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Watching movies at the SuperCharger.

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I have a suggestion for Tesla. I know it is illegal to have a display in the front row of a motor vehicle that can show live action like movies or YouTube. But what if the software was adjusted so that could happen ONLY when the car is in the PARK mode??? Sure would be a great time killer while sitting at a SuperCharger for 30 minutes?
 
The problem is that they use Linux rather than an embedded system. It's pretty hard to cover every possible instance where a video could be displayed when the car is not in park (other than their current solutions of just not allowing it anytime). There would only have to be one instance of it failing to happen to have the whole system banned. This is something they have to be really careful of.

I just play the movie on my iPhone and use the car's speakers. It works okay except for the audio lag. That's something I think they could fix easily.
 
Yeah, I use my iPad and listen to the audio through the car speakers. I put something heavy to weigh down the open cover and let the iPad hang over the 17" screen. There is the slight A/V sync mismatch that jerry mentioned.
 
The video player on my phone and tablet allows me to set a video delay on it, that would allow you to keep the audio and video synced when using the car audio. (Of course I'm also not limited to an iphone or ipad, so I can't say what options exist for those.)
There was also talk at one point about screen mirroring support for phones coming in the future, that would allow watching directly on the 17 in screen.
 
I have a suggestion for Tesla. I know it is illegal to have a display in the front row of a motor vehicle that can show live action like movies or YouTube. But what if the software was adjusted so that could happen ONLY when the car is in the PARK mode??? Sure would be a great time killer while sitting at a SuperCharger for 30 minutes?

Haven't done the research on the legality of a front screen that plays movies, but I can tell you that my Lexus GS 450h can play DVDs on the screen. I believe you have to have the parking brake set for it to work.
 
Yeah, I use my iPad and listen to the audio through the car speakers. I put something heavy to weigh down the open cover and let the iPad hang over the 17" screen. There is the slight A/V sync mismatch that jerry mentioned.

The audio sync problem needs to be fixed by apple/google. Add an offset option in microseconds with a slider to adjust. The audio is delayed because of BT. The source needs to delay the video to compensate.
 
You can watch movies any time you want on the main 17" screen! Works while driving, too:

1. Queue up the movie on your iPhone.
2. Duct tape your phone to the rear view camera
3. Profit!

i did this and it was really weird. It had left and right reversed, the car chase scenes had drivers on the wrong side, and clocks ran backwards. Totally fail for that alone.
 
If not stepping away for food or a bio break, I typically kill time at SCs browsing TMC on my phone :)

In addition to ensuring that the car is in park, there should be no liability issues for Tesla to enable video playback on the big screen when the car's plugged in. It's not like it can go anywhere in that situation.
 
The problem is that they use Linux rather than an embedded system. It's pretty hard to cover every possible instance where a video could be displayed when the car is not in park (other than their current solutions of just not allowing it anytime). There would only have to be one instance of it failing to happen to have the whole system banned. This is something they have to be really careful of.

I just play the movie on my iPhone and use the car's speakers. It works okay except for the audio lag. That's something I think they could fix easily.

We don't need apologists.

This is dead simple from a software perspective. This works in other cars, which also have screens visible to the driver.
 
On a similar note, in Hong Kong, the web browser is entirely disabled. And that is (for the moment), whether it is in park or not, anytime - it's just not there. It was removed to enable the car to be approved in the first place. Also, we couldn't get the rear facing seats. I heard it's even worse in China, just about everything is disabled/not allowed, as well as you can only charge at home or at superchargers. Yes, no chargers at shopping malls, hotels etc - home or supercharger, that's it. I guess TM didn't pay bribes to the relevant officials, which is honourable of Tesla, as corruption is so bad in China.

How long will it be until you can jailbreak a Model S? My guess is ... when he warranty expires on the oldest cars.
 
I thought about how it's technically possible for Tesla to install a small server with an integrated AP at each Supercharger location. It would have a bunch of video content stored on it that's updated via 4G/LTE or some other Internet connection. Then when you park and start charging, the car should be programmed to auto connect to the AP and allow you to stream the video content to the main display. Tesla could even off-set some of the costs by playing short ads.

It would be nice for those long trips where you won't be eating a full meal each time or locations where there's not much within walking distance. Technically possible for Tesla to implement, just time and money of course. I would also imagine some Supercharger host sites not wanting that as they let Tesla set them up with the idea that it would increase their customer base. Having people sit in the cars watching TV would reduce the attraction to hosting the sites.