Tesla to Add Low, High and Auto Settings to Its Heated Steering Wheel in Update

We're a few weeks out from Tesla's last major update, the 2022 holiday update which brought many new features and improvements such as myQ garage door support, Apple Music, Auto Turn Signals, Zoom and much more.

However, Tesla doesn't stand still for long, Tesla is now preparing its first post-holiday update. We'll take a look at one of the features expected to be included in this upcoming update.

The 2021 holiday update brought us custom light shows, a customizable launcher and automated seat heaters.

Seat heaters can now be set to Auto, which will let the vehicle control their temperature automatically based on the cabin's interior temperature and the temperature the climate system is set to.

The car will then automatically choose the heat level of the seat, selecting from low, medium or high.

The car is also smart enough to not turn on a seat heater if there is no one in the seat.

Automated seat heaters are only for the front seats of the vehicle and users can override the system at any time. The options for heated seats range from off, low, medium, high to auto.

Tesla is now taking everything it has learned from its automation of its temperature-controlled seats and it's applying it to the vehicle's heated steering wheel.

Tesla begin shipping Model 3 and Model Y vehicles with heated steering wheels since early 2021 in China and late 2021. However, Model S and Model X vehicles have had heated steering wheels for several years. Whether your vehicle includes a heated steering wheel will vary depending on when and where it was manufactured.

The heated steering wheel can currently be turned on manually by navigating to the climate control screen of the vehicle, through the Tesla app, or by adding it to the launcher at the bottom of the screen.

If your vehicle is equipped with a heated steering wheel, you'll soon be able to set it to 'Auto' and let the vehicle control the desired heat of the wheel in pretty much the same way the vehicle controls heated seats, by taking the vehicle current cabin temperature and the temperature your climate system is set to.

Although it makes a lot of sense for Tesla to automate the heating of the steering wheel as they do for seat heaters, there's more to this upcoming feature than just automation.

Tesla's heated steering wheel has thus far only had a single temperature setting, however, with this new feature, Tesla is also adding two temperature options to the heated steering wheel.

When setting the temperature of your heated steering wheel, you'll now be able to choose from Off, Low, High or Auto settings, instead of just the previously available 'Off' or 'On' options.

You'll of course continue to have full control of the heated steering wheel if you prefer, but many owners end up finding that the Auto setting works quite well and find themselves enjoying the comfort of the heated seats without having to even think about it.

At this time we don't know which vehicles this feature is coming to yet, but we expect Tesla to add it to at least all newer models.

This feature is now available with Tesla's first update of 2023, which is version 2023.2.0.5. You can read the full release notes for the update here, which also includes updates to Tesla's Sentry Mode.

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