Tesla’s Automations App Looks Ready: Shortcuts for Your Car, Hidden in Current Firmware

Tesla’s Automations app, essentially Apple Shortcuts for your car, looks finished. Hackers have found a fully translated English version hidden behind a feature flag in current firmware, which makes it a strong candidate for this year’s Holiday Update.

Spotted, working, in English

Maciej Wilczyński (@maciej) shared a video on X showing Automations running in English. He said the feature appears “fully polished and present in latest firmware revisions,” but stays hidden behind a flag. With help from @CoilShift, he turned it on without modifying the app itself. Tesla Android Project creator Michał Gapiński (@mikegapinski) enabled it on a second car and compared it to “the first version of Shortcuts on iOS.” He also set up a reminder for his wife to use FSD every time her seatbelt clicks.

Automations first launched for Tesla owners in China earlier this year. Drive Tesla Canada spotted it in update 2025.45.32.1 there and had expected it to reach North America with the 2026 Spring Update. It didn’t make that release, so seeing a polished English build now is encouraging.

How it works

If you’ve used Apple Shortcuts or Tasker on Android, you’ll recognize the “if this, then that” logic. As Not a Tesla App walks through it:

1. Tap Create an automation.
2. Pick a trigger, such as the driver’s seatbelt buckling.
3. Add optional conditions, such as the passenger belt being unbuckled.
4. Choose one or more actions, such as setting media volume to 9.3, with optional delays between them.

The demo cars had a few clever examples saved. Saying “Child Mode” turns on both child locks and the window lock. Another automation has the car announce “Gear Shifted” when you start driving or reversing. Each automation appears as a card you can switch off without deleting it.

A long menu of triggers and actions

• Triggers and conditions: time of day, sunrise and sunset, outside temperature, air quality and brightness, seat occupancy, seatbelts, doors, windows, frunk and trunk, charging state, battery level, navigation destination and arrival time.
• Actions: climate and seat heating or cooling, steering wheel heater, windows, locks, frunk and trunk, glove box, wipers and defrost, navigation, music and volume, and interior and exterior lights.

The guardrails

Tesla has kept sensible limits. Automations only run while the center display is on, they can’t be triggered while Autopilot or FSD is active, and they can’t control FSD. Not a Tesla App notes that controlling FSD is coming through Grok instead. Keeping automations out of active driving is the right call.

When will owners get it?

Tesla hasn’t announced a date, and Drive Tesla Canada cautions that not every demonstrated function is guaranteed at launch. A fully translated feature hidden behind a flag, though, usually means it’s close. Not a Tesla App’s bet is the Holiday Update, Tesla’s biggest software release of the year, usually in December. Apple CarPlay, still reportedly in development with Apple, could arrive alongside it.

The EVX News take

Most automakers charge subscriptions for features like remote start. Tesla is about to give owners a full automation engine for free, over the air, on cars already in their driveways. Automations doesn’t change how the car drives, but it does make your car behave the way you want it to.

Sources: Not a Tesla App, Drive Tesla Canada, Maciej Wilczyński (@maciej) and Michał Gapiński (@mikegapinski) on X.

— The EVX News team

Featured image: Tesla Model 3 touchscreen, by SirAsdof, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.