Tesla Voice Commands Explained

Tesla have widened their voice command capabilities and are trying to introduce natural language capabilities. As a result many variations of a phrase can execute the same command.

Before we just list the typical commands, it's worth noting that the Tesla voice command system can be extremely temperamental. Some users report it not understanding them at all, some think it only responds to an American accent, some seem to think it is just hit and miss whether it understands what you are saying. Frustratingly the car also sometimes displays a perfectly valid command on the screen and then fails to understand it when it comes to performing the command.

We believe one of the common problems with variable performance is when the car has poor communication with Tesla back at base. Poor connectivity seems to easily break the capability, either decoding the spoken word into words, or understanding the command those words represent.

To initiate a voice command on a Model S and Model X, simply tap the voice button on the upper right side of the steering wheel. For Model 3 and Y owners, press the right scroll button on your steering wheel. One of the common mistakes is not waiting until you hear the tone before speaking your command.

While we have listed a number of commands, there is a clear pattern with them and you just need to know the name Tesla want you to use for the object e.g. windscreen or windshield wipers, and then the words Tesla likes for starting/stopping, on/off etc. You are not going to remember all of the commands, but familiarising yourself with the style of command format will make things easier.

List of instructions

The basic instructions, verbs or doing words that can be used with many of the objects in the commands are:

• "Open","close", "Show", "Hide", "Put away" can be followed by applications names such as music or any menu item, but also things like superchargers, traffic etc
• "Turn On" and "turn off" can be followed by most switch names such as front defroster, windshield wipers etc to control them
• "Increase", "decrease", "up" and "down" can be used to control variable controls like heat seaters and volume
• "Left", "right", "move left" and "move right", and up and down equivalents can be used to set direction
• "Set x to y" can be used with variable controls to set the value ie "set volume to 5" or "set temperature to 70"
• "Save", "Start" and "Stop" can be used withthe dashcam and media.

You can also use Natural language commands such as "I am cold" or "take me to McDonalds" to explain your issue or what you want and the car will try and help./p>

List of objects

List of commands

The list of commands we could give would be vast and we don't actually think very helpful if you remember the basic rules, but here's a variety to see the rules in action.