Tesla finally pushes new internet browser update in its vehicles – almost twice as fast

It has been promised for about 2 years, but it’s now finally here. Tesla’s almost unusable in-car internet browser has now been upgraded to a somewhat decent browser under the latest software update. 

Last month, Tesla upgraded its onboard media computer in new Model S and Model X vehicles and now owners have been experiencing a significantly more responsive center display.

Tesla is expected to make use of the more powerful hardware to make some improvements to its in-car software, but CEO Elon Musk said that the automaker still planned an update to improve the experience of owners with older vehicles, especially the internet browser.

The browser was extremely slow and would often not render websites properly. It was so bad that less than 30% of Tesla drivers reportedly use their in-car internet browser.

Tesla was first planning an update for December 2016, but it has been pushed back on several occasions as the company focused on Autopilot 2.0 and Model 3 software.

Now 14 months later, Tesla is pushing a new 2018.14 software update and it appears to feature some significant improvement for the browser.

Tesla owners with the old MCU are reporting getting the software and seeing 70 to 80% improvements in HTML5 scores as well as a much faster LTE speed.

Here’s a demonstration:

As seen in the video, the update officially only features “bug fixes and improvements” on top of other features that started rolling out in previous updates, but the backend seems to feature some important improvements.

We also reported earlier today that it comes with a new Waze-like crowdsourced traffic data system for latest navigation update, which is not available for all owners yet.

As usual, keep in mind that Tesla rolls out updates in batches and it can take a while to reach all cars – thought that might change soon since Musk recently said that Tesla will allow owners to request the latest software update.