TeslaMate, MyTeslaMate, iCar: what you actually pay

People ask us the difference all the time, and it fits in one sentence: TeslaMate is read after the drive, on another machine. iCar shows up during it, on the car’s screen.

TeslaMate is an excellent open-source logger. It collects your Tesla’s data, stores it in PostgreSQL and draws it in Grafana dashboards. It runs at your place, in Docker, on a Raspberry Pi or a small server.

iCar replaces the blank page in the Tesla’s built-in browser. Your shortcuts, the time, the weather, the range, the car’s controls: it is a screen you look at while driving.

“Free” describes the software, not the solution

TeslaMate is free to download. What costs money is running it: a machine on around the clock, Docker, a database to back up, updates to follow, the connection to Tesla’s Fleet API, and a command proxy to configure if you want to act on the car. The day it breaks, it is a Sunday evening and you are the on-call engineer.

So true that a service exists to spare you exactly that: MyTeslaMate hosts TeslaMate for €4.99 per month per vehicle, €3.75 billed yearly. The software is free; the peace of mind is billed.

Keep that number, because it is the real comparison: iCar is €4.99 per month too, and the subscription covers two cars. With one Tesla you pay the same. With two you pay half.

What you never have to do

Install the app, open geticar.com/app on the Tesla screen, scan a QR code. Done.

No server, no Docker, no database to back up, no domain name, no certificate, no token to renew, no command proxy. The Fleet API connection, its usage-based billing and its updates are our problem, and they are included in the subscription.

What only happens inside the car

A logger cannot say anything during the drive: that is not a shortcoming, it is its nature. iCar sits at the other end.

The charge limit follows the place. 80% at home, 100% at work, applied on its own when you plug in. Tesla does not offer this: their scheduled charging depends on location, their limit does not.

Sentry Mode arms itself at every parking, and stays off at home. If someone circles the car, it answers with a flash of the headlights and your phone rings.

The controls are on the screen: locks, frunk and trunk, climate, Dog Mode, Camp Mode, sending a destination to the navigation.

It talks to you as you drive: speed cameras announced ahead, traffic, and the landmarks you pass, with their photo and their story.

And parked, there is plenty to do: your own Plex server on the Tesla screen, hundreds of TV channels, radio stations and podcasts. The files go from your server to your car, never through us.

Your data, and what we say about it

We keep your trips and your battery history with no time limit, because this data gains value as it ages: a capacity curve over three years says something a single month cannot.

What we do not do: never a coordinate in our logs; your car’s VIN is stored nowhere; charging positions are not kept, only the public identifier of the charger. And deleting your account erases everything, at once, from the app.

When we publish a number, the average price of a charge, the gap between the kilowatt-hours billed and received, it comes from real invoices and we say how many. It is the same standard we apply to the product: what is not measured is not displayed.

Try it, that is the easy part

The customisable home screen, the trips and the tools are free forever. The subscription opens everything that reads and commands the car, and the first 14 days cost nothing.

In the time it took to read this, your Tesla could already be showing it.