Tesla electric cars will receive connection from new Starlink satellites
Since the release of Tesla electric cars, they have all had an active connection to the cellular network. It is used for navigation, provides premium car functions, and allows you to use the Internet. Currently, in the US, the connection works on the AT&T network.
SpaceX is launching new Starlink satellites that will also be able to provide mobile communications for smartphones. The corresponding announcement was made by the company together with T-Mobile.
Tesla’s official Twitter account asked Elon Musk if such a connection would work for electric cars, to which Musk responded with a short “Yes.”
It is worth noting that such a connection is not designed for high speed. It is expected that the subscriber will receive a connection speed of 2-4 Mbps, which will be enough for conversations, but hardly enough for video streaming (in the case of cars, this is the ability to view images from cameras in real time).
Also, such a connection will not be used all the time. If a landline is available, the car will use it. But in “dead zones” where there is no such network, a satellite must be used. This is what this functionality is designed for.
Perhaps not all Tesla cars will be able to work with such a network, because models released before 2015 have only 3G modems. An upgrade to LTE in the US will cost the owner $200.