Audio Media Interface with display.

[obi11]

I have an android phone that I use for audio apps., and wonder about how this would work on an M3. I know there is no Android Audio support, and the bluetooth interface just gets you the very basic play/stop/.. functions on screen.

Apparently Tesla in the USA has Tunein available through the display. Tunein's coverage of radio stations and podcasts is fine, and I would hope the Tesla interface works well (does it?). My issue would be saving my place in a podcast. Does the interface allow you to switch between multiple podcasts remembering your place when you return to one?

Beyond that, is there some way to pick up where you left off using tunein on the phone when you leave the car?

Finally, I also listen to audiobooks that I have on the phone. Aside from just using the bluetooth controls, could I plug in in by USB and make the Tesla display treat its fiilesystem with the support it has for flash drives. Does the flash drive support remember your place in selections between plugins?

I know the easy answer is use bluetooth and mount the phone maybe with a vent mount, and just use the phone interface.
It just seems backwards to go back to what I do in my present car with a tiny dumb display, in a car which is an electronic marvel with a giant display.

 

[RTPEV]

I would say TunedIn support has improved, but it's not great yet.

Some of the things that have improved: it now shows a progress bar and time remaining for podcasts, and you do get skip back/forward controls. And it usually remembers where you are between trips, but it does tend to forget when you switch to a different audio source (like the radio). I haven't tried seeing if it works switching back and forth between two different podcasts (I can't really think of a situation where I would be doing that kind of thing).

Other areas it still needs improvement:
On long podcast episodes I still get loading errors frequently (seems to work reliably on episodes < 1 hour though)
Need better support for advancing to the NEXT episode. It has a habit of just going to the newest episode.
It still needs better support for remembering where you are in each episode.

I once got my phone to respond to voice commands while playing audio which is helpful for Bluetooth playback because you can do things like skip forward and back without having to fiddle with the phone at all, but that approach seems unreliable as well.

 

[Knightshade]

I have an android phone that I use for audio apps., and wonder about how this would work on an M3. I know there is no Android Audio support, and the bluetooth interface just gets you the very basic play/stop/.. functions on screen.

Apparently Tesla in the USA has Tunein available through the display. Tunein's coverage of radio stations and podcasts is fine, and I would hope the Tesla interface works well (does it?). My issue would be saving my place in a podcast. Does the interface allow you to switch between multiple podcasts remembering your place when you return to one?

Nope.

If you're not gonna finish whatever you're listening to you can pause it, and hope it resumes when you get back in (this works more often than it used to at least) but if you switch to anything else your place is gone.

Beyond that, is there some way to pick up where you left off using tunein on the phone when you leave the car?

Never used it on the phone- on the car you can move to the time reference you stopped at by hand by using a really awkward imprecise slider.

Finally, I also listen to audiobooks that I have on the phone. Aside from just using the bluetooth controls, could I plug in in by USB and make the Tesla display treat its fiilesystem with the support it has for flash drives. Does the flash drive support remember your place in selections between plugins?

No, and no.

I know the easy answer is use bluetooth and mount the phone maybe with a vent mount, and just use the phone interface.
It just seems backwards to go back to what I do in my present car with a tiny dumb display, in a car which is an electronic marvel with a giant display.

Yup. Tesla media options/interface are terrible

No good reason for it other than they clearly have other priorities.

The resume issues are things S owners have been complaining about since 2012 and there's been only marginal improvement

 

[obi11]

All that feedback is very helpful. I learned in another thread that the $35K M3 gets nothing but FM radio without the $10K premium interior option. Clearly I'm not going to pay $10K for this seemingly meager audio streaming with no additional phone integration. I guess the other parts of the option would have to justify it, just not enough for $10K for me.

 

[rickkop95]

Ok I’ve been reading and am confused. From what I’ve read, slacker is some kind of a music service, but not very good. It seem a lot of Tesla owners are not really that happy with it. Some one even told me Tesla’s don’t even have radios. So someone please help me out here. First there is no AM radio? No Apple car play? No XM? Is there at least fm radio? Can you at least stream music or podcasts from an iPhone?

 

[Knightshade]

Ok I’ve been reading and am confused. From what I’ve read, slacker is some kind of a music service, but not very good. It seem a lot of Tesla owners are not really that happy with it. Some one even told me Tesla’s don’t even have radios. So someone please help me out here. First there is no AM radio? No Apple car play? No XM? Is there at least fm radio? Can you at least stream music or podcasts from an iPhone?

It has:

FM radio

Slacker (music streaming service similar to spottily and other streaming services, YMMV how good the selection or features are compared to other similar ones- bitrate is low but some people don't seem to notice)

TuneIn (streaming service that has both podcast type material and a lot of radio stations as well)

Bluetooth (where you can stream whatever you want from your phone to the car- interface is very basic though so mostly you're controlling things from your phone here)

Ability to play MP3/FLAC off local USB storage (hard drive or USB key you provide)- this is generally the best quality sound if your source material is good- but the interface is....also very basic.


That's it.

 

[rickkop95]

Thanks for the info. I am very surprised that a car like Tesla would not have all the newest tech and playback options available. Very disappointing for a car of this price range.

 

[Goodtohave]

It is actually not that surprising, it is competing with Apple and Google so it won’t have Carplay or Android auto.

The lack of Spotify is a dissappontment, it is available on Teslas in Europe.

 

[rickkop95]

Well I was all excited about buying aTesla. After hearing the media/music playing options, not so much. They are pretty rare in my part of the country. I have only seen a Model S up close. Nearest service center is 260 miles away. I guess I’ll be planning a trip to go see the rest in person.