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Tesla is launching their developer APIs

developer.tesla.com

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Re: Tesla is launching their developer APIs

#71

Post by mardifoufs »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #50
florbo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My own anecdotal contribution, based off the constant bickering of people I know who work for engineering firms that have Tesla as a client, is that they do not have any of their shit organized in a manner which could be remotely described as "together".

There are many words I could use to describe my limited interactions with Tesla manufacturing, but "together" is not one of them. After being harried to hurry up and build something exactly to the 34th revision of their ever-changing specs (the inside of the electrical panel was powder-coated the wrong manufacturer-original color and therefore unacceptable, and on and on...) and warned about the severe penalties for…

30 months?! I'm so glad I don't have to deal with suppliers directly.

Re: Tesla is launching their developer APIs

#72

Post by yuliyp »

The capabilities of the vehicle_commands section are frighteningly diverse (able to control details of the charging systems, make noises, remotely prevent the car from moving, plug locations into the GPS (unclear if that'll cause autopilot to start moving there).

I guess this means that the remote parts have basically unrestricted access to what they can do to the car that you theoretically own. Fun times.

Re: Tesla is launching their developer APIs

#73

Post by andrewstuart2 »

londons_explore wrote: post #66
andrewstuart2 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, oauth2 is pretty much the standard/best practice for third party access to user-controlled identity and/or resource permissions. I'd like to know more about scopes and how they do authz, but as far as access goes, this has the makings of a best practices implementation like you'd see from Google, reddit, etc. Fine grained access control via scopes, user-facing "you want this app to get access to permissions?"…

oauth2 was the best practice way to do that back in 2014. Now, companies like Facebook have discovered the hard way that most users don't think carefully before giving away access to their data. All it takes is one app that says "I'd like access to everything you can see on facebook please", and that's how cambridge analytica happened. Ever since then, the vast majority of companies have locked down API's - because t…

That doesn't mean oauth2 isn't still the best practice. I'd go as far as saying OIDC is best practice for oauth2 as well.

What you're saying is orthogonal and more about figuring out how to effectively manage users and the accesses they can grant, how easily they can grant certain permisisons, how often they should review access, all that.

Facebook has had issues there, and I'd say Android has also had issues with similarly vague/permissive grants (local-only, completely outside OAuth2), and has learned ways to proactively manage those for users and keep sets of permissions minimized to apps you actively use/want. But none of those really has much to do with whether or not oauth2 is a great way to allow third party access to user resources. That remains a really solid control mechanism.

Re: Tesla is launching their developer APIs

#74

Post by MBCook »

I would love to be able to get the data on my car for making a phone/watch app. Ford has an API but it’s private and they have revoked accounts of people using it.

Too bad. It contains a ton of great stuff, more than their app surfaces.

I’d be quite happy with just read-only access. I bet devs could make some great stuff.

Re: Tesla is launching their developer APIs

#75

Post by MBCook »

jejeyyy77 wrote: post #69
londons_explore wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I expect one of the exposed features is to be able to unlock or start the car. I'd really like that (effectively allowing third parties to implement their own tesla app). However, I suspect that no/very few third parties will be allowed to have that API scope.

Why not? API calls are scoped to a token associated with your Tesla vehicle(s). This API looks like it is meant to control entire fleets. Also, like Apple devices, I assume Tesla will have master control over the cars in the same way and can brick them if needed.

> Also, like Apple devices, I assume Tesla will have master control over the cars in the same way and can brick them if needed.

They’ve done this in the past a few times haven’t they? Like when people have done battery swaps or refurbs without Tesla’s approval?

Re: Tesla is launching their developer APIs

#76

Post by ireallywantthat »

t3rabytes wrote: post #22
ireallywantthat wrote: post #15

Another SAAS embedded within Car which cannot be opted out. Is there a way to get FOSS Tesla? IMO the Government must intervene to make this opt-in rather than compulsory?

?? You have to grant an app access to your car via the API with your own Tesla.com oauth creds.

Will it work without Tesla.com account? Or no internet access at all? I just want to drive the Tesla car without internet without any smart features. Is that possible?

Re: Tesla is launching their developer APIs

#78

Post by andrewstuart2 » 

    Free trial.
    
    Tesla APIs are temporarily free during this trial period.
Oof.

I wonder if this is one more reason Tesla vehicles have gotten cheaper and cheaper. Elon's probably betting on how much companies would pay for access to APIs and thus user data, and gain income to Tesla on top of simply profit margin on the vehicle itself. Much like he's doing at X. I wouldn't be that surprised to see Tesla data become a major part of X strategy as an "everything app" if he continues that path.

Definitely has me second guessing the trigger I was about to pull on that Model 3 performance that just keeps getting cheaper.

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