Tesla theater

Tesla Theater allows you to watch movies, TV shows, and videos in your car. Media Control Unit version 2 (MCU2) is required in order to be able to enjoy Tesla Theater. Premium connectivity is also needed.

Tesla Theater gives Tesla owners access to Netflix, YouTube, Hulu and a growing list of video tutorials. New services such as Disney+, HBO Go, Twitch, and Comedy Central, amongst others, are expected to be integrated soon.

Blog posts related to Tesla theater

Tesla Theater: Who can watch it and what's included

January 14, 2020

Tesla Theater lets you watch movies, TV shows, and videos in your car. It's available in all cars with Media Control Unit 2 (MCU2) and it requires Internet connectivity. Here's all you need to know about how Tesla Theater works and which models have access to it.

Tesla V10 and MCU 1

October 1, 2019

Last week Tesla started rolling out V10 but there are still quite a few Tesla owners who don’t have it. I’m getting quite a few questions about what upgrades you get if you have Media Control Unit version 1 (MCU1), so I decided to summarize what I know. Let me know if you have unanswered questions!

Videos about Tesla theater

Past Tesletter articles

First look at Tesla v10 release notes: Here’s what’s coming

v10 got released to folks in the Early Access Program a few days ago, here’s what’s new:

  • Tesla Theater: As Elon advanced on Twitter, Tesla are getting Netflix and YouTube through dedicated apps
  • Caraoke: Card + Karaoke = Caraoke. This feature allows users to sign along their favorite tracks. According to the release notes, this feature is only available while in park. We think it’d be fun to have it while driving too, for passengers only of course
  • Cuphead: Tesla Arcade is getting some serious games, Cuphead was announced a while ago and now is hitting the cars
  • I’m feeling lucky / I’m feeling hungry: As we advanced a few weeks ago thanks to greentheonly, these two options are now part of the navigation
  • Maps improvements: When searching for a destination the autocomplete now shows the distance to the place
  • Sentry mode improvements: Sentry mode now records videos in a new folder to easily distinguish between Sentry recorded videos and Dashcam videos that you saved. It also overrides older Sentry videos when full
  • Joe Mode: Quieter chimes to avoid waking up your Joe’s family
  • Driving visuals: Additional objects, lane lines, and adjust the zoom and viewing angle
  • Automatic lane change: The visualization now displays where the car is going

Read more: Teslarati

From issue #77

Introducing Software Version 10.0

We’ve been talking about V10 for a few weeks now and we had a good idea of what was coming but, apart from the highly expected addintion of YouTube, Netflix, Caraoke, Smart Summon, etc. Tesla kept a few secrets until the final release. These are some of the things in the final GA that we hadn’t heard about before:

  • Spotify: Probably one of the highests expected features for non-European Tesla owners. As a premium subscriber of Spotify for 10 years, I couldn’t be happier
  • Crack all your windows 3 inches to vent or close them. Only available for Model 3 and X
  • Model 3 SR+ and SR now get browser access as well as YouTube, Netflix, Spotify, TuneIn, and Slacker while connected to Wi-Fi

Read more: Tesla

From issue #79

New streaming services coming to Tesla Theater

We know that the Tesla browser supports a lot of different services but it’s always good to have a separate app to access them directly instead of having to use the workaround. Greentheonly has found a bunch of icons in the new software that hint that more services will be added. The icons found are Comedy Central, Crunchyroll, Twitch, HBO, Mixer, and Youku.

Read more: Twitter

From issue #89

Release notes for upcoming Tesla software update 2021.24

Some of the new features are:

  • Disney+
  • Car wash mode. Closes all the windows, locks the charge port, disables windshield wipers, and more
  • Mirror Auto Dim
  • Dashcam can now automatically save clips when the car detects a safety event (accident, airbag deployment)
From issue #175

Screen mirroring from phone to Tesla being considered

How cool would it be to be able to mirror things from your phone to your Tesla? @teslaownerssv asked Elon on Twitter and he said: “we’ll look into it”. I mean, having video streaming services integration in your car is already a dream, but this would just make it so much easier.

Read more: Twitter

From issue #117

Tesla update 2022.28 adds ability to minimize Tesla Theater

In the latests software update, you can now minimize the Tesla Theater in case you need to look at some other stuff at the same time, whithout having to fully close it.

From issue #232

TeslaTheater.com offering full-screen apps

TeslaTheater.com is a free service for Tesla owners that allows you to easily view different streaming media apps in full screen vs. just in the small browser window. To use it, open TeslaTheater.com on the web browser of your Tesla (MCU2 only) and tap on “Enable Full Screen”, that should launch the Youtube App in full screen and then redirect you to TeslaTheater.com.

Just this past week, I was telling Vanessa about creating a site exactly like this one. Glad to see someone has done it already!

From issue #95

Trick to rewind and fast forward in YouTube

Video streaming apps (YouTube, Netflix) can be slow sometimes when responding to touch, and for that, Reddit user u/Kimorin/ has shared the following trick: you can use the left wheel to rewind and fast forward instead. Nice one!

From issue #142

v10 is coming in the next months

Elon recently shared on Twitter some details about v10, the next big release of the software in our cars. Here is a summary of what he said:

  • To be released in August (if testing goes really well). But probably more like September.
  • It will include several games & infotainment features.
  • Ability to stream YouTube & Netflix when car is stopped.
  • Improved highway Autopilot and better traffic light & stop sign recognition. Are we going to see the first features of the FSD pack out to the fleet?
  • Will include a text message phone feature that reads messages through the speaker and can text back for you via voice.
  • After someone complained about chimes when the family is sleeping in the car, Elon said he is hopping to get “Joe Mode” in v10. “Joe Mode” would lower the volume of strident beeps & chimes by half.

Our only observation is that both the infotaiment features and new games are probably only going out to cars with MCU2. Elon repeated on Twitter that there will be a path for people with MCU1 to pay and get upgraded to MC2. We tried contacting Tesla and they said this isn’t out yet but they hinted it is in the works and more info will be released soon 🤞

From issue #70

Video streaming coming in Version 10

Youtube and Netflix may be present in Version 10 of the software, according to Elon Musk’s Twitter. However v9 it isn’t still out, and we have no idea when v10 will come out 

Read more: Twitter

From issue #22