IT House December 15 news that a new OTA update from Tesla has brought a useful little upgrade that can now show the status of the car's tires. Although Tesla did not disclose this feature, some attentive car owners discovered this feature.
According to Drive Tesla Canada, this new feature is part of the 2021.44.5 software update and shows if the tires are worn and if the tread depth is too low. More interestingly, the system can also detect if the tires are worn unevenly. A screenshot obtained by the media showed a warning message informing the driver that the rear tire tread depth was too low, advising the driver to "schedule a tire inspection and alignment."
It's not clear how the feature works, but according to Drive Tesla Canada, there's a simple way to determine if a tire's tread depth is too low. When the tread depth of one tire is too low, it becomes smaller and, as a result, rotates faster than a new tire. Tesla will most likely do this by measuring the number of rotations the wheels and comparing that value to a preset value. If a tire spins faster than the preset, it means it has become smaller, i.e. the depth of the tread is too low. According to the same principle, if one tire rotates faster than other tires, it may mean that its wear is uneven.
It's not yet known if this new feature will work for all Tesla models, but IT House understands that typically, Tesla updates are rolled out in phases.