Tesla Model S Will Support Third-Party Apps

At today's Cleantech Forum in San Francisco, Tesla Motors CEO, Elon Musk made an interesting announcement for their much hyped Model S all-electric sedan. During the question-and-answer portion of his keynote, Musk let it slip that the company intends the Model S to support third-party apps.

"We want people to develop car-specific applications [for the Model S]," he told the audience. "And text-to-speech technology can address some of the issues with driver distraction." This was the first time the company mentioned its plans for third-party app support, although industry folks have long suspected this to be in their plans since they featured a large 17-inch touchscreen console in the Model S.

Musk did not comment further when asked about current production schedules. Last we heard, the Tesla Model S is planned for a mid-2012 release of an initial 1,000 vehicles in North America with a starting price of $57,000. Hopefully, they stay on schedule. It will be interesting to think that you may soon be able to customize the functionality of your vehicle by downloading various third-party apps to your car.

[via VentureBeat]