Tesla Lunar New Year Update Brings Automation App and Hey Tesla Voice Commands | Taha Abbasi

Tesla’s Latest Software Update Adds IFTTT-Style Automation to Your Car

Tesla’s software updates continue to transform vehicles long after purchase, and the latest release — version 2025.45.32.1, dubbed the Lunar New Year update — is a particularly feature-rich one. Taha Abbasi, who has been testing Tesla’s software evolution through real-world Cybertruck ownership, calls this update “the most significant non-FSD feature drop in recent memory.”

The Automation App: Your Car Just Got Programmable

The headline feature is the new Automation App, accessible through the App Launcher. This IFTTT-style system allows owners to create custom workflows based on triggers, conditions, and actions. The example Tesla provides is elegant in its simplicity: “When the vehicle arrives home and it’s a weekend, open the trunk.” But the possibilities extend far beyond that basic scenario.

Imagine setting up automations like: when you arrive at work, lower the cabin temperature to preserve battery in summer. When you leave the gym after 7 PM, turn on seat heaters. When your vehicle connects to your home WiFi, start downloading any pending software updates. As Taha Abbasi observes, this turns every Tesla into a smart device that adapts to its owner’s patterns — a concept that legacy automakers haven’t even begun to approach.

Hey Tesla: Voice Without the Button

The “Hey Tesla” wake word is another significant addition. Previously, activating voice commands required pressing the steering wheel button or tapping the microphone icon. Now, owners can simply say “Hey Tesla” to initiate commands — a seemingly small change that fundamentally improves the hands-free experience, especially while driving.

This matters particularly for FSD users. When the car is driving itself, reaching for the steering wheel button to adjust climate, navigation, or music disrupts the autonomous experience. Voice activation makes the cabin feel more like a living space and less like a cockpit, aligning with Tesla’s vision for the autonomous future.

Dashcam Gets Smarter Storage Management

Tesla has also improved dashcam functionality with intelligent storage duration management. The system now automatically adjusts recording duration based on USB drive capacity — from 1 hour on smaller drives up to 24 hours on 1TB+ drives. This ensures maximum footage retention before overwriting, which is crucial for capturing incidents or interesting driving moments.

Navigation and Parking Improvements

Taha Abbasi highlights the Supercharger clustering feature as a practical quality-of-life improvement. In areas with dense Supercharger coverage (like California or the Northeast corridor), the map previously became cluttered with overlapping pins. The new clustering zooms into dense areas cleanly, making it easier to identify the most convenient charging location.

The “Nearby Parking” feature on point-of-interest pages is another subtle but valuable addition, directing drivers to available parking near their destination — a feature that urban Tesla owners will particularly appreciate.

Paint Shop Customization

On the lighter side, the expanded Paint Shop in Toybox now lets Model 3 and Y owners customize their vehicle’s digital avatar with window tints, custom wraps, and license plates. While purely cosmetic within the car’s interface, it reflects Tesla’s understanding that vehicle ownership is about personal expression as much as transportation.

The Software-Defined Vehicle Advantage

Updates like 2025.45.32.1 underscore what Taha Abbasi considers Tesla’s deepest competitive moat: the ability to improve vehicles over-the-air, continuously. While competitors are starting to offer OTA updates, none match Tesla’s pace or scope. A Tesla bought in 2023 has meaningfully different capabilities today than it did at purchase — that’s the software-defined vehicle promise delivered.

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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