When it comes to safety in a car, tyres play a critically important role, yet are often overlooked by owners of vehicles. It’s even easier for Tesla owners to forget due to the limited service requirements compared to conventional cars that require annual servicing.
Now Tesla will be adding a new feature in the upcoming over-the-air (OTA) update that will help with tyre safety.
The new feature will allow owners to track the distance between tyre changes, which in turn will notify the owner of when a fresh set of tyres is required.
The official 2023.20 update will have the “Tyre Service Mileage” feature which in the release notes is described as:
“See how many miles it’s been since your last tire service.
“When you get your tyres rotated, replaced, or swapped, tap ‘Reset’ to reset the counter.”
Tesla’s owner’s manual notes that rotating tyres every 10,000 km is needed:
“We recommend rotating your tires every 10,000 km or if tread depth difference is 1.5 mm or greater, whichever comes first.”
They continue to elaborate on what can contribute to faster wear on tyres:
“Aggressive driving can lead to premature tire wear and may require more frequent tire service. Unbalanced and misaligned wheels affect handling, tire life and steering components.”
Tesla vehicles already come with tyre pressure sensors in each of the tyres and notify the owner to maintain safe tyre pressure.
On top of that, puncture detection is also part of the tyre management suite.
This improvement in the areas of safety and making changes via OTA updates like the upcoming release with the Tyre distance tracker is further helping to convince EV naysayers who claim electric cars are unsafe.
In Australia, Tesla vehicles are delivered with a variety of tyres from brands including Michelin and Pirelli being the most common.
In recent months, the Tesla Model Y has become one of the safest cars tested, getting a “near-perfect safety rating” by the safety score authority EuroNCAP.
In May, the Tesla Model Y has also been crowned the best-selling vehicle of any fuel type for Q1 2023 with 267,200 of the safest vehicles delivered in the first three months of the year.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.