Over breakfast last week the elder boy, who has already claimed the Model 3 for when the Model Y arrives, asked whether his car would still get updates. Someone at school had told him old Teslas stop getting the good stuff. The younger boy said the new car would get everything first because it's new. The dog wanted toast.
They're both partly right. We collected our Model 3 in the summer of 2019, and it still downloads the same software updates as a new car, free, over our home Wi-Fi. Many of the features we use most arrived after we drove it home. A few newer ones can't reach it, because they need hardware it was built without, and no update can add that. So I went back through the release notes to work out what the updates have given us since 2019, and what the Model Y will do in February that the Model 3 never will.
New features in the first winter
The first big update arrived that autumn. Version 10 brought Tesla Theater, which plays Netflix and YouTube while the car is parked, a karaoke app called Caraoke, more games and a setting called Joe Mode, which turns the chimes down. Tesla added Joe Mode after an owner complained on Twitter that the chimes kept waking their children (Electrek, September 2019). It has done more for our Yorkshire runs than any other setting. The boys fall asleep somewhere around Leicester, and for our first few months the indicator chime woke one of them at every lane change. Theater gets used at Woodall, where twenty minutes on the charger is about one episode of whatever the boys are arguing about.
Camp Mode followed in December 2019. It keeps the air flowing, the temperature steady and the lights and music on while the car is parked (Electrek, December 2019). It's how I slept in the Model 3 in Pembrokeshire with the dog. The dog had the passenger seat and slept better than I did.
The holiday update in December 2021 brought the Light Show, which makes the car flash its lights and move its mirrors in time to music (Not a Tesla App, December 2021). The boys performed it on the drive on Christmas Eve. The dog barked at the headlights for the whole song, and a neighbour came out to check we hadn't been burgled.
Smaller changes turn up every month or so. The car I drive today has a different screen layout, better maps and a cleverer charging schedule than the one we collected, and I couldn't tell you which update brought most of it.
How an update arrives on our drive
The car downloads updates over Wi-Fi. Tesla's manual says that in most cases it has to be on Wi-Fi to download one, and that you can install straight away or set a time (Tesla Model 3 owner's manual, as of October 2026). Our router just about reaches the drive. If you're driving at the set time, the install is cancelled, and you can't drive while it's installing. My partner learnt that at ten to eight one morning, coat on, watching a progress bar. Ours now installs at 2am, while the zappi is charging.
The same menu has a setting called Advanced, which gets each update as soon as it's released for your car and region. I have it on, so we meet any teething troubles early. My partner would like it noted that I chose this.
Updates don't depend on a subscription. Cars ordered before 20 July 2022 also keep Tesla's Standard Connectivity free for life, which covers the maps, navigation and voice commands (Not a Tesla App, July 2022). We pay for Premium Connectivity as well, which adds live traffic, satellite maps and streaming over the mobile network. The boys regard it as essential at Woodall, where the car is a long way from our Wi-Fi.
The computer behind the screen
The Model 3 launched with an Intel Atom media computer, and newer Teslas have an AMD Ryzen chip instead. That computer runs the screen, maps, games and apps, not Autopilot. Tesla doesn't offer an upgrade, and some new features are Ryzen-only. A list of what Intel cars miss, compiled in February 2025, included 3D buildings on the map, dashcam recording from the side-pillar cameras, Zoom calls and many of the games (Not a Tesla App, February 2025).
When the Grok assistant arrived in Tesla's UK cars in February 2026, it needed the AMD computer and either Premium Connectivity or Wi-Fi (Not a Tesla App, February 2026), and Tesla's UK support page still lists an AMD processor as a requirement. Ours doesn't have it. The elder boy had planned to ask the car for jokes, and he has taken this personally.
The car shows which computer it has under Controls, Software, Additional Vehicle Information. If you're checking a used Model 3, look there before you fall for one. A Ryzen car is quicker on the screen and will get more of whatever comes next.
Hardware no update can add
Some features depend on parts. The Boombox, which plays sounds through an outside speaker while the car is parked, arrived in December 2020 and needs the pedestrian warning speaker (Not a Tesla App, December 2020). Model 3s built from September 2020 have one, and Tesla's shop sells a £185 retrofit for some earlier cars (Tesla Shop, as of October 2026). The app says ours was built too early for it, so the boys' plan to greet the school gate with a goat noise from the front bumper was over before it started.
Headlights are the same story. In 2024 an update switched on adaptive high beam in Europe for Model 3s with matrix headlights, which dim only the part of the beam that would dazzle someone (Not a Tesla App, February 2024). Model 3s only started getting matrix headlights in 2022 (Not a Tesla App, June 2024). Ours has the older projector lights, so on the Fosse Way at night the high beam is either on or off.
The biggest gap is the heat pump, which the Model 3 didn't get until its 2021 update (Electrek, December 2020). It costs us range every winter, and no download will change that.
What the Model Y brings in February
The Model Y Premium we've ordered has ventilated front seats and the rear touchscreen the younger boy found on the test drive (Electric Car Scheme, August 2026). Like every new Tesla, it has the AMD computer and a heat pump. It also has Tesla's newer Autopilot computer and cameras, which is what the latest driver assistance software is built for, and that's a story for our post on Autopilot and FSD in the UK.
From February both cars will update on the same nights through the same app, and the Model 3 will keep getting whatever its hardware can run. If you want all of it, you need a newer car, and the newest hardware comes with a new one. You can build a Model Y in Tesla's design studio(referral link) through our referral link and see what each version comes with.
Still learning at 70,000 miles
The car we collected in 2019 does more now than it did then, and apart from Premium Connectivity none of it has cost us anything. That's a large part of why I chose Tesla, and seven years on it's the first thing I'd mention to a friend thinking about one. Buy the newest hardware you can, because the software will keep finding uses for it.
The elder boy has been told his car will keep getting updates, just not all of them. He said that was fine as long as it kept Joe Mode, which is the first time he's admitted to falling asleep in it.
If this would be your first Tesla, ordering a new Model 3 or Model Y through our referral link(referral link) gets you 650 free Supercharging miles (as of October 2026). Use it before you place the order, because Tesla can't add it afterwards.
