Setup Guide

For TeCluster 1.0.19 · September 2026

Nothing to set up at first — tap Start right away and the cluster opens. Only when you connect your car do you enter the VIN (or sign in to Tesla) and pair a Bluetooth key once in the car with your key card. Tesla sign-in and the virtual key are needed only for the Connected plan.

Download as PDF User Manual → Set up already? The User Manual covers every feature.

1. Start right away

The first screen asks for nothing. Tap Start right away and the cluster opens immediately — no sign-in, no VIN.

Even like this, the speed really moves from your iPhone's GPS, navigation works once you pick a destination, and speed cameras warn you ahead of time. Values that only the car can give (battery, range, doors) stay as '--' until you connect — we won't show sample numbers as if they were your car's.

When you do want to connect, tap Add my car under the cluster and you're back at the first screen.

2. Connect your car — two ways

Choosing Connect my car offers two paths. Either way, the key is enrolled once inside the car with your key card.

Sign in to Tesla — your account's vehicle list appears and you just pick your car. Remote status and the battery checkup (Connected plan) open up this way too.

Connect with the VIN — no sign-in at all. No Tesla account is needed: the VIN and your key card in the car are enough. For the free plan this path is all you need.

You need the same two things either way: to be in the car, and your physical key card (not the phone key).

3-A. Connect by signing in to Tesla

Don't worry — this app never sees your Tesla login. The sign-in page is Tesla's own, opened by iPhone itself, so your email and password never reach this app or our server.

Tap Sign in with Tesla and approve on Tesla's screen.

After signing in, your account's vehicle list appears. Pick the car for the cluster. With a single car we skip the question.

If the list is empty (the car is in a company account, or in a family member's account where you're only an additional driver) or fails to load, you can switch to Enter the VIN.

To change cars later: Settings → Tesla → This device.

3-B. Connect with the VIN

This path takes only the 17-character VIN and no sign-in — because the VIN is all that's needed to find your car over Bluetooth.

You'll find the VIN on the car's screen under Controls → Software → Additional vehicle information, on the driver's door jamb, or in the Tesla app under Vehicle information.

Once entered, you go straight to Bluetooth key pairing. No sign-in screen appears.

If you later want the Connected plan, the subscription screen walks you through signing in at that point.

4. Bluetooth key pairing

This enrolls a Bluetooth key that belongs to this phone alone. With it, speed, gear, power, battery and door status come straight from the car with no server in between, and After-blow runs from the phone itself.

Authorization comes from this step, not from an account — the key is only enrolled when you tap your physical key card inside the car. Knowing a VIN alone gets you nothing.

In the car, tap Enroll this phone as a key. Bluetooth only reaches within a few metres of the car.
When the car's screen asks for the key card, tap your physical card on the console behind the cup holders (the card reader spot) within 60 seconds.
Tap Confirm in the dialog on the car's screen. Without it the pairing doesn't complete.
When the status turns to Connected, the app moves on by itself. From then on it connects as soon as you get in.

If the car's software is older than 2024.38 it answers that it doesn't understand the data request — only then does Skip · this car isn't supported appear. If the no-sign-in path stalls here, Not working? Connect by signing in to Tesla takes you the other way.

Not at the car? Tap “I'll do this at the car — use the phone only for now”. Use the cluster, navigation and speed-camera alerts in the meantime, then come back here with “Add my car” under the cluster once you're in the car.

5. Location permission

Speed is measured by GPS and navigation is based on your location, so the cluster won't open without location permission.

Choose Allow While Using App and leave Precise Location on. Allow Once asks again next launch; if you tapped Don't Allow, the guidance page's Settings button takes you there.

Location is handled on the device and is not sent to our server.

6. Turning on the Connected plan

The cluster, navigation and speed-camera alerts are free. Next to the car all you need is the Bluetooth key — the virtual key isn't used by the free plan at all.

Connected (US$3.99/month or US$39.99/year) adds status while the car is far away, Car Checkup (battery health, tires), Vehicle Controls, After-blow, the turn-signal display, and unlimited destination sync both ways.

Before payment the subscription screen checks three things — ① Tesla sign-in ② confirm your car ③ virtual key pairing (in the Tesla app). Step ② isn't a choice: the app checks by itself that the car appears in the account you signed in with. Subscribe unlocks once the first two are done. If the car belongs to another account (a company account, or a family member's account where you're only an additional driver), Connected can't be set up from yours, so the app tells you before payment and asks you to sign in with the account the car is registered to.

The virtual key is added once in the Tesla app, because Tesla requires it to send status when the car is far away. Turn on all four permissions — vehicle data, vehicle location, vehicle commands, charging management. Miss one and only that feature quietly stops.

Car Checkup can still be opened once on the free plan. You can cancel any time in iOS Settings → your name → Subscriptions.

If the virtual-key screen appears after payment and you're not at the car, tap “I'll do this at the car — go to the cluster for now”. You go to the cluster this time, and the app asks again next launch. Connected features such as remote status stay paused until the virtual key is added.

7. Supported cars and requirements

iPhone: iOS 17 or later.

Direct Bluetooth: vehicle software 2024.38 or later. Model 3 and Y of all years; Model S and X only from 2021 support the Bluetooth command protocol. Older S and X skip the Bluetooth step and run on GPS speed.

Connected plan: a Tesla account, the virtual key, and the car connected to the internet.

Tesla's own policy means the car's navigation must be started and stopped on the car's screen. A destination sent from the app starts once you tap Go there, and the car's navigation ends with Cancel on the car's screen.