For many months, the accessory manufacturer Enhance has been offering an application, physical buttons and a new kind of dashboard to allow you to control your Tesla, and even add many interesting features. After several weeks since the installation, it’s time to take stock of these accessories: gadget or essential? Here is our opinion.
Although Teslas are real computers on wheels, some practical functions are still missing. What’s more, the way of controlling your vehicle only with the central screen is sometimes impractical, whereas a physical button could make the service much easier.
We are thinking in particular of opening the glove compartment or even a trunk from the inside, which requires using the central screen. In order to address this problem, Enhance offers various accessories that even allow uses that we do not immediately think of.
Their offer is divided into 4 distinct products, made to work together or independently of each other: the Commander (which is in a way the conductor), a mobile application, physical buttons to place wherever you want in the car (S3XY buttons) and a new type of accessory which is placed at the level of the central console (S3XY knob). Let’s take a look at their offer in detail, so that you can determine whether all of this is essential to you, or if, on the contrary, it’s really not for you.
Unlock your Tesla’s superpowers with Commander and S3XY Buttons
The idea of adding shortcuts for certain actions on a Tesla is far from being far-fetched, as certain decisions by the manufacturer make access to essential functionalities difficult. But behind the S3XY buttons there are actually many more functions than can already be done on the car. The exhaustive list is available here if you’re interested, but as an example, here are some of the best:
- Adjusting the power of regenerative braking
- Battery Pre-Conditioning
- Change in movement behavior (squeezing, coasting, or crawling)
- Automatic activation of Autopilot after overtaking
These actions go much further than a simple shortcut to something already allowed in the menus of your Tesla, since they are simply options that do not exist (or no longer exist) in the graphical interface.
To be able to act in this way on the behavior of the vehicle, the S3XY buttons work in conjunction with a small OBD (on-board diagnostics) adapter: the Commander. Installing Commander is actually the prerequisite for using other Enhance products, and is almost like unlocking additional features for your Tesla.
Without being an irremediable jailbreak of your car (it unplugs as easily as it plugs in), this Commander will be able to inject instructions via the CAN bus that are not present by default, whether on the Tesla application or the main screen.
In addition, since the Commander is connected to your Tesla’s CAN bus, you will have access to a dashboard full of information that is usually hidden, such as battery capacity and degradation, cell temperature and even the instantaneous power of the motors. Enough to delight statistics lovers.
Once the Commander is installed, everything happens on the S3XY App mobile application (App Store and Play Store) to configure the actions of your choice. Actions can be triggered directly from the application, or by pressing one of the S3XY buttons you own.
Simply pair your S3XY Buttons, after which you can choose which actions will be performed following a short press, a double press or a long press. This way, a single button can be associated with several actions. In addition, a press can trigger a routine, which itself will trigger several actions. For example, a short press can open the front trunk, then the rear trunk, the glove compartment and move the driver’s seat back.
It is important to note that S3XY buttons are not essential: all actions can be performed from the application with only a Commander. The optional use of S3XY buttons allows for real shortcuts with physical buttons, which can be more convenient in many cases.
The S3XY Knob: a new generation dashboard
Enhance’s new flagship product is none other than the S3XY Knob, which largely has the same functionalities as the S3XY buttons, but offers a fundamentally different format. This is an accessory which is located at the level of the central console, just in front of the cup holders, and which has 4 physical buttons in addition to an interactive wheel which has a screen.
As you can see above, if your center console no longer has its original color, the S3XY Knob lacks a little discretion. In any case, the settings are again done via the application, and the S3XY Knob needs a Commander to function.
At the moment, not all the features of the S3XY Buttons are available, but they are being added gradually. The operation of the S3XY Knob is quite intuitive and rather clever, since a rotation of the wheel in one direction or the other will allow you to switch dashboards, in order to have different functionalities.
As an example, you see in the images above a configuration which allows on one side to have options for unlocking the doors, and on the other the opening of the trunks, the glove box and the Activation of battery pre-conditioning. To switch from one to the other, simply turn the dial in either direction.
So you have to see the S3XY Knob as an extension of your Tesla’s main screen, on which you can customize a lot of interesting things. For example, we can cite the control of the media volume, the cabin temperature, the speed of the windshield wipers or even the speed of the Autopilot which lend themselves very well to adjustment via a rotary dial, since turning clockwise to increase a value is very natural.
What price for what utility?
The interest of the various products offered by Enhance will be very relative, depending on what you find missing from your Tesla. Personally, I find the ability to force battery pre-conditioning very handy when I’m going to use third-party chargers that aren’t integrated into the route planner. Enough to reduce the time spent at the charging station.
However, Enhance asks for no less than 190 euros for the Commander, which is essential to be able to do anything. At this price, you will only be able to use the S3XY App, and if you want S3XY buttons to do actions without your smartphone, a pack of 2 is sold for 85 euros, or a kit including the Commander and 4 S3XY Buttons is offered at 285 euros.
The S3XY Knob on the other hand is sold for 325 euros, and it comes with the Commander included. It must be admitted that although it is the flagship product to date for Enhance, the fact that it does not have all the features of the mobile application or the S3XY Buttons makes it difficult to recommend. Don’t get me wrong, it is a very good product and the idea is excellent in terms of design and integration, however at more than 300 euros, we are entitled to expect a little more.
Finally, while unlikely, an over-the-air update to your Tesla can render the Commander and its accessories completely inoperable overnight, even if it would only be for a short time, while the developers update the Commander’s instructions. It’s still a risk to keep in mind, which is why Enhance regularly publishes the list of Tesla software versions that are well supported.