American electric vehicle giant Tesla seeks to bring automation of its models to another level by launching a voice-activated gear shifter, Drive reports. Impressively, this cutting-edge feature has 100% accuracy.
2025 Tesla EVs to feature voice-activated gear shifter
Current and future Tesla owners who struggle to change gears via the touchscreen can soon benefit from the upcoming voice-activated gear selector.
According to the report, the Musk-led company will officially launch the new technology that will further improve the user interface for new owners of every Model Year 2025 Tesla. Therefore, this significant update also covers the highly awaited Tesla Roadster.
As for existing Tesla owners, the company will release a software update in October 2024 (pending any delays). The impending software update will reportedly come with instructions on unscrewing the fitted gear selector stalk in their Tesla cars at home.
“We no longer want to call our customers ‘drivers’ of their Tesla. Since we are moving away from physical input to drive the car, we tend to refer to them as ‘controllers’ instead.”
Tesla Global Communications Director Tush Kreen said in a media conference overnight
Set-up process
Activating the voice-activated gear shifter will reportedly require a simple 30-minute conversation with the Tesla vehicle to familiarize the assistant with the owner’s voice and speech patterns.
After setting up the voice assistant, Tesla owners can simply pick the drive gear by saying “Tesla, please select the forward gear in my Model Y.”
Excitingly, it also allows owners to customize the command depending on their preference.
“Controllers may want to instead say ‘Go forth my trusty steed’, so we’ve enabled the system to be fully customizable.”
Tesla Global Communications Director Tush Kreen said in a media conference overnight
The technology will initially require the owners to say the model name of their Tesla cars and let them wait for five seconds before activating the selected gear to avoid accidental gear changes from routine exchanges in the car.
Tesla will require a 30-minute voice detection calibration every week to ensure the accuracy of the innovative voice assistant feature.
“We recommend Tesla owners wait until a Sunday afternoon to set up their voice-activated gear selector to ensure their mid-week work journeys are not interrupted.”
Tesla Global Communications Director Tush Kreen said in a media conference overnight
Positive feedback
Director Tush Kreen proudly announced that Tesla received early positive feedback for the voice assistant technology. He also renounced speculations that the new feature is only an effort to address the complaints on its newest cars’ touchscreen-based gear selector.
“We’ve never heard any of our customers say voice assistants are inaccurate. The feedback we’ve seen is all ve–– sorry, that’s Siri going off on my iPhone, give me a second.”
Tesla Global Communications Director Tush Kreen said in a media conference overnight
All that said, Tesla is optimistic that the new voice-activated gear shifter will work as expected without any backup to maintain its minimalist design. It marks a significant advancement in the company’s goals to deliver a 100% voice-controlled electric vehicle model.
