Tesla may go one step further on "software-defined cars."
On February 7, The Driven, an Australian electric vehicle website, said Tesla may be developing an App Store similar to Apple's, allowing owners to download and install apps in the car as they would on an Apple phone or An Android phone.
The Driven quoted a tweet from Sawyer Merritt, a Twitter user who claimed to be a Tesla investor, and on February 6, local time, Sawyer Merritt forwarded a video of the late former Apple CEO Steve Jobs introducing the app store, with the caption, "There are rumors that something similar is about to appear on something with four wheels that begins with T. ”
While Toyota also satisfies what he calls "something with four wheels that starts with a T," there have been multiple news in previous years that Tesla will launch an app store.
Tesla-focused vertical website Teslascope retweeted Sawyer Merritt's tweet and said, "Tesla has been working on its own app store since May 2021, and the app store will be released before Cyberruck launches." ”
In 2019, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said during the Ride the Lighting podcast, "As the number of our cars grows, it starts to make more sense to develop games and other apps for Tesla. ”
During the second quarter 2020 earnings call, Musk said on the conference call that when the car is truly fully autonomous, people will want to have entertainment and efficiency options in the car, hoping to let people play and work in the car through Tesla's "app store or something else".
Musk's many statements have been regarded by the outside world as a sign that Tesla wants to develop an app store.
The Driven mentioned that when Tesla updated the 11th version in car software in December 2021, a new feature was added that allowed users to customize the app icon at the bottom of the screen, which made many people more convinced of the rumors that Tesla was about to launch an app store.
At present, tesla's car machine system, the owner can not add or delete the application by himself, can only rely on the official upgrade push to update the software.
According to the analysis of a number of foreign automotive news websites, if Tesla launches an app store, the purchase in the store is expected to allow Tesla to obtain the same level of revenue as Apple, and the app store will make Tesla's ecosystem go to a higher level. Some analysts believe that the success of tesla app stores also depends on whether the FSD assisted driving system can successfully achieve automatic driving and truly free the hands of car owners.
In the past fourth-quarter earnings call, Tesla said that 2022 will be "the year of software.". On February 1, local time, Musk tweeted once again emphasizing the importance of software, "In terms of cars and factories, Tesla is not only a hardware company, but also a software company. This is not widely understood. ”