Tesla’s New Automations Feature in Action [VIDEO]

Tesla’s New Automations Feature in Action [VIDEO]

An early look at Tesla’s Automations last week outlined what to expect. With the rollout beginning in China, there is now a first hands-on view of the new Automations capability.

If you’ve used Apple Shortcuts or Android’s Tasker, this feature brings similar flexibility to the car. Tesla offers a catalog of triggers and actions that you can combine in sequences to suit your preferences.

Examples include automatically enabling Bioweapon Defense Mode when air quality is poor, or adjusting cabin temperatures differently for winter and summer.

How Automations Work

Automations use straightforward if-then logic to run actions in the vehicle based on defined events. You can mix and match available conditions and actions, chaining them to create personalized behavior.

Features like turning on dome lights when doors open—or even playing a fart sound when someone sits down—have been used internally for years. This functionality is now being placed in the hands of owners.

Triggers

Triggers start an automation. Multiple triggers can be defined, and you can choose whether any or all must be met before actions run. Triggers span events inside the vehicle (such as gear changes, seat occupancy, or door states) and external signals (such as AQI, time, or brightness). Voice triggers defined by the user are also supported. Tesla groups triggers and actions into categories like Time, Environment, Voice, Seats, Seatbelt, and more.

Within the Automations app, you can choose multiple triggers per automation and specify whether any or all must be satisfied. You’re not limited to a single condition or a single action.

Actions

Actions are what run after the trigger conditions are met. There are over 50 in all. You can insert time delays so actions don’t execute immediately—for example, turning dome lights on, waiting, and then turning them off. Voice alerts are supported as well, so the vehicle can speak a custom message when certain conditions are met. Actions are searchable and organized into categories, and some items, like playing music, are available only as actions.

Enabling & Disabling Automations

The Automations app lists all automations, including defaults, in a grid that shows up to six at a time, each with a short description. You can disable any automation without deleting it. When an automation fires, a card appears in the vehicle—similar to Camera Visibility Alerts introduced late last year. Tapping the card opens Automations, where you can quickly enable or disable it.

Guardrails

Some actions are intentionally omitted, such as enabling Autopilot. In addition, automations cannot be triggered while Autopilot or FSD is active.

Release Date

The feature has begun rolling out in China. Because it leverages China’s smart assistant, it will likely need adjustments before it uses Tesla’s voice commands and/or Grok. As with other features first released in China, it is expected to reach additional regions in a future update.

This could arrive as early as the 2026 Spring Update, which is expected in the next couple of months. Although it’s early, this will likely be one of the biggest features of the year.

Tesla is also rolling out the Hey, Tesla wake word and longer recent footage in Dashcam with this Lunar New Year update.