By Karan Singh
We recently covered Tesla’s actual roadmap for 2026, focusing on what is likely to happen. Today, we’re throwing caution to the wind and concentrating on what we’d love to see — all the fun wishes, silly features, and other things that may not actually happen.
While many worry about margins and regulations for robotaxis, actual owners often dream of simpler things: a bird’s-eye camera that rivals a 2018 Nissan, functional auto-wipers, and a Roadster that exists outside of a CGI render and model at the Petersen Auto Museum.
Here’s our ultimate wishlist for 2026.
The Forever FSD Transfer
This is easily the most-requested feature among Tesla owners. We want Tesla to finally make FSD a license that’s attached to an owner’s Tesla account, not to a VIN. Currently, Tesla uses FSD transfers as a temporary demand lever, offering it during end-of-quarter pushes.
In 2026, the dream is for Tesla to treat FSD like a real software license. If you buy it, you own it forever, no matter which Tesla you get into.
A Real Affordable Vehicle
The Model 2/Q was the promised land – a $25K compact car that would dominate Europe and Asia and serve as the perfect entry-level EV. While the stripped-down Model 3 and Model Y helped to increase affordability, a compact hatchback with a smaller footprint is arguably the biggest gap in Tesla’s current lineup.
We aren’t asking for a robotaxi that is scheduled to arrive this year; we are asking for a simple, manually-driven (or FSD-driven) affordable EV for today’s world.
A Family Vehicle
On the flipside, Tesla has another gap in their roster – a smaller one than the affordable model, but physically much larger. That’s a true family vehicle. The Model X and Model Y L are larger than Tesla’s other options, but they leave much to be desired, especially with comfort when seating their maximum passenger capacity.
A proper 6/7-seat large-format SUV, like the CyberSUV, would be a fantastic option for larger families who want the safety, comfort, and autonomy of a Tesla without giving up storage space or needing a second vehicle when traveling. There’s hope for this one as Franz has said that we’ll have to “wait and see.”
The Roadster… Delivered
It has been nearly a decade since the Roadster was revealed. We don’t want another unveil, another demo, or an April Fools production start target. There are plenty of Founder-Series Roadsters owed to Tesla’s long-time supporters, as well as plenty of others who have put down the massive $40,000 deposit to get into line.
Actual customer deliveries are something we’d love to see from Tesla for the Roadster. It seems the promise of a car to end all cars just keeps slipping.
FSD Computer Retrofits for HW3
As FSD advances, older vehicles on Hardware 3 are beginning to feel the age of their lower-resolution cameras and slower inference speeds. While a full computer swap is likely expensive and difficult, a paid path to upgrade cameras and computers to AI4 or future AI5 standards would help to keep millions of Teslas on the road for longer.
That’s a big step towards reducing e-waste, increasing the value of used vehicles, and committing to promises. For now, we’ll have to wait for FSD V14 Lite, scheduled for release in the next 2-5 months.
MCU 4
On the hardware note, we think it’s time for another upgrade. The infotainment computer is the heart of the Tesla experience, and while the current Ryzen chip is great, technology has moved fast. We’d love to see the debut of MCU4, bringing even more processing power, faster graphics, and better multitasking capabilities to ensure the experience remains buttery smooth for years to come.
A True 360° View
Tesla’s Vision stack is impressive, but parking in tight spaces often remains a guessing game for many compared to legacy vehicles. With a front bumper camera now available across Tesla’s lineup, a true, stitched 360° Bird’s Eye View for parking would be helpful to many owners while we continue to wait for true autonomy.
V2H / V2L For All
Currently, only the Cybertruck supports true Powershare V2H capabilities, with the Model Y L and Model Y Performance sporting some V2L capabilities with an adapter. A Model Y sitting in your driveway has the capacity of roughly six Powerwalls. In 2026, we want Tesla to bring proper V2H and V2L support to the rest of the lineup, allowing owners to power their homes, tools, and everything else they need, wherever they are.
First-Party Starlink Integration
Connectivity is everything for a modern Tesla. We’d love to see native Starlink integration – perhaps with a premium connectivity tier with hotspot services that ensure our vehicles are never offline – even in the most remote national parks or city dead zones.
A Tesla App Store
Since Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are not part of the Tesla experience, a proper developer ecosystem should be built instead. Tesla’s native UI is excellent, but walled off to a few specific service providers.
A dedicated App Store would enable developers to build native versions of Waze, PlugShare, a better Weather App, and more. We don’t need phone mirroring if the native apps are good enough, and opening the garden walls would unleash a huge amount of creativity from the community.
More Tesla Theater Functionality
In the same note, the Tesla Theater app is great, but it’s still limited to a few core streaming services (even if there is a workaround to stream any video service). A proper browser-based theater experience that supports any video player and more video codecs would be a great step forward. Adding in support for user-hosted apps like Plex, or even the ability to cast from a phone in the Theatre, would be an amazing gift.
Steam Support
Steam support was briefly a flagship feature for the Model S and Model X, promising console-quality gaming on the go. Then, it was quietly cut from the lineup. We want it back.
With the powerful Ryzen chips inside these cars, there is no reason we shouldn’t be able to play select games from our Steam libraries while Supercharging. It was the ultimate party trick, and its removal felt like a step backwards. After all, wouldn’t you like to play some Steam games in your Robotaxi?
Arrival Energy In-App
Currently, you have to be in the car with a destination entered to see your estimated battery percentage at arrival or adjust the arrival energy for your trip. We’d like this feature to be available in the Tesla App when we navigate or plan a road trip.
It makes the entire experience even more seamless through the app, letting users plan their entire trip without having to hop into their vehicles for the final few tweaks.
Wraps, Lightshows, Lock Sounds – In-App
On a similar note, currently adding custom wraps, license plates, lightshows, and lock sounds requires you to remove your Dashcam USB and plug it into a computer. Recently, Tesla has added a way to import images taken from the new Photo Booth App that was introduced with the 2025 Holiday Update – so why not the reverse?
Let us use the phone app to add and remove these at will, rather than having to plug and unplug. We’re in 2026 now, so let’s get some even tighter app integration.
Return FSD Speed Control
With FSD V14, the car strictly adheres to its own internal logic based on the Speed Profile you set, sometimes driving frustratingly slow or overly fast. This is especially bad when your car misreads or misses speed limit signs, making it think it’s a 30 mph zone when it really may be 40 or 50.
We want the return of the scroll-wheel speed offset, or a way to correct the incorrectly read or missed sign. Whether that be tapping the speed sign on the screen, or telling Grok it has the speed limit wrong – while we wait for true autonomy, we’re still responsible – so let us stay in control.
Tesla Home Heatpump
Tesla has mastered heat pump technology in its vehicles, creating the Octovalve and some of the most efficient thermal management systems in the world. We’d love to see them apply that engineering magic to the home – just like Elon once said he would in the past.
A Tesla-branded HVAC system that seamlessly integrates with the Tesla App, Powerwall, and Solar would be an instant hit, disrupting a stagnant, slow industry just as they did with cars and home battery backup.
By Not a Tesla App Staff
Tesla Theater lets you watch movies and shows in your vehicle. While the front screen can only be used for video while the car is parked, the rear screen allows passengers to watch during road trips.
Unfortunately, Tesla limits video streaming apps to just a handful, excluding major services like HBO Max, Prime Video, and many others.
However, with a little workaround, you can watch any streaming service on the vehicle’s rear display.
Watch Any Streaming Service
Tesla limits Tesla Theater to a handful of apps, such as Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, and Hulu. Under the hood, though, these apps are not native applications. They’re just loading the streaming service in a windowless browser.
Because of that, any streaming service that allows playback through a standard web browser can technically work in Tesla Theater. That includes services like HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, Crunchyroll, and many others that offer in-browser streaming.
On the front screen, this is straightforward. Tesla’s built-in web browser can load any site directly, allowing drivers or passengers to easily load a website and stream content. However, to view other streaming services on the rear screen, you need to follow a different strategy.
How to Watch on the Rear Screen
The rear screen is more restrictive. Unlike the front display, it does not provide access to a web browser. However, since each video service provided by Tesla is really just a chromeless web browser, we can leverage this to load a different video service.
Since the apps don’t include an address bar, we need to get creative. In this case, we’re going to use YouTube to get to Google Search, which we’ll then use to load a different streaming service.
Steps to Load Any Streaming Service
Here are the exact steps to follow to load a different streaming service. This can be done directly on the rear display or through the Rear Screen app on the front display, which lets front passengers interact with the rear display.
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First, tap the Entertainment icon at the bottom of the display to get to Tesla Theater.
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You’ll then see a list of streaming services; choose YouTube.
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Once YouTube loads, tap the compass icon in the top-left corner to access the main menu. At the bottom left corner, tap “Privacy Policy.”
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On the next page, scroll all the way to the bottom again and tap on “Google” in the footer.
Once Google Search loads, search for the streaming service you want, such as HBO Max or Amazon Prime Video. From that point on, it behaves like any normal website. You can log in, browse, and start playback directly on the rear display.
This method works because the rear screen is still rendering web content, even though Tesla hides the browser interface.
Not Just for Video
While this tip is most useful for watching other streaming services that aren’t included in Tesla Theater, it can also be used to browse the web on the rear display.
Watching in the Future and Saved Logins
This workaround needs to be repeated each time you want to access a non-supported streaming service on the rear screen. You’ll always start from YouTube and navigate to Google Search.
The good news is that Tesla’s browser remembers logins. Once you’ve signed in to a streaming service, you typically won’t need to log in again. However, keep in mind that browser data is stored per driver profile, meaning that you’ll need to log in once for each driver’s profile.
By Karan Singh
When Elon Musk responded to a user calling the Cybercab a piece of art by saying, “And there is so much to this car that is not obvious on the surface,” he wasn’t just deflecting praise or being humble. Instead, it seems like Elon is talking about everything we don’t yet know about the Cybercab.
The Cybercab’s sleek, plastic exterior is striking, but the real art is hidden underneath the panels. From changes at the manufacturing line to the internal wiring and more, the Cybercab is the culmination of every engineering efficiency that Tesla has developed over the last decade.
Let’s take a look.
The Unboxed Assembly
The most significant innovation isn’t the Cybercab itself, but how it will be built. The Cybercab is the flagship vehicle for Tesla’s new Unboxed Assembly process, a module-assembly method designed to revamp the tried-and-true manufacturing line and cut costs and time.
Unlike traditional cars that move down a linear line as a painted shell, the Cybercab will be built on parallel lines, creating sub-assemblies of the vehicle: the front, rear, sides, and floor. These are then snapped together at the final stage. This allows more people or robots to work on different parts of the car simultaneously, drastically reducing the factory footprint and production time.
48V Architecture & Etherloop
The Cybercab will likely use Tesla’s 48-volt low-voltage architecture, which was pioneered on the Cybertruck. By quadrupling the voltage from the industry-standard 12V, Tesla can reduce the size of the wiring harness significantly.
In addition, 48V enables data-over-power with Etherloop, eliminating miles of heavy, expensive copper wire. That means a vehicle that is lighter, easier to manufacture, easier to automate, and easier to service remotely.
Structural Battery Pack
Another unique technology behind the Cybercab is the structural battery pack. By integrating the cells directly into the chassis, likely using Tesla’s 4680 format, the vehicle becomes more rigid. This makes the cabin safer and stronger, ensuring that even in an accident, occupants are less likely to be injured.
Inductive Charging
Perhaps one of the most interesting features of the Cybercab is the fact that it will not have a charging port. Instead, Tesla will use inductive charging to charge the autonomous vehicle. That means no need for complex charging snakes – instead, optimal parking is handled by FSD.
The Cybercab will be the first, and perhaps only Tesla vehicle, to use inductive charging. The feature was originally supposed to launch with the Cybertruck but was canceled.
Paint-Infused Plastics
Tesla will use a unique paint-infused plastic for the Cybercab’s exterior panels. These panels are easily replaceable – and because the paint is infused throughout the plastic, even if they are scratched, they will still remain the same color. This also eliminates the need for a traditional paint shop, as the panels need no additional finishing.
Serviceability & Cleanability
One of the key pieces that makes the Cybercab so useful is its interior design. A personal car sits parked 95% of the time, while a Robotaxi is running 95% of the time. That means a rapidly cleanable and easily serviceable interior — one that can be serviced and charged at centralized urban hubs. Having wireless charging and robotic cleaning on site for day-to-day needs, with employees or Optimus robots handling other tasks are likely the future that Tesla is aiming for.
