Tesla to Migrate its Driver Profile Data to a Cloud-based Platform Ahead of the ‘Tesla Network' Launch

author: Manish Kharinta   

Electric automaker Tesla Inc. has been making some major changes to its technology infrastructure lately, as well as to its vehicles. The company's Chief Executive Elon Musk recently announced that the Model X and Model Y offerings will ditch their 12-Volt lead-acid accessory batteries in favor of a more efficient lithium-ion replacement. 

Now, industry reports suggest that the California EV manufacturer is in the process of transferring its driver information and their personalized vehicle settings to a cloud-based platform.

Tesla is reportedly planning to upload all of its driver information just ahead of the "Tesla Network'' launch. The network will likely be introduced as the company's highly anticipated ride-hailing application. 

Right now, all of Tesla's driver profiles are stored within its vehicles, allowing drivers to program all of their preferred configuration for seats, music settings, mirrors, and other equipment.

Each driver profile is either linked to a driver's smartphone via the Tesla App or the Tesla key itself, which allows the vehicle to sense the presence of the driver and reconfigure the car according to the desired settings. 

Tesla products offer a wide range of entertainment options, including Over-the-Top (OTT) streaming media platforms and video games, which understandably require a lot of storage space. 

Tesla is now planning on adding more features to its Driver Profile utility, which might come in handy when Tesla's ride-hailing app goes online. Musk has said that Tesla's connected vehicles could one day be used as part of a massive ride-hailing network and its appears that Tesla is exploring that option.

Tesla is reportedly migrating its driver profiles to a cloud-based storage system.

World-renowned Tesla hacker and Twitter user @greentheonly, who simply goes by "Green", recently shared the revelation about Tesla's move to a cloud-based storage platform in a tweet.

It's understood that once Tesla's planned ride-hailing network goes live, more users will be getting in and out of its electric cars more frequently.

Since Tesla's driver profiles migrate with the user and share settings for games and other applications, it's reasonable to assume that Tesla would want a universal storage network that facilitates instant access to a wide range of data. 

This is the most likely scenario with the upcoming Tesla Network, and any online-based storage platform will also allow the automaker to bypass any space restrictions that may arise.

In addition to Tesla's planned ride-hailing service, It's also likely that the California company might use the upcoming Tesla Network app as a car rental platform. This will allow customers to save their driver profiles in the app, which will then be easily recognized by any Tesla vehicle they rent. 

With the ongoing pandemic, EV sales totaled 296,000 units in 2020 compared to 331,000 units in 2019, which is a sizable 8.3% drop considering that last year, automakers managed to sell 331,000 battery-powered vehicles in North America alone.

However, if Tesla's network bundles a ride-hailing service with a car rental service, it might help to boost Tesla's sales in the coming years.

Manish Kharinta

Manish Kharinta is a automotive writer based in the Los Angeles area. He has worked for automotive industry websites TheSmokingClutch.com, CarDekho.com and CarBikeindia.com. His experience ranges from covering auto shows, to car reviews and breaking automotive news. Manish aims to bring forth his unique perspective on automotive design and technological innovations in the automotive industry.