# Control your Model 3 with Google Home



## TrevP

I just picked up a Google Home mini on a Black Friday sale and was playing around with it. After I a while I thought it would be cool to perhaps control a Tesla with it and looked at the development kit thinking I'd write an agent for it but someone beat me to it.

From TMC Post:

https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/thr...ssistant-now-available-for-general-use.91949/

Building on our Amazon Alexa Skill (EV Car / My Tesla), we have now added support for Google Home and Google Assistant. This allows you to control and communicate with your Tesla with no additional software to install. Support for Google Assistant is particularly exciting since it can be used from your phone from practically anywhere.

To get started, follow these steps:

Google Assistant on iPhone/iPad:

Open the Google Assistant app.
Say "Talk to EV Car".
You will see a card that prompts you to link to you Tesla Account.
Once linked, say "Talk to EV Car" again.
(Your spoken text might be recognized as "evie car" which is fine. You can also try to use the keyboard to enter the text directly)
Android Running 6.0+ (Most Android phones released in the last couple of years)

Say "Ok Google, talk to EV Car"
OR Hold the home button for a couple of seconds and Say "Talk to EV Car".
You will see a card that prompts you to link to you Tesla Account.
Once linked, say "Talk to EV Car" again.
(Your spoken text might be recognized as "evie car" which is fine. You can also try to use the keyboard to enter the text directly)
Google Home (Smart Speaker):

Say "Talk to EV Car".
You should get a prompt that EV Car is not yet linked.
Open the Google Home app on your phone.
You will see a card that prompts you to link to you Tesla Account.
Once linked, go back to the Google Home device and say "Talk to EV Car".
To link account, enter your Tesla Account email/password OR if you already have a token, just enter that instead. The email/password is only used to generate a token and is not stored anywhere.

Please treat this as Beta software. While this has been tested for the last month or so, there might be some corner cases that might need to be handled better. Google has also made recent changes to their infrastructure and there are certain scenarios that they still need to address. Please provide all feedback and suggestions on this forum.

Google Home in action (YouTube): 




Direct link to the Google Action:https://assistant.google.com/services/a/id/5a33fba4f93f74bc/

Here are some things you can say:
get charge status
get car status
get climate status
get location
turn climate on
warm up my car
cool my car
set driver temperature to 72
set passenger side to 73
start charging
stop charging
honk the horn
flash lights
turn climate off
stop climate
stop heating
stop cooling
how warm is my car
how cold is my car
dude where's my car
get ready to take off
go into hyperdrive
how far can I drive
how far can I go
whats your name
switch cars
set charge limit to 85 percent
start charging to 90 percent
whats the charge limit
lock the car
unlock the car​


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## garsh

I just got a Home Mini too (freebie for buying a Pixel 2).
I don't know if I'll ever prefer talking to one of these things instead of clicking & typing.


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## SoFlaModel3

Interesting!

I’m normally all Apple, but I do have an Amazon Echo Dot for controlling some lighting in the house. Would be interesting to play with this!!


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## sigmo32

We've been using EV Car for a few months with Alexa. It's great! Primarily we use it to track the car (see if the wife is on the way home) and to pre-start climate control.

Every few weeks Tesla expires the API token, so you do have to log in again, but it only takes a few minutes.


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## wcorey

Here's another fun thought, if you can talk to your car remotely, someone else can too. The most haunting film clips I think is the setup at a race track where some guy in the bleachers w/pc instructions a moving car on the track to hard brake and stop dead in it's tracks. I have several more months to wait for mine but I was hoping the software folks at Tesla would lock that ability down as I suspect Tesla is the first truly SDC, software defined car.


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## MelindaV

wcorey said:


> Here's another fun thought, if you can talk to your car remotely, someone else can too. The most haunting film clips I think is the setup at a race track where some guy in the bleachers w/pc instructions a moving car on the track to hard brake and stop dead in it's tracks. I have several more months to wait for mine but I was hoping the software folks at Tesla would lock that ability down as I suspect Tesla is the first truly SDC, software defined car.


this isn't hollywood... the DevKit commands do not control the driving of the car, but do things like flash the lights, turn on the AC, etc. Worse someone could do is know where your car is located and annoy you.
AND... you need the Tesla login info to your account, so use a secure password that gets changed now and then.


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## SoFlaModel3

wcorey said:


> Here's another fun thought, if you can talk to your car remotely, someone else can too. The most haunting film clips I think is the setup at a race track where some guy in the bleachers w/pc instructions a moving car on the track to hard brake and stop dead in it's tracks. I have several more months to wait for mine but I was hoping the software folks at Tesla would lock that ability down as I suspect Tesla is the first truly SDC, software defined car.





MelindaV said:


> this isn't hollywood... the DevKit commands do not control the driving of the car, but do things like flash the lights, turn on the AC, etc. Worse someone could do is know where your car is located and annoy you.
> AND... you need the Tesla login info to your account, so use a secure password that gets changed now and then.


I haven't looked through the API, but isn't Summon in there? I know there is a popular third party app (Remote S for Tesla) and Summon is listed as one of the features.

That actually makes me really nervous to the point where I may actually not consider this.

Taking that a step further even though the app gets great reviews I am unlikely to use it.

Perhaps it's time to make my own!


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## TrevP

SoFlaModel3 said:


> I haven't looked through the API, but isn't Summon in there? I know there is a popular third party app (Remote S for Tesla) and Summon is listed as one of the features.
> 
> That actually makes me really nervous to the point where I may actually not consider this.
> 
> Taking that a step further even though the app gets great reviews I am unlikely to use it.
> 
> Perhaps it's time to make my own!


I haven't looked at the API but if it was my decision summon wouldn't be part of the public spec. That's something best kept to themselves


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## SoFlaModel3

TrevP said:


> I haven't looked at the API but if it was my decision summon wouldn't be part of the public spec. That's something best kept to themselves


I double checked, Summon is definitely available via the Remote S App for Tesla as is Homelink (even more concerning).


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## 3V Pilot

Gee thanks Trev, I was really trying hard to keep my Tesla addiction to this forum alone! Now because of you I'm reading "the other forum" and I found out that people are putting the Amazon Dot into their cars. My other hobby is having my my entire house rigged for voice command/smart home and now I have a whole other obsession with this car. Just what needed!.....LOL


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## SoFlaModel3

Mike Land said:


> Gee thanks Trev, I was really trying hard to keep my Tesla addiction to this forum alone! Now because of you I'm reading "the other forum" and I found out that people are putting the Amazon Dot into their cars. My other hobby is having my my entire house rigged for voice command/smart home and now I have a whole other obsession with this car. Just what needed!.....LOL


Couldn't that be avoided by having an iOS or Android phone in the car (which would already be there)?


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## TrevP

SoFlaModel3 said:


> I double checked, Summon is definitely available via the Remote S App for Tesla as is Homelink (even more concerning).


In the app yes but not necessarily exposed as a public API


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## SoFlaModel3

Interesting ... the API technically isn't public and we aren't supposed to use it.

Seems strange that the public is able to authenticate and use it though...

https://timdorr.docs.apiary.io/#


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## SoFlaModel3

TrevP said:


> In the app yes but not necessarily exposed as a public API


That's a third party app (see link below).

Remote S for Tesla by Rego Apps https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/remote-s-for-tesla/id991623777?mt=8


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## 3V Pilot

SoFlaModel3 said:


> Couldn't that be avoided by having an iOS or Android phone in the car (which would already be there)?


It could be avoided if Siri or Google were not so darn annoying and hard to control. I find the Amazon voice recognition in the Alexa products to be so much better I use it all the time. Talking to Google, Siri, or even Bixby just doesn't seem to ever work as well for me and is more frustrating than useful most of the time. Maybe it's because I use it so much at home that it's what I'm used to and like.


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## SoFlaModel3

Mike Land said:


> It could be avoided if Siri or Google were not so darn annoying and hard to control. I find the Amazon voice recognition in the Alexa products to be so much better I use it all the time. Talking to Google, Siri, or even Bixby just doesn't seem to ever work as well for me and is more frustrating than useful most of the time. Maybe it's because I use it so much at home that it's what I'm used to and like.


It must be different for everyone 

My Alexa fails at high frequency on "Alexa... turn on the light" to the point where I end up opening the WeMo app and doing it manually more often than not.

Siri is generally bullet proof for me, but sometimes slow.

Ugh... first world problems


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## 3V Pilot

SoFlaModel3 said:


> It must be different for everyone
> 
> My Alexa fails at high frequency on "Alexa... turn on the light" to the point where I end up opening the WeMo app and doing it manually more often than not.
> 
> Siri is generally bullet proof for me, but sometimes slow.
> 
> Ugh... first world problems


LOL, yes, first world problems. A bit like the Jetsons complaining about how hard it is to do the laundry then pushing one button and having the robots take over! My Alexa is probably 90% first time correct (or better) but it's taken some time to setup. Unique names for lights or switches that don't sound alike really helped. My experience with all other voice activation has been pure aggravation. I'm hoping that Tesla has improved it's voice activation over what I've experienced in all other cars which is pretty much useless. If the in car stuff is good and I can possibly integrate my phone, and actually start to use it, then I won't need an Echo Dot in the car. It's the overwhelming number of things that Alexa connects to and can control that might make it worth trying in the car. More reading on that other forum then........


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## TrevP

SoFlaModel3 said:


> Interesting ... the API technically isn't public and we aren't supposed to use it.
> 
> Seems strange that the public is able to authenticate and use it though...
> 
> https://timdorr.docs.apiary.io/#


Here's a great video on how to use that web app to query the Tesla JSON API.






Apparently summon is something you can call upon but they're not listed in the examples above and they require the keyfob to be present within a few feet as an interlock.


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## SoFlaModel3

TrevP said:


> Here's a great video on how to use that web app to query the Tesla JSON API.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Apparently summon is something you can call upon but they're not listed in the examples above and they require the keyfob to be present within a few feet as an interlock.


This is awesome!

I absolutely see myself writing some kind of iOS app


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## 3V Pilot

Okay, so I don't speak computer code but I know there are people here who do. Just a quick question, is there anyway to get a Model 3 Tesla to talk to a smart home controller like SmartThings? I'd really like to be able to use the car as a "Presence Sensor" or somehow have the car send a signal when I come and go from my house to activate the smart home controller. I've tried to read about how to do this on other forums but my head hurts when coders start speaking in their native tongue...LOL. I know Tesla doesn't allow third party apps but I also know that there are ways to work around things. Is there any easy way to do this? Oh, and what the heck is an API anyway?


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## Bokonon

Mike Land said:


> Okay, so I don't speak computer code but I know there are people here who do. Just a quick question, is there anyway to get a Model 3 Tesla to talk to a smart home controller like SmartThings? I'd really like to be able to use the car as a "Presence Sensor" or somehow have the car send a signal when I come and go from my house to activate the smart home controller. I've tried to read about how to do this on other forums but my head hurts when coders start speaking in their native tongue...LOL. I know Tesla doesn't allow third party apps but I also know that there are ways to work around things. Is there any easy way to do this? Oh, and what the heck is an API anyway?


My boss went on a home-automation rampage earlier this year, and I can tell you that he successfully implemented SmartThings presence sensors for all three of his family's cars, which include two Cadillacs and a Honda Pilot. For a basic presence sensor, you shouldn't have to deal with anything Tesla-specific.

I wish I could provide you with more specific sources or instructions, but I myself have not done anything with home automation.... yet...


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## SoFlaModel3

Mike Land said:


> Okay, so I don't speak computer code but I know there are people here who do. Just a quick question, is there anyway to get a Model 3 Tesla to talk to a smart home controller like SmartThings? I'd really like to be able to use the car as a "Presence Sensor" or somehow have the car send a signal when I come and go from my house to activate the smart home controller. I've tried to read about how to do this on other forums but my head hurts when coders start speaking in their native tongue...LOL. I know Tesla doesn't allow third party apps but I also know that there are ways to work around things. Is there any easy way to do this? Oh, and what the heck is an API anyway?


So the short answer would be anything is possible. The next answer is maybe there is also another way. For instance do you have a LiftMaster garage door opener? Those are "smart" and maybe you can work around that and forget the car unless you want things to start happening when the car is "x" miles out for instance.

Now separate thought. Does it even matter?

My exterior lights are on a WeMo with a timer. They'll be on at dusk regardless.

My A/C is controlled by a Nest.

My garage door will open as the car approaches via Homelink.

What more could you need or want to automate? I'm actually very curious, because if I'm missing something I will be like @Bokonon's boss and go on a home automation rampage. I just haven't figured this out yet or seen real value. I have certain lights that I control via WeMo that ties in with Alexa as well, but I can't seem to see the bigger picture. If it's just "one app" to control my home, then I've never been a universal remote kind of guy and maybe that's why I'm having an issue seeing it 

The only thing that I can think of that would be neat would be to turn on the A/C when my car is 30 minutes late rather than having it go on by a programmed time. That would be especially useful if we were on a road trip. Today I do that manually with Nest.

Side note... API is short for Application Programming Interface. Rarely would I point someone to Wiki, but this actually does a solid job explaining it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_programming_interface

With the API you can essentially right your own software around your Tesla. From my reading Tesla does not allow public use yet at the same time they allow the public to authenticate and meanwhile there are third party apps, so unless they pull the plug on that you should be able to do some fun things.


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## 3V Pilot

SoFlaModel3 said:


> So the short answer would be anything is possible. The next answer is maybe there is also another way. For instance do you have a LiftMaster garage door opener? Those are "smart" and maybe you can work around that and forget the car unless you want things to start happening when the car is "x" miles out for instance.
> 
> Now separate thought. Does it even matter?
> 
> My exterior lights are on a WeMo with a timer. They'll be on at dusk regardless.
> 
> My A/C is controlled by a Nest.
> 
> My garage door will open as the car approaches via Homelink.
> 
> What more could you need or want to automate? I'm actually very curious, because if I'm missing something I will be like @Bokonon's boss and go on a home automation rampage. I just haven't figured this out yet or seen real value. I have certain lights that I control via WeMo that ties in with Alexa as well, but I can't seem to see the bigger picture. If it's just "one app" to control my home, then I've never been a universal remote kind of guy and maybe that's why I'm having an issue seeing it
> 
> The only thing that I can think of that would be neat would be to turn on the A/C when my car is 30 minutes late rather than having it go on by a programmed time. That would be especially useful if we were on a road trip. Today I do that manually with Nest.
> 
> Side note... API is short for Application Programming Interface. Rarely would I point someone to Wiki, but this actually does a solid job explaining it.
> 
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_programming_interface
> 
> With the API you can essentially right your own software around your Tesla. From my reading Tesla does not allow public use yet at the same time they allow the public to authenticate and meanwhile there are third party apps, so unless they pull the plug on that you should be able to do some fun things.


So here is why this matters to me. With SmartThings my entire house welcomes me home before I arrive, garage door opens, lights turn on if it's dark, alarm turns off, doors unlock, A/C turns down, etc. Unfortunately, the way I understand it, the GPS in my phone "sometimes" senses that I've broken the Geo-fence in time and everything is open when I arrive, sometimes though it does not and I have to wait in the driveway for everything to happen. Yes, I could use the homelink on the Model 3 to open the garage door but the range is so limited (for my opener) that I would still have to stop in the driveway). I don't want to stop, I just want it open before I get there. Plus it would trip the alarm if the door opens via Homelink before SmartThings sensed I was home. Currently my best work around is to have my phone GPS actively navigating, then it updates more often and all works as advertised, but that is a pain because I don't need to NAV my way home every time.

I'm hoping that with the GPS in the car always active there might be someway I could use that to either send a command (at a preset point) or just link it to the Geo-fence in SmartThings. From reading the other boards it seems like there has been limited success with some work around in doing this but I also read that it took constant polling of the car (not that I know what that means) but it sounds like it uses more power from the car and I don't want that. Just looking for a simple solution, IF there is such thing.

I may be just a bit OCD with wanting it all to work just right but I'd love it if the garage opened, everytime, just before I arrived without having to stop and wait for it.


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## SoFlaModel3

Mike Land said:


> So here is why this matters to me. With SmartThings my entire house welcomes me home before I arrive, garage door opens, lights turn on if it's dark, alarm turns off, doors unlock, A/C turns down, etc. Unfortunately, the way I understand it, the GPS in my phone "sometimes" senses that I've broken the Geo-fence in time and everything is open when I arrive, sometimes though it does not and I have to wait in the driveway for everything to happen. Yes, I could use the homelink on the Model 3 to open the garage door but the range is so limited (for my opener) that I would still have to stop in the driveway). I don't want to stop, I just want it open before I get there. Plus it would trip the alarm if the door opens via Homelink before SmartThings sensed I was home. Currently my best work around is to have my phone GPS actively navigating, then it updates more often and all works as advertised, but that is a pain because I don't need to NAV my way home every time.
> 
> I'm hoping that with the GPS in the car always active there might be someway I could use that to either send a command (at a preset point) or just link it to the Geo-fence in SmartThings. From reading the other boards it seems like there has been limited success with some work around in doing this but I also read that it took constant polling of the car (not that I know what that means) but it sounds like it uses more power from the car and I don't want that. Just looking for a simple solution, IF there is such thing.
> 
> I may be just a bit OCD with wanting it all to work just right but I'd love it if the garage opened, everytime, just before I arrived without having to stop and wait for it.


I see what you're saying. You may be a pinch more OCD than me 

I also think that some of this can make more inconveniences than always help.

For instance maybe my wife is home and I went out. She has the curtains drawn and lights off watching a movie. Here I come near the house and everything turns on.

Also, (maybe this is a Florida thing), I need my A/C on for a good 15-30 minutes before I get home to cool the house 

The rest - I see. Would be neat to have the garage open earlier though I can wait the split second and in turn have better piece of mind that this somehow didn't open on its own as I drove around the corner of my street. Having the door unlock and alarm disarm as my car approaches is very cool though I'm not at game changer stage yet in my mind. I don't know, I guess I need more convincing. I'm not ready to go full on crazy just yet


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## 3V Pilot

SoFlaModel3 said:


> I see what you're saying. You may be a pinch more OCD than me
> 
> I also think that some of this can make more inconveniences than always help.
> 
> For instance maybe my wife is home and I went out. She has the curtains drawn and lights off watching a movie. Here I come near the house and everything turns on.
> 
> Also, (maybe this is a Florida thing), I need my A/C on for a good 15-30 minutes before I get home to cool the house
> 
> The rest - I see. Would be neat to have the garage open earlier though I can wait the split second and in turn have better piece of mind that this somehow didn't open on its own as I drove around the corner of my street. Having the door unlock and alarm disarm as my car approaches is very cool though I'm not at game changer stage yet in my mind. I don't know, I guess I need more convincing. I'm not ready to go full on crazy just yet


I see your point with the wife being home and you don't want the house to light up. I live alone and even at that I only have two lights come on, and dim to 20% so it's not too bright. I just like knowing I'm not using any more energy than needed when away but then the house is not totally dark when I come home, it's very welcoming.

For the A/C it's not just a Florida thing, I'm in Southern AZ and pre-cooling is great. I manually adjust the Nest when I want to, otherwise it turns up when I leave and down when I get home. I'm happy enough with that but if there was a way that the car could help adjust when I'm 30 minutes out that would be a neat feature.

As far as the garage door, well, I have a Nest camera pointed at the garage so I can see if it's open or closed and I'd rather have it open before I arrive. Currently it is either open before I get there or sometimes I have to wait in the driveway for 30 seconds or more for system to activate. I'd just really like it open every time, before I get home. Even if that means it's open fully before I ever see it.

On a similar note I'm really hoping that the cars doors are always unlocked before I can get to the handle. It would bug the heck out of me if I had to wait, even a half a second, each time I got to the car. Especially in the rain.....and yes, where I live rain is not really a problem...did I mention I can be a bit OCD...LOL!


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## SoFlaModel3

Mike Land said:


> I see your point with the wife being home and you don't want the house to light up. I live alone and even at that I only have two lights come on, and dim to 20% so it's not too bright. I just like knowing I'm not using any more energy than needed when away but then the house is not totally dark when I come home, it's very welcoming.
> 
> For the A/C it's not just a Florida thing, I'm in Southern AZ and pre-cooling is great. I manually adjust the Nest when I want to, otherwise it turns up when I leave and down when I get home. I'm happy enough with that but if there was a way that the car could help adjust when I'm 30 minutes out that would be a neat feature.
> 
> As far as the garage door, well, I have a Nest camera pointed at the garage so I can see if it's open or closed and I'd rather have it open before I arrive. Currently it is either open before I get there or sometimes I have to wait in the driveway for 30 seconds or more for system to activate. I'd just really like it open every time, before I get home. Even if that means it's open fully before I ever see it.
> 
> On a similar note I'm really hoping that the cars doors are always unlocked before I can get to the handle. It would bug the heck out of me if I had to wait, even a half a second, each time I got to the car. Especially in the rain.....and yes, where I live rain is not really a problem...did I mention I can be a bit OCD...LOL!


I think I have met my match on the self-diagnosed OCD scale


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## Love

SoFlaModel3 said:


> I think I have met my match on the self-diagnosed OCD scale


I'm gonna have to add myself to this list, I found myself nodding in agreement to everything @Mike Land was saying! Lol

Edit to add: when I come home and the Hue lights don't turn on the kitchen automatically as they're supposed to, I get more aggravated than I really should.


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## 3V Pilot

Lovesword said:


> I'm gonna have to add myself to this list, I found myself nodding in agreement to everything @Mike Land was saying! Lol
> 
> Edit to add: when I come home and the Hue lights don't turn on the kitchen automatically as they're supposed to, I get more aggravated than I really should.


Good to know I'm not the only nut job that just wants my electronics to behave!...LOL. Now turn that aggravation into motivation and go figure out those lights don't work correctly. (It's just scary when I sound like some kind of motivational speaker)


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## M3OC Rules

SoFlaModel3 said:


> For instance maybe my wife is home and I went out. She has the curtains drawn and lights off watching a movie. Here I come near the house and everything turns on.


Give the wife a presence sensor(Smartphone).


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## Love

Mike Land said:


> Good to know I'm not the only nut job that just wants my electronics to behave!...LOL. Now turn that aggravation into motivation and go figure out those lights don't work correctly. (It's just scary when I sound like some kind of motivational speaker)


I'm on it! I'll update once I have defeated the mythical home automation eletro-beast and its army of bugs! (Please don't hold your breath though, my greatest attempt to fix things is... try again.)

One good "Tesla" thing is the Homelink has been very accurate and the garage door opens automatically most of the time when we pull near in the Model S. No waiting. It has happened where it doesn't work... requiring two whole screen touches, and 2.75 hours removed from my life expectancy.

For the thermostat, I have a set work schedule so the Nest doesn't have to do any learning... I find when it did though it would always go into Eco mode on me! Dude, I'm still here!!! My wife goes to work after me so I have it turn down to 60 after she departs, then turns back to 69 (keep it clean, everyone!) about 30 minutes before I get home. Summer is the same, just reversed in temps. Really love the Nest, can't speak highly enough about it.

The Hue lights have been the one inconsistency in that they have "routines" and the "home and away" is set to turn on the kitchen lights (which would illuminate the area that the garage opens into) but we've had mixed results. Further, it keeps the GPS on 100% of the time on my phone which I don't like. Other than that, I love them as well. I would recommend them to anyone that's looked at them and thought about it but was on the fence. My wife bought me enough for a few rooms for my last birthday and after installation we liked them so much we did most of the rest of the house!

I'll be looking into the home automation devices more as they improve and release. We have, pretty much, an Apple house so looking forward to the release and reviews of their version. Though shaped like a garbage can, hopefully it performs like a symphony conductor!


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## wcorey

MelindaV said:


> this isn't hollywood... the DevKit commands do not control the driving of the car, but do things like flash the lights, turn on the AC, etc. Worse someone could do is know where your car is located and annoy you.
> AND... you need the Tesla login info to your account, so use a secure password that gets changed now and then.


A tad snarky? What I was referring to wasn't Hollywood either. As I recall it was a segment on nightly news. It was a race track, guy with laptiop in stands, unknown car model, guy in stand either shutoff engine remotely or shut off car.
http://fortune.com/2016/01/26/security-experts-hack-cars/
https://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-highway/

Let Google be your friend!


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## Fredbob711

wcorey said:


> A tad snarky? What I was referring to wasn't Hollywood either. As I recall it was a segment on nightly news. It was a race track, guy with laptiop in stands, unknown car model, guy in stand either shutoff engine remotely or shut off car.
> http://fortune.com/2016/01/26/security-experts-hack-cars/
> https://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-highway/
> 
> Let Google be your friend!


I read that article on Wired, the demonstration actually took place on a highway in my area. The difference you're talking about is people taking control through malicious hacking and exploiting vulnerabilities in the software vs. an intentionally exposed API that allows for very specific actions to be taken.

Also, you're talking about an FCA vehicle vs a Tesla. FCA is not known for their software, they don't even do probably 90% of the software work for their vehicles, and the whole vehicle is a hodge-podge of systems from various vendors controlling their own little piece of the puzzle. As you stated, a Tesla is a software driven car. And in the case of Tesla, that means all software written in-house, one set of development standards, Tesla offers OTA updates, and they have a bounty program to encourage white hat hackers to find and report vulnerabilities so they can be patched. Software-wise, there is absolutely no comparison between Tesla and FCA or any other legacy auto manufacturer. All other things being equal, if I was forced to choose between Tesla & FCA based solely on software security, I would rather go without a car than choose FCA.


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