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For Vehicle Owners
New Features
What's New?
Starting January 21, 2025, a Virtual Key will be required to maintain access to Tesla vehicle data. Failure to make the necessary changes could result in a disruption to your service after this date. Below, we’ve outlined the steps you need to take to prepare, depending on your situation.
For new developers
If you’re on an Enterprise or Scale plan, please reach out to your Account Manager or Solutions Architect for information on setting up your own Virtual Key.
Free and Build customers can get started with the default Virtual Key and no additional configuration.
For existing developers
What’s changing?
Telsa is changing the way data can be accessed by 3rd party applications.
What do you need to do?
To ensure continuous data access, please have your users add your Virtual Key to their vehicles if they haven’t already. They can follow this guide for more information. If you already prompt users to add a Virtual Key as your application issues commands - no additional work is needed, please continue to do so.
What is a Virtual Key?
A virtual key is a digital access method required by Tesla for third-party applications to receive vehicle data and issue commands to Tesla vehicles. Please see this guide for more information.
Where can I find my Virtual Key?
The Virtual Key URL for your application will be sent back along with the authorization code after a user completes the Connect flow. Alternatively, you can reach out to Support or your Account Manager and they’ll be able to provide it to you.
What happens if my users do not add my Virtual Key?
Starting January 21, 2025 you will not be able to get data from Tesla vehicles
you are connected to and will receive a virtual_key_required error instead
(docs).
What about vehicles that do not support Virtual Keys?
2020 and earlier Model S and X will not require a Virtual Key to keep working at this time. However, you may not always receive the latest data from the vehicle when you make an API request to Smartcar.
Will my users need to reauthenticate?
No. They simply need to add the Virtual Key to their vehicle.
What’s changing?
Telsa is changing the way data can be accessed by 3rd party applications.
What do you need to do?
To ensure continuous data access, please have your users add your Virtual Key to their vehicles if they haven’t already. They can follow this guide for more information. If you already prompt users to add a Virtual Key as your application issues commands - no additional work is needed, please continue to do so.
What is a Virtual Key?
A virtual key is a digital access method required by Tesla for third-party applications to receive vehicle data and issue commands to Tesla vehicles. Please see this guide for more information.
Where can I find my Virtual Key?
The Virtual Key URL for your application will be sent back along with the
authorization code after a user completes the Connect flow. The Virtual Key URL
is:
https://www.tesla.com/_ak/smartcar.com
What happens if my users do not add my Virtual Key?
Starting January 21, 2025 you will not be able to get data from Tesla vehicles
you are connected to and will receive a virtual_key_required error instead
(docs).
What about vehicles that do not support Virtual Keys?
2020 and earlier Model S and X will not require a Virtual Key to keep working at this time. However, you may not always receive the latest data from the vehicle when you make an API request to Smartcar.
Will my users need to reauthenticate?
No. They simply need to add the Virtual Key to their vehicle.
What’s changing?
Telsa is changing the way data can be accessed by 3rd party applications.
What do you need to do?
To prepare for these changes and ensure uninterrupted data access, as well as the continued ability to issue commands, you will need to complete the following steps:
1. Communicate your desired custom subdomain to Smartcar
Smartcar will configure a custom subdomain under app.car for you as part of this update. To complete this step, we need to know whether you are using a single Smartcar application or multiple applications (e.g., separate applications for your utility partners).
Based on your setup, you may choose one of the following subdomain configurations:
- Single subdomain: A unified subdomain for your entire organization (e.g., acme.app.car).
- Multiple subdomains: Separate subdomains for individual Smartcar applications or use cases (e.g., acme1.app.car and acme2.app.car).
This domain will be used instead of your currently configured domain.
This applies only to your production applications. Your staging and development applications can use one of the new subdomains we create without issue.
2. Ask your users to add the new Virtual Key starting January 21, 2025
Starting January 21, 2025, Smartcar will transition to the newly configured subdomain from step 1. At this point, your users will be able to add the new Virtual Key, but you will be unable to access new data or issue commands until they have added it.
What is a Virtual Key?
A virtual key is a digital access method required by Tesla for third-party applications to receive vehicle data and issue commands to Tesla vehicles. Please see this guide for more information.
Where can I find my new Virtual Key?
The Virtual Key for your application will be sent back along with the authorization code after a user completes the Connect flow. Additionally, we will provide it to you once step 1 is complete.
What happens if my users do not add my new Virtual Key?
Starting January 21, 2025 you will be unable to get data from vehicles without the new Virtual Key and will receive a virtual_key_required error instead (docs).
Can my users add the new Virtual Key before January 21, 2025?
No. Users will only be able to add the new Virtual Key starting January 21, 2025 once we perform the transition.
What about vehicles that do not support Virtual Keys?
2020 and earlier Model S and X will not require a Virtual Key to keep working at this time. However, you may not always receive the latest data from the vehicle when you make an API request to Smartcar.
Will my users need to reauthenticate?
No. They simply need to add the new Virtual Key to their vehicle.
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