Tesla tests in-car Wi-Fi hotspot connectivity with major internet providers

SAN FRANCISCO: Electric vehicle company Tesla has started testing in-car wifi hotspot connectivity with several major internet providers in order to provide an alternative internet connection for its fleet.

According to the auto-tech website, connectivity has been a flagship feature of Tesla's offering in the auto industry. It enables several fun and useful features for customers and has also been used by Tesla to collect data from the fleet and improve features, mainly Autopilot.

In 2018, Tesla started requiring a new paid "premium connectivity" package for a monthly fee to access some of the more data-heavy connectivity features. Since then, Tesla owners have had to decide if they want to pay $10 per month for the premium connectivity service or not.

More recently, the automaker launched a software update to allow owners to use their phones' wifi hotspots while driving as an alternative to LTE connectivity.

Now, Tesla is apparently working on another alternative involving using Wifi hotspots from internet providers.

A Twitter user going by Analytic managed to activate the new feature in their vehicle, the report said.

"Tesla appears to be working with several major internet providers in North America, Europe, and Asia to test the feature," it added.

Tesla hacker "green" confirmed that the feature is the backend of Tesla's software and the automaker is currently testing it.

The feature could prove useful to improve the connectivity of Tesla vehicles as data requirements are increasing with more internet-based entertainment features inside the vehicles and as Tesla is extracting more data from them.