Tesla
- Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Friday that the browsers of Tesla cars will be updated to run on the Chromium web browser — which could fix a major Tesla owner frustration with the current browser.
- Chromium is Google‘s open source web browser project, and forms the foundation of the Google Chrome browser.
- Users expect this browser to be much faster than the current one, although some are worried that Tesla is giving Google more power.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted Friday that the company’s electric cars are getting a new web browser.
After a Tesla owner complained on Twitter about the unreliability of the browser in their vehicle’s dashboard, Musk replied that a forthcoming software update will bring a new browser, based on the Chromium standard. Musk did not specify when this update will roll out.
Chromium is Google’s open source web browser project, which means it’s completely free for anyone to use or modify, including Tesla. Google itself uses Chromium as the foundation of the mega-popular Google Chrome browser. Meanwhile, the current browser uses an automotive-specific engine called Qt WebKit — a modified version of Apple’s WebKit, which powers the Safari browser on MacOS and iOS.
Importantly, note that this doesn’t mean that Tesla is getting a full-fledged version of Google Chrome, but rather a software update under the hood (so to speak). Many other browsers today are also based on Chromium, including Amazon Silk. Later this year, Microsoft Edge, the browser built in to Windows 10, will be updated to run on Chromium as well.
Because Chromium-based browsers are so popular, many websites are designed to work best and fastest on that engine. This means that Tesla drivers could get a better web browsing experience right off the bat. Also, it would likely benefit from better touchscreen gestures, which have come to Chromium in recent versions.
That’s going to be good news for the frustrated drivers who have taken to social media over the years to complain about the web browser not working, or just generally being unreliable.
"I got a Model S & I’ve obviously not found much use for the browser after a week. Most websites don’t seem to work decently anyway," one Reddit user wrote.
Indeed, Some users on Twitter and Reddit rejoiced on seeing Musk’s tweet about Chromium coming to Tesla cars:
Business Insider has reached out to Tesla for more information.
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Source: Business Insider – rmchan@businessinsider.com (Rosalie Chan)