YouTube on the Tesla Model Y

The Model Y uses the same 15-inch screen and browser as the Model 3, and the Juniper refresh changes nothing about how CarCinema runs.

Family road trips are the classic use case: queue a few videos over Telegram before you leave and they are waiting at every charging stop, on the biggest screen in the car.

The front screen is the same 15-inch landscape display in both, and the browser is the same software. Model Y cars built from 2022 onwards have the faster AMD media computer instead of the Intel one, so pages and playback start a little quicker; both generations run CarCinema. The Juniper refresh added a touchscreen for the rear seats, which is a separate system with an app set chosen by Tesla. What it can play depends on your market and software version, and it is worth checking in your own car while parked. CarCinema runs on the front screen in every Model Y.

A Model Y charges from 10 to 80 percent in about 25 to 30 minutes, and with children on board that is a long time in a car park. The routine that works: everyone out for five minutes, then back in with a video on the centre screen while the car finishes. The parent queues two or three episodes from the phone during the week, they wait in the library, and the same episodes replay at every stop without spending any hours, because hours are only spent adding video.

The player controls are large and the login is a QR code scanned from the phone, so nobody types on the touchscreen. Sound goes through the car speakers. Picture quality is comfortably watchable, not HD, which for cartoons and children’s programmes is not something anyone in the car will mention.

Between stops, the centre screen does not play video: the car locks it out the moment it leaves Park, and CarCinema follows that lock. For the motorway leg, the rear screen where it supports it, or a tablet with downloaded content, is the answer for the back row. The centre screen is for the stops.