In 2015, Smartcar emerged as the first company to give developers a seamless and scalable way to integrate their apps with Tesla vehicles. It’s been almost a decade since then, and we’ve become the industry standard for mobility businesses to integrate their solutions with cars of any brand while keeping data privacy top of mind. Today, we are excited to take things further and share that Smartcar is upgrading to a new integration with Tesla that reduces latency, improves reliability, and strengthens security.
Smartcar customers maintain the benefits of our standardized API — but with richer functionality and stronger safeguards for Tesla owners who choose to connect their cars to third-party apps.
Our upgraded integration with Tesla marks a new frontier in the connected car ecosystem, signifying a win for mobility developers. This is the future that Smartcar has been advocating for since day one. As we roll out this new integration to all Smartcar customers, let’s take a peek at what this means for third-party vehicle apps and services.
What does this mean for Smartcar customers?
This improved Tesla integration brings new benefits without any additional work on the customer’s end.
Think of it as every other new compatibility update that we introduce to our API — changes are rolled out automatically to our API without any disruption to your existing integration, contractual changes, or engineering lift.
As your connected car API platform, it’s our job to provide immediate access to all our upgraded integration features without you losing sleep over connectivity with automakers.
Why use Smartcar to integrate with Tesla?
It’s an exciting time to be a developer building the future of mobility.
Open APIs enable innovators to build software that solves gaping problems in our mobility ecosystem. But that’s not enough — you need comprehensive developer tools and a seamless experience to help you work better with the automotive industry as a whole.
Integrating with Smartcar’s API gives you the benefit of a direct Tesla integration and more at no additional cost. The ability to integrate with nearly any car brand, better developer-focused tools, faster on-demand support, and more engineering resources dedicated solely to the connected car integrations that bridge users to your app.
The Smartcar difference
Instead of building your own Tesla integration, Smartcar gives mobility businesses the following benefits:
A powerful developer experience
We know that developers need more than just an API reference to build a connected car app, so the Smartcar platform expands on Tesla to provide comprehensive documentation and a complete developer experience, including:
- Eight SDKs for mobile and web.
- A developer dashboard for managing multiple apps in one place, viewing usage analytics, customizing consent management, and an easy way to browse logs.
- Secure collaboration with team roles and permissions.
- A vehicle simulator to test applications before they go live.
- Browse and remove vehicle connections with a single click.
Extensive vehicle support and growth
Smartcar is the best way to integrate with Tesla and 35 additional vehicle brands across North America and Europe — with a single integration.
Without our API, developers have to spend months attaining commercial contracts with each OEM, building bespoke proprietary integrations, and communicating with different support teams.
We also provide transparent commercial packages with clear pricing and feature sets so you don’t face unpredictable costs or technical restrictions as you scale with more cars and more API calls. Instead of worrying about the underlying infrastructure of your app, you can focus on your business and create value for your customers.
A commitment to consumer data privacy
Smartcar adds to the Tesla platform so businesses can implement more granular permissions for only necessary data, allowing customers to easily approve specific permissions and choose which vehicles in their Tesla account to connect to an app via Smartcar Connect. This protects vehicle owners and provides more transparency into how their data will be used.
When you integrate with us, you're also equipping your app with industry-grade compliance measures like SOC 2 Type 2, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Vulnerability Disclosure Program (VDP), and annual pen testing.
Technical support and onboarding assistance
As a developer platform, Smartcar supports customers with developer-facing support available across North America and Europe. Smartcar provides email, phone, and live chat support with guaranteed response times and a single source of technical assistance for all our compatible brands — which you can’t get when working directly with automakers.
Setting the standard for open telematics integrations
Smartcar's new integration with Tesla is the future of collaboration between automakers and third-party developers. We now see that the mobility industry is slowly prioritizing consumer choice, creating an environment where drivers can choose solutions that truly make a difference — boosting road safety, reducing costs, lowering carbon footprints, and improving transportation accessibility.
We’re excited to help mobility innovation reach new heights, powered by a high-quality integration with Tesla and the Smartcar developer experience.
Existing customers can stay tuned for an update from us announcing this new integration when it’s live! If you’re interested in learning more about Smartcar’s Tesla integration, book a meeting with our team.
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