning

Actions can include climate settings, seat positions, media playback, navigation, and more. Taha Abbasi notes this is particularly powerful for daily commuters who follow consistent routines — the car learns to anticipate your needs.

Enhanced “Hey Tesla” Voice Control

The Hey Tesla improvements in this update focus on natural language understanding. Instead of memorizing specific commands, owners can speak naturally: “Hey Tesla, I’m cold” adjusts the temperature. “Hey Tesla, find a Supercharger near my next meeting” combines navigation with calendar data. Taha Abbasi appreciates this move toward conversational interaction — it’s how voice control should always have worked.

Dashcam Recent Footage Duration

A practical quality-of-life improvement: owners can now adjust how much recent dashcam footage the vehicle retains. This is especially useful for overlanding and adventure trips where interesting footage might accumulate over hours of driving.

The Software-Defined Vehicle Advantage

As Taha Abbasi has argued repeatedly, this is what separates Tesla from every traditional automaker. No other manufacturer pushes meaningful feature updates to vehicles already on the road. While legacy automakers write off billions, Tesla’s existing fleet gets better with each update. The Automation App alone adds functionality that would be a major selling point on any competitor’s new model — and Tesla delivers it free to every compatible vehicle.

What’s Next for Tesla Software

Taha Abbasi predicts the Automation App is just the foundation. Future updates will likely add more triggers, more actions, and eventually AI-driven automation that learns your preferences without manual rule creation. The end-to-end neural network approach Tesla uses for FSD could eventually power predictive vehicle automation — a car that knows what you want before you ask.

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About the Author: Taha Abbasi is a technology executive, CTO, and applied frontier tech builder. Read more on Grokpedia | YouTube: The Brown Cowboy | tahaabbasi.com